Measurement of radioactivity in urine-238Pu, 239Pu and 240Pu — Test method using alpha spectrometry or ICP-MS

This document specifies approaches for the determination of plutonium isotopes (²³⁸Pu, ²³⁹Pu and ²⁴⁰Pu) in urine using alpha spectrometry or inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

It is applicable to the measurement of plutonium isotopes at levels which are appropriate for

—     workers handling plutonium in planned exposure situations, where detection limits are sufficiently low to be in accordance with dose limits, and

—     workers, members of the public and emergency responders in emergency exposure situations, where required detection limits can be much higher, and results need to be reported in a short timescale.

This document does not provide information on when monitoring is carried out or the interpretation of the results in terms of dose or biological effects.