Instrumentation:

An advantage of IDA method is that it does not require any specific or costly instrumentation except simple radioactivity measurement equipments such as G.M. counter or scintillation gamma ray spectrometer which are good for gross activity measurements. Of course one needs a good electronic balance for accurate determination of the mass of the recovered sample. For chemical separation procedure a radiochemistry laboratory with glove box and fume hood facilities are also required. While stable isotopes are used, a diluted natural isotopic ratio is related to the concentration of the amount and isotopic composition of the separated isotope that was added. In that case measuring instrument is mass spectrometer and the technique is called isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS). This technique of IDMS is, therefore, less common and requires a more sophisticated laboratory.