Re: "Counting" pump oil

[Wes Van Pelt <VanPeltW@idt.net>]

Brian,

One technique I have used is to count a series of samples of pump oil,
say, 1.0, .8, .6, .5, .4, .3, .2, .1 ml of oil per scint vial. Report
the results as dpm/ml and plot against ml pe sample.  For no
interferances, you should get a nice horizontal line. If you have
quenching, chemoluminescence, etc., the value for dpm/ml should approach
the true value as ml/sample approaches zero.

This is not a very high tech approach, but sometimes is enough. Of
course you could combust the oil to get carbon-14 and tritium, but this
is complicated if you are not set up to do it.

good luck,
Wes

Brian Olson wrote:
> 
> Does anyone have a procedure they can share for counting pump oil?
> Isotopes we are checking for are the usual labeling 'topes.   We want to
> check the oil before it is sent to recycling, but false positive high
> counts are really making this a challenging project.
> 
> Thanks,
> Brian Olson
> Mngr, EH&S
> Promega Corp.
> Madison, WI
> Bolson@promega.com

-- 
Wesley R. Van Pelt, Ph.D., CIH, CHP                KF2LG
President, Van Pelt Associates, Inc.     
Consulting in radiological health and safety.
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http://shell.idt.net/~vanpeltw/index.html