A rapid method for the detection of uranium in surface water

A method has been optimized to preconcentrate uranium from waters using the ion exchanger Hyphan. The sample (up to 10 l) is agitated throughly with a portion of the ion exchanger for between 40 min and 2 h. The exchanger is filtered off and treated with a small volume (< 100 ml) of either nitric acid (for ICP measurement) or hydrochloric acid (for alpha measurement). The acid is filtered off and measured directly by ICP-AES, or it is brought to pH 2 and saturated with ammonium chloride, then directly electrolyzed. Yields lie in the order of 60–90% and the overall analysis time is approximately 3 h (ICP) or approximately 4 h (alpha measurement). Precisions reached are better than 15% relative. Detection limits lie at about 2 ppb (ICP) and 0.4 ppb (alpha measurement).