What is ISO 13163 - Lead-210 concentration in water bodies about?
ISO 13163 is one of a series of international documents regarding water quality. This International standard aims to help its users identify lead concentration in water.
ISO 13163 provides a test method that measures the 210Pb activity concentrations in the range of less than 20 mBq⋅l-1 to 50 mBq⋅l-1. These values are achieved with a counting time between 180 min and 720 min for a sample volume from 0,5 l to 1,5 l. Higher 210Pb activity concentrations can be measured by either diluting the sample or using smaller sample aliquots or both.
Who is ISO 13163 - Lead-210 concentration in water bodies for?
ISO 13163 on water quality is useful for:
- Government laboratories
- Industries that release wastewater into natural water bodies
- Hydrologists
- Nuclear power plant authorities
- Public water supply systems
Why should you use ISO 13163 - Lead-210 concentration in water bodies?
Radionuclide activity concentration in water bodies can vary according to local geological characteristics and climatic conditions and can be locally and temporally enhanced by releases from nuclear installation during planned, existing, and emergency exposure situations. Drinking water can thus contain radionuclides at activity concentrations that could present a risk to human health.
ISO 13163 enables the plant/installation operator to verify that, before their discharge, wastewaters/liquid effluent radioactive activity concentrations do not exceed authorized limits.
The test methods described in ISO 13163 may be used during planned, existing and emergency
exposure situations as well as for wastewaters and liquid effluents with specific modifications that can increase the overall uncertainty, detection limit, and threshold.
ISO 13163 has been developed to answer the need of test laboratories carrying out these measurements, which are sometimes required by national authorities, as they might need to obtain a specific accreditation for radionuclide measurement in drinking water samples.
What’s changed since the last update?
BS EN ISO 13163:2022 supersedes ISO 13163:2019, which has been withdrawn.
The main changes compared to the previous edition are as follows:
- Addition of the common introduction
- Transfer of separation processes to an annex