Isolation of Yttrium and Strontium from Soil Samples and Rapid Determination of 90Sr

A procedure of yttrium and strontium separation from calcium and other cations has been developed for rapid determination of 90Sr in soil samples. The procedure involves yttrium, strontium and other cations bound on cation exchanger AMBERLITE IR-120, separtion of yttrium and strontium from other cations, e.g. potassium, calcium, sodium, barium, on anion exchangers AMBERLITE CG-400 or DOWEX AG 1 × 8 with 0.25 mol l-1 HNO3 in alcohol mixture as eluent, separation of yttrium from strontium on cation exchanger DOWEX 50 × 8 with 3 mol l-1 HNO3, and determination of 90Sr on the low-level gas-flow β-counter and by Cherenkow counting on the liquid-scintillation counter. It has been shown that this procedure might be successfully applied in rapid determination of 90Sr, in a timesaving manner and without application of strong, concentrated acids. The method is appropriate for determination of the water soluble fraction of 90Sr in different kinds of environmental samples (milk, water, wine, vegetables, etc.) with some modification of the sample preparation procedure