Nuclear Chemistry

Wadsworth Center’s Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory operates within the Laboratory of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, Division of Environmental Health Sciences.

Mandated Radiological Surveillance in New York State

The surveillance program assesses exposure of the population to ionizing radiation and involves monitoring of radioactivity in the environment around nuclear power plants, waste sites, as well as monitoring of drinking water supplies for gross alpha/beta, radium, and uranium.

Regulatory Program

The regulatory program involves production of Performance Testing standards for the Environmental Laboratory Approval Program.

Emergency Response

Radiological emergency response focuses on response to accidents and incidents involving ionizing radiation related to commercial and healthcare usage of radiation, radiological food protection, potential large accidents related to energy production, as well as potential terrorist threats involving radioactivity such as dirty bombs.

Research in Radiological Sciences

Develop improved and faster laboratory methods of quantifying radioactivity to serve the above mentioned programs.
Develop statistical and modeling tools to quantify radioactivity in the environment and improve the decision methodology.
Develop of new and more sensitive methods to detect ionizing radiation in environmental, food, and bioassay samples, such as alpha and gamma spectrometry, liquid scintillation counting, and radon detection.
Develop new methods to separate specific radionuclides from complex matrices.

Education

The Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory teaches principles and laboratory courses in radiation sciences for the University at Albany, School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences Program by providing:

EHS 690 Laboratory Rotations
EHS 540 Principles of Radiation Sciences
EHS 541 Radioactivity Measurements Laboratory

Accreditations

NELAP – E37911
NYS ELAP – 10762
EPA – NY00005

The Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory cooperates with other New York State agencies such as Bureau of Environmental Radiation Protection, Bureau of Water Supply Protection, as well as with the US FDA for radiological food protection.

Information including frequently asked questions, testing, mitigation, laws and regulations and radon level maps and statistics can be found at the NYS Department of Health's Radon Page.

Additional information about the Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory.

Radon

Kitto ME, Torres MA, Haines DK, Semkow TM. Radon Measurement of Natural Gas Using Alpha Scintillation Cells. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. 2014; (138): 205-207.

Pubmed Web Address

Kitto, ME. Radon Testing in Schools in New York State: A 20-year Summary. J. Environ. Radioact. 2014; (137): 213-216.

Pubmed Web Address

Kitto, ME, Menia, TA, Bari, A, Fielman, EM and Haines, DK. Development and intercomparison of a reusable radon-in-water standard. Radiation Measurements. 2010; 45 (2): 231-233.

Kitto ME, Green JG. Mapping of Indoor Radon Potential at the Township Level. Atmospheric Environment. 2008; 42 (34): 8007-8014.

Blain E, Nishikawa K, Faye SA, Roselan A, Burn AG, Torres MA, Semkow TM. Detection capability study of 89Sr and 90Sr using liquid scintillation counting. Health Physics. 2023; 125 (2): 123-136. DOI: 10.1097/HP.0000000000001698.

Pubmed Web Address

Burn AG, Haines DK, Khan AJ, Torres MT, Faye SA, Costello CA, Hoffman TJ, Chu LT, Bradt CJ, Semkow TM. Gamma radioactivity detection limits and associated radionuclide intakes study in artificial human urine using sodium-iodide and high-purity germanium detectors. Health Physics. 2023; 124 (2): 106-112. DOI: 10.1097/HP.0000000000001642.

Pubmed Web Address

Semkow T, Chu L and Burn A. Gamma Spectrometry of Inhomogeneous Samples Using Peak-Ratio Method. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics. 2021; 9 (11): 2641-59. DOI: 10.4236/jamp.2021.911170.

Pubmed Web Address

Khan AJ, Li X, Haines DK, Hoffman TJ, Semkow TM. Investigation of neutron shielding materials for low-background gamma spectrometry. J Radioanal Nucl Chem. 2021; 328 (113503): 941-950. DOI: 10.1007/s10967-021-07715-x.

Pubmed Web Address

Chu LT, Burn AG, Bradt CJ, Semkow TM. Monte Carlo simulation of hot-particle detection in voluminous samples by gamma spectrometry. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics. 2021; 9 (7): 1522-40. DOI: 10.4236/jamp.2021.97104.

Pubmed Web Address

Burn AG, Li X, Haines DK, Hussain MM, Yang KX, Marrantino JC, Syed U-F, Bari A, Semkow TM. Improved sample preparation procedure for gross alpha counting on gas-flow proportional counter. J Radioanal Nucl Chem. 2020; 325 (2): 417-423. DOI: 10.1007/s10967-020-07256-9.

Pubmed Web Address

Nishikawa K, Bari A, Khan AJ, Li X, Menia T, Semkow TM. Homogenization of food samples for gamma spectrometry using protease. J Radioanal Nucl Chem. 2018; 318 (1): 401-406. DOI: 10.1007/s10967-018-6065-0.

Pubmed Web Address

Nishikawa K, Bari A, Khan AJ, Li X, Menia T, Semkow TM, Lin Z, Healy S. Homogenization of food samples for gamma spectrometry using tetramethylammonium hydroxide and enzymatic digestion. J Radioanal Nucl Chem. 2017; 314 (2): 859-870. DOI: 10.1007/s10967-017-5434-4.

Pubmed Web Address

Kitto ME, Marrantino JC, Fielman EM, Haines DK, Semkow TM, Bari A. Long-term monitoring of radioactivity in fish from New York waters. J. Environ. Radioact. 2015; (146): 44-50.

Pubmed Web Address

Kitto ME, Torres MA, Haines DK, Semkow TM. Radon measurement of natural gas using alpha scintillation cells. J Environ Radioact. 2014; (138): 205-207.

Pubmed Web Address

Khan AJ, Semkow TM, Beach SE, Haines DK, Bradt CJ, Bari A, Syed U-F, Torres M, Marrantino J, Kitto ME, Menia T, Fielman E. Application of low-background gamma-ray spectrometry to monitor radioactivity in the environment and food. Appl Radiat Isot. 2014; (90): 251-257.

Pubmed Web Address

Semkow TM, Beach SE, Khan AJ, Bari A, Bradt CJ, Haines DK, Syed UF. Multi-window counting of radioactivity. Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section A-Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors & Associated Equipment. 2012; 664 (1): 236-244.

Bari A, Khan AJ, Semkow TM, Syed UF, Roselan A, Haines DK, Roth G, West L, Arndt, M. Rapid screening of radioactivity in food for emergency response. Applied Radiation & Isotopes. 2011; 69 (6): 834-43.

Pubmed Web Address