Gross Alpha question

[Lukasny]

When I got my well water test results I noticed Gross Alpha is elevated but divided into Gross Alpha Initial and Gross Alpha Final. What is the difference between them ?
Also each have different Applicable standards (maximum contaminant levels). Is Gross Alpha Initial totally different than Gross Alpha Final ?

Gross Alpha Initial - Results 19.07 PCi/L - Applicable Standards - 5
Gross Alpha Final - Results 17.56 PCi/L - Applicable Standards - 15

 

[Gsmith22]

its a test procedure thing. this explains the difference between initial and final gross alpha:

https://www.pacelabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Radchem_48_Alpha_Gross.pdf

your gross alpha is above the MCL so you want to treat this. But the next step is to determine what is making the gross alpha high: uranium or radium. You want to know this because a different process is used to remove uranium than is used to remove radium. Test for uranium (its cheaper to test this) and you can pretty much assume whatever isn't coming from uranium is probably coming from radium. In reality, any of the daughter products of the 4 radioactive decay chains could be causing alpha and beta radiation but most the daughter products have very short half lives (seconds to minutes) so its really only the ones that half lives of days to years which end up being found in testing. Uranium and Radium have long half lives. You probably have high radon too in the water (a daughter product of the radioactive decay of these elements). ask me how I know all this

some threads you will want to review regarding treatment:

https://terrylove.com/forums/index....h-gross-alpha-radium-uranium-and-radon.81450/

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/treatment-suggestions-for-uranium-needed.91929/

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/system-review-and-sourcing-5810.93806/