Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory approach to hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance for uranium in the United States
The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory of the United States is conducting a geochemical survey for uranium in the Rocky Mountain states of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana and in Alaska. This survey is part of a national hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance in which four Department of Energy laboratories will study the uranium resources of the United States to provide data for the National Uranium Resource Evaluation program. The reconnaissance will identify areas having higher than background concentrations of uranium in ground waters, surface waters, and water-transported sediments. Water and sediment samples are collected at a nominal density of one sample location per 10 km/sup 2/ except for lake areas of Alaska where the density is one sample location per 23 km/sup 2/. Water samples are analyzed for uranium by fluorometry which has a 0.02 parts per billion lower limit of detection. Concentrations of 12 additional elements in water are determined by plasma-source emission spectrography. All sediments are analyzed for uranium by delayed-neutron counting with a 20 parts per billion lower limit of detection, which is well below the range of uranium concentrations in natural sediment samples. Elemental concentrations in sediments are also determined by neutron activation analysis for 31 elements by x-ray fluorescence for 9 elements, and by arc-source emission spectrography for 2 elements. The multielement analyses provide valuable data for studies concerning pathfinder elements, environmental pollution, elemental distributions, dispersion halos, and economic ore deposits other than uranium. To date, all of four Rocky Mountain states and about 80% of Alaska have been sampled. About 220,000 samples have been collected from an area of nearly 2,500,000 km/sup 2/.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 6887881
- Report Number(s):
- LA-8681-MS; TRN: 81-004557
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
ALASKA
GEOCHEMICAL SURVEYS
COLORADO
MONTANA
NEW MEXICO
SEDIMENTS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
URANIUM
ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
DELAYED NEUTRON ANALYSIS
FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY
URANIUM DEPOSITS
PROSPECTING
WATER
WYOMING
EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY
ACTINIDES
ELEMENTS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
METALS
MINERAL RESOURCES
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR REACTION ANALYSIS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PACIFIC NORTHWEST REGION
RESOURCES
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION
SOUTHWEST REGION
SPECTROSCOPY
SURVEYS
USA
050200* - Nuclear Fuels- Exploration- (-1987)
400101 - Activation
Nuclear Reaction
Radiometric & Radiochemical Procedures
400104 - Spectral Procedures- (-1987)