Uranium determination in mineral rocks by SSNTD

✍ Scribed by I. Gamboa; G. Espinosa; A. Moreno; J.I. Golzarri; F. Castillo

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 133 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0735-245X
• DOI: 10.1016/0735-245x(84)90139-x

✦ Synopsis

Another of the applications of the SSNTD's may be the determination of low concentrations uranium in mineral rocks, by detection of the emitted alpha particles.

CR-39 is used as the detector, and consecutive chemical plus electrochemical etching process is sufficient to obtain concentration measurements in the range of parts per million (p.p.m.), without the requirement of extra activation or nuclear reactor.

The results show high reproducibility and accuracy compared with the gamma method.

At this point, preliminary work has been done and the results have been satisfactory.

Therefore this method provides results suitable for uranium prospecting and/or measurements of the uranium content of rocks.

We thank the Geophysics Institute, UNAM, for providing the samples. K~YWORDS CR-39 plastic; Uranium determination; alpha particle; chemical etching; electrochemical etching.