Determination of lead-210 and polonium-210 in marine environment

Naturally occurring 210Pb and 210Po are important tracers used in marine environment studies. In this study, 210Po and 210Pb measurements in marine samples (sediment, sea water and biota) were performed using alpha spectrometry. Chemical recoveries are obtained using 209Po tracer. Two different approaches for 210Pb determinations are also compared. First, to keep the original samples for about 1 year to eliminate the excess 210Po and to reach 210Po-210Pb equilibrium before radiochemical separation of 210Po. The second is to extract the excess 210Po in the samples, then wait for attaining 210Pb-210Po equilibrium in the solution to obtain 210Pb activities. In samples, time corrections for excess 210Po originated from radioactive decay of grand parent are discussed. © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009.