Determination Of Lead-210 And Polonium-210 In Marine Environment

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