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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Analysis of uranium & radium in environmental samples by ICP-MS

Conference ·
OSTI ID:126722
 [1];  [2]
  1. USX Texas Uranium, George West, TX (United States)
  2. Fisons Instruments, Boulder, CO (United States)
The tailings from Uranium processing as well as ground waters are required to be monitored to meet regulatory levels for total Uranium and traces of Radium 226. The technique of soil digestion and subsequent Radium precipitation followed by alpha counting is well proven but time consuming. The high sensitivity and element specificity of ICP-MS has been instrumental in the development of methods for the analysis of long lived radionuclides including Uranium and Radium. Traditional sample preparation was used and the resulting preconcentrated sample was analyzed quantitatively using ICP-MS equipped with an Ultrasonic nebulizer. The analytical data were compared with counting methods and it was found that a reliable measurement at lower levels than the regulated 5 pCi/g Radium 226 in soil was easily achieved.
OSTI ID:
126722
Report Number(s):
CONF-950402--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English