Urine strontium-90 (Sr-90) manual and automated pre-analytical separation followed by liquid scintillation counting

Responding to a radiological or nuclear incident may require assessing tens to hundreds of thousands of people for possible radionuclide contamination. The measurement of radioactive Sr is important because of its impact on people’s health. The existing analytical method for urine Sr-90 analysis using crown ethers is laborious and involves possible exposure to concentrated acids; therefore, this work is devoted to the development of the automated Sr-90 separation process, which became possible with the prep Fast pre-analytical system (Elemental Scientific, Inc).