INTERIM REPORT OF LFE ANALYTICAL SERVICES FOR NAEG
W. J. Major and L. Leventhal
LFE Environmental Analysis Laboratory
Richmond, California
Since the October 1974 meeting of the Nevada Applied Ecology Group, LFE has
analyzed several hundred samples for various radioactive elements in a wide
Radiochemical and instrumental analysis were performed on
range of matrices.
such samples as field and greenhouse vegetation, soils, glass fiber and microsorban filters, rodents, bovine and caprine tissues and bone, and desert
mammals.
Radioisotopes determinations included 238Py, 2397249py, 241am,
210pp, 55Fe, SFe, 9%Sr, 23092327, total and isotopic U, and 226Ra,
The data
generated was reported routinely to the NAEG for evaluation.
A special computer program was developed for data reduction and reporting of
bovine and caprine numbers.
The program allowed for computing and reporting
the sample radioactivity on a wet, dry, and ash weight basis.
A complete
animal description, weights, ratios, and pertinent radiochemical data were
included in the printout.
A similar computer program was developed for soils,
vegetation, and rodent animals.
A special test was performed at the Nevada Applied Ecology Group laboratory at
Jackass Flats, to determine the transuranium content of large-size, high-level
bovine and caprine tissue samples.
The lab had been reconstructed by NAEG and
REECo personnel to accommodate analysis of these samples and to confine any
contamination to a remote area.
In order to avoid spread of contamination and
speed up dissolution of the samples, a wet ashing method was developed and
employed on spiked samples of large tissues.
The method consisted of spiking
kilogram samples of liver, muscle, spleen, and bone with 60¢0, analyzing them
using the special wet ashing techniques and classical radiochemical methods.
Details of a similar procedure are attached.
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