Anthropogenic 236U at Rocky Flats, Ashtabula river harbor, and Mersey estuary: three case studies by sector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Contribution des isotopes de l’uranium à l’expertise des sources de ce radioélément dans l’environnement

“…Dans les sols provenant de l'environnement de l'usine nucléaire de Rocky Flats (Colorado, USA) et les sédiments de l'estuaire de la Mersey influencé par les rejets des installations de Sellafield (Grande-Bretagne), le rapport de masse 236 U/ 238 U atteint 2,8 × 10 -6 et 4,4 × 10 -6 , respectivement (Ketterer et al, 2003). Une valeur un peu plus élevée (rapport de masse 236 U/ 238 U de l'ordre de 10 -5 ) est mesurée dans les sols et les sédiments influencés par les rejets de l'usine COMURHEX de Malvési, lors de l'étude menée par l'IRSN (Pourcelot et al, 2011b).…”

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and laser ablation ICP-MS for isotope analysis of long-lived radionuclides

“…Precise and accurate isotope ratio measurements of longlived radionuclides at the trace and ultratrace level are necessary for quite different applications, e.g., for analysis of nuclear samples [1][2][3], radioactive waste [4][5][6], environmental materials such as biological samples, soils, dust, water [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and especially for geological [18,19] and medical samples [20][21][22][23]. For example, environmental contamination by artificial radionuclides and the evaluation of their sources requires precise isotope analysis.…”

Unusually Radiogenic Lead (Pb) in Ashtabula River Sediments: An Isotopic Tracing Case Study Using Quadrupole ICP-MS

“…Elevated U concentrations have been found in all coring locations identified by solid symbols, while no anomalies were found in sediments north and south of this zone. Previous work [15,16] established that the U contamination post-dates the 1963/1964…”

“…It is attractive to use Pb isotopes to study sources, transport and fate of NORM wastes in the environment, as uranogenic and thorogenic Pb signatures would be unusual compared to the restricted range of common Pb ratios. Highly radiogenic Pb is expected to be associated with some NORM wastes of Our previous study of sediments in the Ashtabula River indicated that U contamination arising from two distinct anthropogenic sources was present in a 1.5 km portion of the Ashtabula River; U concentrations in dry sediment as high as 188 ppm were identified [15,16]. U metal of non-natural 238 U/ 235 U from a U metal extrusion plant, and NORM wastes derived from a Ti ore refining facility were implicated as the probable sources of this anomalous U contamination.…”