The Determination of Environmental Levels of 137Cs in Venezuelan Milk Powders

Abstract

The measurement of ¹³⁷Cs in six Venezuelan milk powder samples and four reference materials was performed by a standard calibration curve method and a standard reference material ratio method. This was accomplished employing both a high efficiency Hype pure Germanium semiconductor coupled to a multichannel analyzer and a simple NaI(Tl) scintillator with a single channel analyzer. The standard addition technique was also applied to two samples since they were used as a dilutants to prepare the standards for the calibration curves. The two samples of the government subsidized milk powder were not significantly different from the other five national milk powders, thus no indication that they were mixed with contaminated milk powder imported from Europe. Finally, these levels can be referred to in the future in case of a nuclear accident in the region or if the national product is suspected of being mixed with imported contaminated milk powder.

Key Words:

• ¹³⁷Cs
• Venezuelan
• milk powder
• method comparison