An isotope dilution mass spectrometry overview: tips and applications for the measurement of radionuclides

This article proposes a practical guide including good laboratory practices followed by a critical review about the application of isotope dilution mass spectrometry (ID-MS) measurement to radionuclide analyses. Several national and international scientific institutions (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, French Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute, European Commission, International Atomic Energy Agency, and Belgian Nuclear Research Centre) participated in this review by sharing their good laboratory practices. ID-MS is one of the primary ratio methods of measurement in the International System of Units. It can produce highly accurate results, as potential sources of bias can be controlled. Many hints are given to obtain the best performance. In addition, a script written with the open source software Octave is provided to calculate the optimal parameters of the {sample-spike} mixture easily. Radionuclide analysis by ID-MS applies to many different fields (environmental, biological, reference materials, irradiated samples, process control, nuclear safeguards and nuclear forensics).