Measurement of 236U in human tissue samples using solid phase extraction coupled to ICP-MS

Abstract

²³⁶U is present at ultra-trace levels in typical environmental and biological samples. Typically, it has been measured by highly sensitive techniques, such as accelerator mass spectrometry. This paper reports the measurement of ²³⁶U in 20 human tissue samples using a sector field ICP-MS following automated SPE separation. The tissue samples were selected from one USTUR case, representing tissues/organs that are important for internal radiation assessment. Another uranium isotope, ²³⁵U, was also measured in the samples. The results for ²³⁵U were compared with those obtained by alpha spectrometry. For most cases, results from the two methods were comparable, indicating that the measurement of ²³⁶U in the samples is reliable.