Determination of 226Ra and 224Ra in drinking waters by liquid scintillation counting

A method for the determination of Ra-isotopes in water samples has been developed. Ra is coprecipitated with Ba as sulphate. The precipitate is then dissolved with EDTA and counted with a liquid scintillation system after mixing with a scintillation cocktail. The study of the temporal evolution of the separated activity gives the isotopic composition of the sample, i.e. the 224Ra and 226Ra contribution to the total activity. The method has been applied to some Spanish drinking waters.