Development of HCl-free solid phase extraction combined with ICP-MS/MS for rapid assessment of difficult-to-measure radionuclides, 1; Selective measurement of Zr and Mo in concrete rubble

Do, V. K.  ; Furuse, Takahiro; Murakami, Erina; Aita, Rena; Ota, Yuki; Sato, Soichi 

A new HCl-free chromatographic separation procedure has been developed for sequential separation of Zr and Mo from concrete matrices. Accordingly, Zr and Mo could be sensitively and selectively measured by ICP-MS/MS using ammonia reaction gas. The recoveries of greater than 90% for Zr and Mo from concretes could be achieved. The measurement condition was optimized for complete suppression of interferences from Nb and peak tailing from abundant isotopes of Zr and Mo in concrete matrices. The removal of interferences was verified by measurement of radio-contamination-free concretes used as a sample matrix blank. Method detection limits of 1.7 mBq g and 0.2 Bq g were achieved for Zr and Mo, respectively, in the concrete matrices. The interference removal factor for Nb (equivalent to the decontamination factor in radiochemical separation) was of the order of 10, and the abundance sensitivity was of the order of 10, indicating that the developed method is reliable for verifying the presence of ultralow concentrations of Zr and Mo. The present method is suitable for the rapid assessment of Zr and Mo for radioactivity inventory of concrete rubble.