Paper

Is the Long Lived Tc-99 from Medical Application Detectable in Environment?


Authors:
Jerzy W. Mietelski; Krzysztof Kleszcz; Edyta ?okas; Stanis?aw Walas; Halina Mrowiec; Anna Tobiasz
Abstract
99Tc is a long lived radionuclide, a fission product and decay product of its short lived isomer 99mTc widely used in nuclear medicine. Although past releases to environment are much higher than present input from nuclear medicine, the latest comes at certain input places. Presented are results of 99Tc measurements in Vistula River bottom sediments upstream and downstream to Warsaw, similar downstream to Kraków and two samples of solid wastes from Krakow sewage purification station. Results showed large spread of activity concentration. The maximum 99Tc activity concentration was detected in sample taken near Kraków (13.4±4.0 Bq/kg). The second highest 99Tc value was found in one sample downstream Warsaw, which was 6.8±2.3 Bq/kg. The sewage dry waste has 99Tc at about 30 times lower activity concentration, close to 0.4 Bq/kg. However, the latest results prove that 99Tc from medical application can be detected at least in some kind of environmental samples.
Keywords
Nuclear Medicine; Environmental Radioactivity; Technetium; Liquid Scintillation Spectrometry; Mass Spectrometry
StartPage
136
EndPage
139
Doi
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