Homeland Security Research

Research Highlights

Rapid Radiochemical Methods for Environmental Restoration Following Homeland Security Events for Selected Radionuclides in Water

Background

Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 9 requires the development of nationwide, interconnected laboratory-networks for food, veterinary, plant health and water quality. The directive requires the networks to integrate resources and to use standardized analytical procedures to support responses to homeland security incidents. To implement this directive, the Integrated Consortium of Laboratory Networks (ICLN) was created in 2005 by ten federal agencies. The ICLN provides a national infrastructure for a coordinated system of laboratory networks that provide timely, high-quality, and interpretable results for detection and consequence management following acts of terrorism and other events as needed.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established the Environmental Response Laboratory Network (ERLN) as a branch of the ICLN for chemical, biological, and radiological analysis of environmental media samples. The ERLN can be ramped up to support large scale responses, providing increased capacity, consistent analytical capability, and reliability in the production of quality data, during a response. The ERLN integrates capabilities of existing public sector laboratories with accredited private sector labs to support environmental responses.

Rapid Radiochemical Methods:

In support to the ERLN, EPA recently published a compendium of rapid radioanalytical methods for selected radionuclides in an aqueous matrix (drinking water or surface water). The methods were developed for those radioanalytical laboratories that will support EPA's response and recovery actions following a radiological or nuclear incident of national significance such as the detonation of an improvised nuclear device or a radiological dispersal device.

Although analytical methods for these radionuclides previously existed, the sample processing associated with these tradition methods is lengthy with turnaround times of days or weeks. The new methods were developed to expedite the analysis of samples while providing quantitative results that meet measurement quality objectives applicable to the intermediate and recovery phases of a nuclear or radiological incident of national significance. The turnaround times for the analytical methods described in this new compendium produce results in 8 to 38 hours. Further, the methods are reliable, achieving a required relative method uncertainty of 13%. (It should be noted that these methods were not developed for routine compliance monitoring of drinking water samples, and do not have EPA approval for that or any other regulatory program.)

This compendium is the first issuance of rapid methods for americium-241, plutonium-238 and plutonium-239/240, isotopic uranium, radiostrontium (strontium-90), and radium-226. The methods have been single-laboratory validated in accordance with (1) the Method Validation Guide for Qualifying Methods Used by Radiological Laboratories Participating in Incident Response Activities, (2) Validation and Peer Review of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Radiochemical Methods of Analysis, and (3) Chapter 6 of Multi-Agency Radiological Laboratory Analytical Protocols Manual (MARLAP).

See Also
Rapid Radiochemical Methods for Selected Radionuclides in Water for Environmental Restoration Following Homeland Security Events (EPA 402-R-10-001) February 2010