Radiochemical scheme for the determination of molybdenum and uranium in biological materials by NAA

A new universal radiochemical separation scheme for selective and quantitative isolation of molybdenum and neptunium (formed from uranium), from neutron irradiated biological materials has been elaborated. The procedure is based on ion exchange and extraction chromatography with final fixation of molybdenum on a column with α-benzoinoxime supported on Bio-Beads SM2 and neptunium on Dowex 1-X8 [No 3 − ]. The separated elements are quantified using gamma-spectrometric measurements. The new NAA method is able to overcome problems associated with high contents of phosphorous in some samples and assures detection limits better than 3 ppb for both elements. The validity of the proposed scheme has been demonstrated by the analysis of several CRM's.