6. Radionuclides of interest

In an accident situation, particularly in the case of a major nuclear accident, the radionuclides with which measurement laboratories are likely to be confronted are potentially more numerous and different from those they usually measure. The nature of these radionuclides depends not only on the type of accident, but also on the time elapsed since the end of releases.

With the exception of pure "β" emitters such as tritium, strontium 89 and strontium 90, plutonium 241 or "pure α" emitters, most artificial radionuclides can be detected using γ spectrometry.

The presence of certain radionuclides can be expected depending on the type of incident