What is ISO 13160 about?
ISO 13160 discusses water quality testing. Water needs to be tested for radioactive isotope presence to understand whether it is suitable for use. ISO 13160 specifies conditions for the determination of 90Sr and 89Sr activity concentration in samples of environmental water using liquid scintillation counting (LSC) or proportional counting (PC). The methods described are applicable in ISO 13160 the event of an emergency. When fallout occurs following a nuclear accident, the contribution of 89Sr to the total amount of radioactive strontium is not negligible.
Note 1: ISO 13160 is applicable to test samples of drinking water, rainwater, surface and groundwater, marine water, as well as cooling water, industrial water, domestic, and industrial wastewater after proper sampling and handling, and test sample preparation. Filtration of the test sample and chemical separation are required to separate and purify strontium from a test portion of the sample.
Note 2: The analysis of 90Sr and 89Sr adsorbed to suspended matter is not covered.
Note 3: ISO 13160 provides test methods to determine the activity concentration of 90Sr in presence of 89Sr.
Who is ISO 13160 for?
ISO 13160 on water quality testing is useful for:
- Government laboratories
- Industries that release wastewater in natural water bodies
- Geological scientists
- Nuclear power plants
- Public water supply systems
Why should you use ISO 13160?
Radioactivity from several naturally occurring and anthropogenic sources is present throughout the environment. Thus, water bodies (e.g., surface waters, groundwaters, sea waters) can contain radionuclides of natural, human-made, or both origins.
The method described in ISO 13160, using currently available LSC counters, has a detection limit of approximately 10 mBq l−1 and 2 mBq l−1 for 89Sr and 90Sr, respectively, which is lower than the WHO criteria for safe consumption of drinking water.
The test method described in ISO 13160 may be used during planned, existing, and emergency exposure situations as well as for wastewaters and liquid effluents with specific modifications that could increase the overall uncertainty, detection limit, and threshold.
What’s changed since the last update?
BS EN ISO 13160:2021 supersedes EN ISO 13160:2015 which is withdrawn. BS EN ISO 13160:2021 includes a technical change with respect to EN ISO 13160:2015:
- The way standard uncertainty, decision threshold, and detection limit are calculated has been updated in conformance with ISO 11929‑1:2019.
