An emergency bioassay method for 210Po in urine

A rapid method was developed to efficiently measure 210Po in urine samples in an emergency situation. Polonium-210 in small urine samples (10 mL) was spontaneously deposited on a stainless steel disc in 1 M HCl at room temperature for 4 h in a polyethylene bottle. The metallic disc was then counted for 4 h by alpha spectrometry. The developed method allowed the preparation of large sample batch in a short time. The method meets the requirements for an emergency bioassay procedure.