Measurement of uranium series radionuclides in rock and groundwater at the Koongarra ore deposit, Australia, by gamma spectrometry

Book · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:382905

Yanase, Nobuyuki; Sekine, Keiichi ^[1]

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1. Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan)

Gamma spectrometry without any self-absorption correction was developed to measure low energy gamma rays emitted by uranium and actinium series radionuclides in rock samples and groundwater residues collected at the Koongarra ore deposit, Australia. Thin samples were prepared to minimize the self-absorption by uranium in the samples. The present method gave standard deviations of 0.9 to 18% for the measurements of concentrations of uranium and actinium series radionuclides. The concentrations of {sup 238}U, {sup 230}Th and {sup 235}U measured by gamma spectrometry were compared with those by alpha spectrometry that requires a complicated chemical separation procedure. The results obtained by both methods were in fairly good agreement, and it was found that the gamma spectrometry is applicable to rock and groundwater samples having uranium content sup to 8.1% (10{sup 3} B1/g) and 3 Bq/l of {sup 238}U, respectively. The detection limits were calculated to be of the order of 10{sup {minus}2} Bq/g for rock samples and 10{sup {minus}1} Bq/l for groundwater samples. The concentrations of uranium and actinium series radionuclides can be determined precisely in these samples using gamma spectrometry without any self-absorption correction.

• OSTI ID: 382905
• Report Number(s): CONF-941075--; ISBN 1-55899-253-7
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AUSTRALIA
BISMUTH 214
DISTRIBUTION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GAMMA SPECTROSCOPY
GEOCHEMICAL SURVEYS
GROUND WATER
LEAD 210
LEAD 214
PROTACTINIUM 231
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
RADIUM 226
RADON 222
RESERVOIR ROCK
THORIUM 230
THORIUM 234
URANIUM 234
URANIUM 235
URANIUM 238
URANIUM DEPOSITS