RADIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF URANIUM CONTENT IN ORES

Technical Report · Wed Jul 31 04:00:00 EDT 1957

OSTI ID:4312534

Damon, P E; Feely, H W

A radiometric method is presented for the rapid determination of uranium content of ore. The method is valid regardless of the equilibrium state of the sample material. Uranium concentration is determined by direct measurement of the 0.093 Mev gamma ray of of this relatively low energy gamma ray, normally difficult because of the masking effects of the many other photons present, is accomplished by combining three devices: Copper absorbers to reduce, by absorption, the detection of gammas of energy less than 0.093 Mev. Thin (2 to 3 mm) Nal(Tl) scintillation crystal, to reduce the counting efficiency of higher energy gamma rays. Critical absorption by lead of the 0.093 Mev gamma ray (critical absorption edge = 0.090 Mev). Utilizing the copper absorbers and thin crystal, all gamma rays except those in the range of about 0.070 Mev to 0.120 Mev, are poorly detected. The very strong absorption by lead of the 0.093 Mev gamma of Th/sup 234/ may then be observed and related to the concentration of that isotope. Results indicate that a linear relationship exists between uranium content and the experimentally determined Th/sup 234/ activity, as expected. The accuracy of the methcd for most samples wlth greater than 0.2% uranium content appears to be at least 20%. (auth)

• Research Organization: Isotopes, Inc., Westwood, N.J.
• NSA Number: NSA-13-002795
• OSTI ID: 4312534
• Report Number(s): RME-3153
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ABSORPTION
CHEMISTRY
CONFIGURATION
COPPER
CRYSTALS
DECAY
DIAGRAMS
ENERGY LEVELS
EQUILIBRIUM
ERRORS
GAMMA DETECTION
GAMMA RADIATION
LEAD
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
PERFORMANCE
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
QUANTITY RATIO
RADIOACTIVITY
RADIOCHEMISTRY
RADIOISOTOPES
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
SHIELDING
SODIUM IODIDES
TABLES
THALLIUM
THICKNESS
THORIUM 234
URANIUM
URANIUM 238
URANIUM ORES