What is ISO 9698 - LSC for 3H about?
ISO 9698 discusses water quality with reference to Tritium (3H). ISO 9698 specifies a method by liquid scintillation counting for the determination of tritium activity concentration in samples of marine waters, surface waters, groundwaters, rain waters, drinking waters or of tritiated water ([3H] H2O) in effluents.
ISO 9698 provides a method that is not directly applicable to the analysis of organically bound 3H. Its determination requires additional chemical processing of the sample (such as chemical oxidation or combustion). With suitable technical conditions, the detection limit may be as low as 1 Bq·l−1. 3H activity concentrations below 106 Bq·l−1 can be determined without any sample dilution.
Who is ISO 9698 - LSC for 3H for?
ISO 9698 on LSC for 3H water quality 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 9698 - LSC for 3H?
Radioactivity from several naturally occurring and anthropogenic sources is present throughout the environment. Thus, water bodies (such as surface waters, groundwaters, sea waters) can contain radionuclides of natural, human-made, or both origins. ISO 9698 is one of a set of International Standards on test methods dealing with the measurement of the activity concentration of radionuclides in water samples.
ISO 9698 provides a test method that is adapted so that the character limits, decision threshold, detection limit, and uncertainties ensure that the radionuclide activity concentrations test results can be verified to be below the guidance levels required by a national authority for either planned/existing situations or for an emergency situation. ISO 9698 has been developed to answer the need of test laboratories carrying out these measurements, which are sometimes required by national authorities, as they may have to obtain a specific accreditation for radionuclide measurement in drinking water samples.
What’s changed since the last update?
BS EN ISO 9698:2019 supersedes ISO 9698:2010, which is withdrawn. BS EN ISO 9698:2019 includes some technical changes with respect to ISO 9698:2010.
These include:
- The Introduction has been developed
- The Scope has been updated
- The sample preparation has been revised
- The Bibliography has been enhanced

