? Discipline C: Radiochemistry, Track 2 The New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) Public Health and Environmental Laboratories (PHEL) is pursuing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)?s Laboratory Flexible Funding Model cooperative agreement focused on improving the capability and capacity of NJ to maintain food safety and security. In this project, the radioanalytical laboratory will expand the radiochemistry capability and capacity through: a) Purchasing a new 16-detectors proportional counting system (Tennelec LB4200) to expand the capacity of gross alpha/beta tests. The new instrument will primarily be used for the analysis of gross alpha/beta in food samples. b) Hiring a fulltime research scientist and a laboratory technician to maintain the personnel necessary for the analysis of food. The research scientist will perform radiochemical preparation of food samples, operation and maintenance of instruments, and methods development to support the cooperative agreement goals. c) Develop a rapid preparation and analysis method for I-131 in milk to provide surge capacity testing needed for low level I-131 measurement (< 1 pCi/L) for milk during the recovery phase following a nuclear event. The laboratory will develop a method to concentrate the iodine on a resin through a batch- anion-exchange technology. The Iodine-131 will be determined by directly counting beta of the resin Current methodologies are either not sensitive enough or are costly in terms of time and resources. Dowex-18 ion-exchange in a low background liquid scintillation counter. Sample preparation could be completed within four hours. Assuming the sample is received within four days of collection (decay factor ~0.5), 80% of chemical yield, and the counting efficiency of 60%, and counting of 30 minutes, the minimum detection limit for 1.0 L of sample will be far below 1.0 pCi/L. The total time of analysis from receival to report could be completed in as few as eight hours. By conducting the work detailed in this proposal and managing an integrated food safety system, NJDOH will be able to expand its food defense and safety activities while further safeguarding public health. Importantly, the work conducted by PHEL will supplement the national efforts of the FDA and other states while providing our federal and State partners with critical radiological contaminant data they can use to enhance their food defense and safety activities.
? Discipline C: Radiochemistry, Track 2 The NJDOH Radioanalytical Laboratory will expand the department?s radiochemistry capacity by purchasing a new 16-detectors proportional counting system (Tennelec LB4200) and adding a fulltime research scientist and a laboratory technician to maintain the personnel necessary for food analysis. The laboratory will expand capability by developing a rapid preparation and analysis method for I-131 in milk to provide surge capacity testing necessary for low-level measurements during the recovery phase of a nuclear event.
