Determination of uranium in urine - measurement of isotope ratios and quantification by use of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

For analysis of uranium in urine determination of the isotope ratio and quantification were investigated by high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR ICP-MS). The instrument used (ThermoFinniganMAT ELEMENT2) is a single-collector MS and, therefore, a stable sample-introduction system was chosen. The methodical set-up was optimized to achieve the best precision for both the isotope ratio and the total uranium concentration in the urine matrix. Three spiked urine samples from an European interlaboratory comparison were analyzed to determine the U-235/U-238 isotope ratio. The ratio was found to be in the range 0.002116 to 0.007222, the latter being the natural uranium isotope ratio. The first ratio indicates the abundance of depleted uranium. The effect of storage conditions and the stability for the matrix urine were investigated by using "real-life" urine samples from unexposed persons in the Netherlands. For samples stored under refrigeration and acidified the results (range 0.8 to 5.3 ng L-1 U) were in the normal fluctuation range whereas a decrease in uranium concentration was observed for samples stored at room temperature without acidification.