Pham Mai Khanh

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Pham
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Mai Khanh
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  • Article
    GEOTRACES radium isotopes interlaboratory comparison experiment
    (Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, 2012-06) Charette, Matthew A. ; Dulaiova, Henrieta ; Gonneea, Meagan E. ; Henderson, Paul B. ; Moore, Willard S. ; Scholten, Jan C. ; Pham, Mai Khanh
    In anticipation of the international GEOTRACES program, which will study the global marine biogeochemistry of trace elements and isotopes, we conducted a multi-lab intercomparison for radium isotopes. The intercomparison was in two parts involving the distribution of: (1) samples collected from four marine environments (open ocean, continental slope, shelf, and estuary) and (2) a suite of four reference materials prepared with isotopic standards (circulated to participants as 'unknowns'). Most labs performed well with 228Ra and 224Ra determination, however, there were a number of participants that reported 226Ra, 223Ra, and 228Th (supported 224Ra) well outside the 95% confidence interval. Many outliers were suspected to be a result of poorly calibrated detectors, though other method specific factors likely played a role (e.g., detector leakage, insufficient equilibration). Most methods for radium analysis in seawater involve a MnO2 fiber column preconcentration step; as such, we evaluated the extraction efficiency of this procedure and found that it ranged from an average of 87% to 94% for the four stations. Hence, nonquantitative radium recovery from seawater samples may also have played a role in lab-to-lab variability.
  • Preprint
    Reference material for radionuclides in sediment IAEA-384 (Fangataufa Lagoon sediment)
    ( 2006-07-11) Povinec, Pavel P. ; Pham, Mai Khanh ; Sanchez-Cabeza, J. A. ; Barci-Funel, G. ; Bojanowski, R. ; Boshkova, T. ; Burnett, William C. ; Carvalho, Fernando ; Chapeyron, B. ; Cunha, I. L. ; Dahlgaard, H. ; Galabov, N. ; Fifield, L. K. ; Gastaud, J. ; Geering, J. -J. ; Gomez, I. F. ; Green, N. ; Hamilton, T. ; Ibanez, F. L. ; Ibn Majah, M. ; John, M. ; Kanisch, G. ; Kenna, Timothy C. ; Kloster, M. ; Korun, M. ; Liong Wee Kwong, L. ; La Rosa, J. ; Lee, S.-H. ; Levy-Palomo, I. ; Malatova, M. ; Maruo, Y. ; Mitchell, P. ; Murciano, I. V. ; Nelson, Robert K. ; Nouredine, A. ; Oh, J.-S. ; Oregioni, B. ; Le Petit, G. ; Pettersson, H. B. L. ; Reineking, A. ; Smedley, P. A. ; Suckow, A. ; van der Struijs, T. D. B. ; Voors, P. I. ; Yoshimizu, K. ; Wyse, E.
    A reference material designed for the determination of anthropogenic and natural radionuclides in sediment, IAEA-384 (Fangataufa Lagoon sediment), is described and the results of certification are presented. The material has been certified for 8 radionuclides (40K, 60Co, 155Eu, 230Th, 238U, 238Pu, 239+240Pu and 241Am). Information values are given for 12 radionuclides (90Sr, 137Cs, 210Pb (210Po), 226Ra, 228Ra, 232Th, 234U, 235U, 239Pu, 240Pu and 241Pu). Less reported radionuclides include 228Th, 236U, 239Np and 242Pu. The reference material may be used for quality management of radioanalytical laboratories engaged in the analysis of radionuclides in the environment, as well as for the development and validation of analytical methods and for training purposes. The material is available from IAEA in 100 g units.
  • Preprint
    Preparation of Mn-fiber standards for the efficiency calibration of the delayed coincidence counting system (RaDeCC)
    ( 2010-04) Scholten, Jan C. ; Pham, Mai Khanh ; Blinova, Oxana ; Charette, Matthew A. ; Dulaiova, Henrieta ; Eriksson, Mats
    Precise measurements of the short lived radium isotopes 223Ra and 224Ra by means of the delayed coincidence counting system (RaDeCC) rely on an efficiency calibration of this system using Mn-fiber standards for which radium activities are exactly known. We prepared seventeen different standards by placing Mn-fibers in seawater spiked with various amounts of 227Ac (with 223Ra in radioactive equilibrium), 228Th (in radioactive equilibrium with 232Th and 224Ra) and 226Ra. We tested for quantitative adsorption of 227Ac and 228Th on the Mn-fibers by: (1) measuring 227Ac and 232Th in the residual solutions after preparing the Mn-fiber standards and (2) monitoring their 223Ra and 224Ra activities over a period of ~100 days. In the residual solutions, the activities of 227Ac and 232Th were < 1.0 % and < 5.3 %, respectively, of the activities initially added to the Mn-fibers. Our results indicate that Milli-Q water washing of the Mn-fibers is the major source of our observed losses of thorium. Measurements of 227Ac standards over 1½ years indicate a significant decrease of measurable 223Ra with time prohibiting the long-term use of 227Ac Mn-fiber standards. We found the 224Ra efficiency to be independent of the range of 227Ac, 228Th and 226Ra activities on the Mn-fibers standards used. The efficiency determination for 223Ra, however, may be biased in the case of relatively high 224Ra activities due to insufficient correction of chance of coincidence. Thus we suggest using a single 227Ac Mn-fiber standard for the efficiency determination for 223Ra.
  • Article
    Erratum : GEOTRACES radium isotopes interlaboratory comparison experiment
    (Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, 2012-06) Charette, Matthew A. ; Dulaiova, Henrieta ; Gonneea, Meagan E. ; Henderson, Paul B. ; Moore, Willard S. ; Scholten, Jan C. ; Pham, Mai Khanh
    In our original paper, Charette, M. A., H. Dulaiova, M. E. Gonneea, P. B. Henderson, W. S. Moore, J. C. Scholten, and M. K. Pham. 2012. GEOTRACES radium isotopes interlaboratory comparison experiment. Limonol. Oceanogr.: Methods 10:451, the incorrect headers were used for Table 9.
  • Article
    Cesium, iodine and tritium in NW Pacific waters – a comparison of the Fukushima impact with global fallout
    (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2013-08-15) Povinec, Pavel P. ; Aoyama, Michio ; Biddulph, D. ; Breier, R. ; Buesseler, Ken O. ; Chang, C. C. ; Golser, R. ; Hou, X. L. ; Jeskovsky, M. ; Jull, A. J. T. ; Kaizer, J. ; Nakano, M. ; Nies, H. ; Palcsu, L. ; Papp, L. ; Pham, Mai Khanh ; Steier, P. ; Zhang, L. Y.
    Radionuclide impact of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident on the distribution of radionuclides in seawater of the NW Pacific Ocean is compared with global fallout from atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons. Surface and water column samples collected during the Ka'imikai-o-Kanaloa (KOK) international expedition carried out in June 2011 were analyzed for 134Cs, 137Cs, 129I and 3H. The 137Cs, 129I and 3H levels in surface seawater offshore Fukushima varied between 0.002–3.5 Bq L−1, 0.01–0.8 μBq L−1, and 0.05–0.15 Bq L−1, respectively. At the sampling site about 40 km from the coast, where all three radionuclides were analyzed, the Fukushima impact on the levels of these three radionuclides represents an increase above the global fallout background by factors of about 1000, 50 and 3, respectively. The water column data indicate that the transport of Fukushima-derived radionuclides downward to the depth of 300 m has already occurred. The observed 137Cs levels in surface waters and in the water column are compared with predictions obtained from the ocean general circulation model, which indicates that the Kuroshio Current acts as a southern boundary for the transport of the radionuclides, which have been transported from the Fukushima coast eastward in the NW Pacific Ocean. The 137Cs inventory in the water column is estimated to be about 2.2 PBq, what can be regarded as a lower limit of the direct liquid discharges into the sea as the seawater sampling was carried out only in the area from 34 to 37° N, and from 142 to 147° E. About 4.6 GBq of 129I was deposited in the NW Pacific Ocean, and 2.4–7 GBq of 129I was directly discharged as liquid wastes into the sea offshore Fukushima. The total amount of 3H released and deposited over the NW Pacific Ocean was estimated to be 0.1–0.5 PBq. These estimations depend, however, on the evaluation of the total 137Cs activities released as liquid wastes directly into the sea, which should improve when more data are available. Due to a suitable residence time in the ocean, Fukushima-derived radionuclides will provide useful tracers for isotope oceanography studies on the transport of water masses during the next decades in the NW Pacific Ocean.