Rapid determination of 239 Pu in urine samples using molecular recognition technology product AnaLig Ò Pu-02 gel Silvia Dulanska ´ • Boris Remenec • Ja ´n Bilohus ˇc ˇin • Miroslav Labas ˇka • Bianka Horva ´thova ´ • Andrej Ma ´tel Received: 5 December 2012 / Published online: 14 March 2013 Ó Akade ´miai Kiado ´, Budapest, Hungary 2013 Abstract This paper describes the use of IBC 0 s Ana- Lig Ò Pu-02 molecular recognition technology product to effectively and selectively pre-concentrate, separate and recover plutonium from urine samples. This method uses two-stage column separations consisting of two different commercial products, Eichrom’s Pre-filter Material and AnaLig Ò Pu-02 resin from IBC Advanced Technologies. By eliminating the co-precipitation techniques and the ashing steps to remove residual organics, the analysis time was reduced significantly. The method was successfully tested by adding known activities of reference solutions of 242 Pu and 239 Pu to urine samples. Keywords Urine analysis Á Bioassay Á Pre-concentration Á 239 Pu Introduction The primary goal of radiation protection in decommis- sioning and decontamination is to monitor and minimize exposure of personnel. The potential radiological hazard to workers can be from the following radionuclides: 238 Pu, 239,240 Pu, 241 Am, 137 Cs and 90 Sr [1]. The determination of low level concentrations of actinides in biological samples requires time and labor-consuming chemical processes. They include pre-concentration, radiochemical separation of radionuclides and preparation of source suitable for measurement. The current methods used for estimation of activity concentration of radionuclides are time consuming. Most of the actinides in urine are concentrated by co-precipitation with calcium phosphate [2]. Developments in solid-phase extraction chromatography have simplified the separation of radionuclides from complex matrices [1]. Methods for biological sample analysis combining ion exchange chromatography with solid-phase extraction chromatography were published in [3–5]. The procedure described by Alvarez and Navaro [1] notably improves conventional methods especially regarding the time required for sample preparation. The combination of anion exchange chromatography (for plutonium separation) and extraction chromatography columns (for americium and strontium separation) allows sequential isolation of these radionuclides when found together [3]. Maxwell and coworkers [6, 7] describe a rapid column separation method that applies directly to samples collected according to the NRIP 2007 (NIST radiochem- istry intercomparison program) emergency response pro- gram [8]. These urine samples, often collected under emergency circumstances, require only simple and rapid preparations [6–8]. The raw urine was acidified and passed directly through the stacked resin columns containing TEVA resin, TRU resin and Sr-Resin to separate the actinides and 90 Sr from the NRIP urine sample [6–8]. Solid phase extraction (SPE) is widely used for the isola- tion of trace amounts of elements and pre-concentration of the analyte which is usually surface, ground or drinking water [9–11] and radioactive wastewater [12, 13]. AnaLig gels have a metal-selective molecular recognition technology (MRT) ligand chemically bonded to solid supports such as silica gel or S. Dulanska ´(&) Á B. Remenec Á J. Bilohus ˇc ˇin Á M. Labas ˇka Á B. Horva ´thova ´ Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynska Dolina, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: dulanska@fns.uniba.sk A. Ma ´tel Faculty of Social Sciences and Health Care Constantine the Philosopher University, Kraskova 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia 123 J Radioanal Nucl Chem (2013) 298:439–442 DOI 10.1007/s10967-013-2457-3