Estimation of ¹²⁹I in marine algal samples from Tarapur (Bombay), west coast of India

Abstract

Marine algal samples were examined for ¹²⁹I content to evaluate the rate of build up of this radionuclide in the environment. The radiochemical procedure for ¹²⁹I separation from the algal samples and the liquid scintillation counting technique were also discussed. The average specific activity of algal samples was 0.037 µCig ^-1 of iodine which was 740 times higher than that measured in the background samples. The average atom ratio of ¹²⁹I/¹²⁷I in algal samples was 2.5 x 10 ^-4 while the same was 2.2 x 10 ¹² in the ocean as the general background due to the natural production of ¹²⁹I.