List of Equipment necessary:
Quantities vary, depending on how many samples are requested. Please provide your own CLEAN (preferable unused) bucket. Please return all of the above items in the SWAB Kit except for the used sponges, gloves and trash bag.
selection of sampling areas is made according to the judgement of possible high-risk places. for instance, where known artificial tracer experiments have been going on previously, and especially in areas of reported spills.
a descriptive record is kept of locations swabbed and corresponding bottle numbers, by marking the sample sites clearly on a sketch of the ship area where swab-test took place. use enclosed notebook.
Back in the laboratory, particulates are removed from the sample by centrifuging. Then an aliquot of 5 ml of the centrifuged sample is mixed with 15 ml of liquid scintillation cocktail. The liquid scintillation counter, a Perkin-Elmer Tri-Carb 2910 TR, has three channels: viz., one tuned for optimal 3H alone, one for 3H with 14C overlay, and a 14C channel. The samples are counted for six 60-minute periods each, so as to obtain sensitivity of the order of one count per minute above background in each channel. The results are reported on the amount of radioactivity recovered from each of the sampling areas, as dpm/m2 with associated 1 sigma errors. Radioactive, water-insoluble, solid particles will not be included by our procedure. Ships and radiation vans should preferably be tested both before and after a cruise where artificial tracers are used.
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