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In a search for a method sensitive to small concentrations of uranium in water and brine, a modification of a fluorometric method was adopted. The uranium is precipitated from the water or brine by the method of Smith and Grimaldi, and the ashed precipitate is analyzed by fluorescent x-ray spectrography. When an internal standard is required, yttrium nitrate is added. The sample holder of the Norelco x-ray spectrograph wTas modified to place the small precipitate samples in the most intense part of the beam from the molybdenum target x-ray tube. As little as 0.01 mg. of uranium, equivalent to 0.01 p.p.m. in a 1-liter water sample, can readily be measured, when the matrix contains no appreciable concentration of highly absorbing elements. The time for analysis is about 10 minutes per sample, when no internal standard is used, and about 15 minutes when the internal standard is used, exclusive of the precipitation process. THE recent public interest in the potentialities of oil-field waters as a source of uranium led to an investigation of methods for the analysis of waters and brines containing very small concentrations of this element. None of the methods described in the literature was entirely satisfactory, particularly for use in a study of a possible economical process for recovering uranium from water and brine solutions.

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A spectrographic procedure for the analysis of most of the cations in brine solutions utilizes an alternating current spark form of excitation on 0.5-inch briquets combined with a series of synthetic standards. A relative standard method is used to obtain the concentrations of the major constituents.