• Foodstuff, drinking and mineral water, beverages.
• Groundwater (e.g., age determination by tritium analysis), wastewater, rainwater and surface water.
• Soil and mineral samples, ores, concentrates, tailings.
• Metals and alloys, metal products.
• Sludge, scale, filters, produced water and other samples from geothermal energy and oil/gas production (natural radionuclides, NORM).
• Brine and highly saline waters.
• Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
• Mineral, animal and vegetable oils, oily liquids, agricultural, vegetable and animal products, vegetation samples and animal feed.
• Secondary fuels, sewage gas, waste gas and bioproducts (e.g., determination of biogenic carbon using C-14).
• Building materials and demolition rubble (analysis of soil and rubble samples from radiological contaminated sites and nuclear decommissioning).
• Air, aerosols and gases, e.g., for measuring radon / radon progeny, thoron, krypton, tritium and other radioactive gases, air filters.
• Scratch and wipe samples from nuclear decommissioning.
• Dust samples and dust deposition (Bergerhoff jars) in the vicinity of nuclear facilities, and NORM-affected industrial facilities.
• Urine, faeces, other bio-samples.
• Waste containers (barrels, drums), especially for in-situ gamma spectrometry.

This list is not exhaustive. Please contact us for further materials we can analyse.

We measure radioactivity using gamma spectrometry (HPGe n-type), alpha spectrometry (PIPS detectors), liquid scintillation (LSC), low-level alpha / beta counters and grid ionization chambers.

For sample preparation, we have an extensively equipped radiochemical laboratory as well as the appropriate mechanical and physical sample pre-treatment, such as jar crushers, ball mills, tube furnaces and microwaves.

For the determination of tritium with a low detection limit, we operate a high-performance electrolytic enrichment system, developed from scratch, and perfected, in-house.

Nuclides that cannot be measured by gamma spectrometry and that have to be radio-chemically separated prior to the actual counting step, are often referred to as "difficult-to-measure nuclides", or DTM nuclides. More specifically, DTM nuclides require a particularly complex radiochemical preparation and, if necessary, the adaptation of methods, which at Eurofins can be done within the scope of flexible accreditation. DTM nuclides are usually alpha or beta emitters and are therefore determined using alpha spectrometry, low-level alpha / beta counting or LSC. 

Often the relevant DTM nuclides are determined once in a certain sample matrix and correlated with nuclides that are easy to measure (e.g., gamma-spectrometrically). The nuclide vector determined in this way can then be used to examine a large batches of samples inexpensively and quickly using gamma spectrometry. This helps to aid a decision process on the free-release of the entire batch with sufficient statistical certainty, which is very useful in situations where bulk quantities of waste are handled, for example in the nuclear decommissioning.

The determination of the content of biogenic carbon has come to play an increasing role in emission trading and in the labelling of “sustainable products”. Carbon isotopes with a radioactive nucleus of mass number 14 (C-14) are continuously formed in the atmosphere by cosmic radiation (since the middle of the 20th century it has also been released into the atmosphere by nuclear weapon tests) and are subsequently incorporated into plant tissue. For example, in “young” wood, among one trillion of ordinary carbon atoms of mass number 12 there is approximately one carbon atom with a radioactive C-14 nucleus. We can determine this small proportion of C-14 isotopes very precisely using liquid scintillation counting (LSC).

However, the carbon isotope C-14 is subject to radioactive decay with a half-life of approximately 5,730 years and therefore, it is not detectable in fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum with an age of several million of years. If fossil coal or crude oil are burned, we cannot measure any C-14 in the resulting carbon dioxide anymore.

If, on the other hand, “young” (i.e., renewable) carbon sources are burnt in power plants, such as sewage gas, sewage sludge or wood pellets, the C-14 nuclei have not yet decayed and we can detect them in their natural ratio among all carbon nuclei. In emission trading, this information helps operators to secure carbon credits.

The proportion of C-14 nuclei in total carbon is conventionally given in units of pMC (“percent modern carbon”). By definition, 100 pMC correspond to the C-14 content in the atmosphere back in 1950. When determining biogenic carbon using the C-14 method, we work in line with the standards DIN EN ISO 21644 (solid secondary fuels, formerly DIN EN 15440), DIN EN 16640, EN 16785-1 (bio-based products), DIN EN ISO 13833 (CO2 emissions from biomass), ISO 16620 (Plastics - Biobased content), and ASTM D6866.