Development of a rapid method to determine plutonium in foodstuffs

In this paper a method development for rapid determination of plutonium in food samples after a radiological emergency and its challenges are described. Tests were conducted using sea sediment reference material, fish reference material and spiked samples with high thorium and uranium concentration. After microwave digestion plutonium was separated from the sample matrix using ion-exchange chromatography and determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry or alpha spectrometry. Interferences during plutonium determinations with the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry originated from uranium and were corrected using interference calibration.