Rapid detection of enriched uranium in food

Abdur-Rafay Shareef; Zhichao Lin; Kathryn Emanuele; Stephanie Healey; Patrick Regan; Brian Baker

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.03.007

Rapid detection of enriched uranium in food

Appl Radiat Isot. 2017 Aug:126:76-78. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.03.007. Epub 2017 Mar 22.

Authors

Abdur-Rafay Shareef¹, Zhichao Lin², Kathryn Emanuele², Stephanie Healey², Patrick Regan², Brian Baker²

Affiliations

¹ Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, Food and Drug Administration, 109 Holton Street, Winchester, MA 01890, USA. Electronic address: Abdurrafay.Shareef@fda.hhs.gov.
² Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, Food and Drug Administration, 109 Holton Street, Winchester, MA 01890, USA.

PMID: 28347548
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.03.007

Abstract

We have developed a quadrupole ICP-MS method for detecting sub-picogram quantities of ²³⁵U in contaminated foods. Notable features included elimination of the requirement for possessing licensed nuclear materials so that non-radiochemical laboratories may perform this analysis in the event of a large-scale nuclear or radiological emergency calling for high sample surge capacity, elimination of several extremely hazardous reagents in sample analysis e.g. aqua regia and hydrofluoric acid, and the method was developed for applying a moderately priced, and widely used quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (Q-ICP-MS). This method could be quickly implemented at many laboratories to increase emergency response capability.

Keywords: Emergency response; Enriched uranium; Food safety; Isotopic ratio; Quadrupole ICP-MS.

MeSH terms

Feasibility Studies
Food Contamination, Radioactive / analysis*
Humans
Mass Spectrometry / methods*
Mass Spectrometry / standards
Radiometry / methods*
Radiometry / standards
Reference Standards
Uranium / analysis*
Uranium / standards

Substances

Uranium-238
Uranium
Uranium-235