RT Journal Article
T1 A Practical Procedure to Determine Natural Radionuclides in Solid Materials from Mining
A1 Barba Lobo, Alejandro
A1 Gázquez González, Manuel Jesús
A1 Bolívar Raya, Juan Pedro
AB There are many regulations related to the radiological control of NORMs (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials) in activities such as mining, industry, etc. Consequently, it is necessary toapply fast and accurate methods to measure the activity concentrations of long-lived natural radionuclides (e.g., 238U, 234,232,230,228Th, 228,226Ra, 210Pb, 210Po, and 40K) in samples characterized by a widevariety of compositions and densities, such as mining samples (wastes, minerals, and scales). Thus, itis relevant to calculate the radioactive index (RI), which summarizes for all radionuclides the ratiobetween the activity concentration and its respective threshold activity concentration as establishedby regulations, in order to classify a material as a NORM. To proceed with the determinations ofthese radionuclides, two spectrometric techniques based on both alpha-particle and gamma-raydetections should be employed. In the case of gamma-ray spectrometry, it is necessary to correctthe full-energy peak efficiency (FEPE) obtained for the calibration sample, εc, due to self-attenuationand true coincidence summing (TCS) effects. The correction is especially significant at low gammaemission energies, that is, Eγ < 150 keV, such as 46 keV (210Pb) and 63 keV (234Th). On the other hand,in samples which contain radionuclides that are in secular disequilibrium with others belonging tothe same series (238U or 232Th series), like wastes or intermediate products, it is necessary to measuresome pure-alpha emitters (232Th, 230Th, 210Po) by employing alpha-particle spectrometry. A practicaland general validated procedure based on both alpha and gamma spectrometric techniques andusing semiconductor detectors is presented in this study
PB MDPI
SN 2075-163X (electrónico)
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/20902
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/20902
LA eng
NO Barba-Lobo, A., Gázquez, M. J., & Bolívar, J. P. (2022). A Practical Procedure to Determine Natural Radionuclides in Solid Materials from Mining. In Minerals (Vol. 12, Issue 5, p. 611). MDPI AG. https://doi.org/10.3390/min12050611
NO This research was partially funded by the projects of the Regional Government of Andalusia called “Basic processes regulating the fractionations and enrichments of natural radionuclidesunder acid mine drainage conditions” (Ref.: UHU-1255876), and “Treatment of acid leachates fromphosphogypsum piles located at Huelva, and transport modelling of the released radionuclides”(Ref.: P20_00096), the projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities’Research Agency “Development and optimization of a process for removing natural radionuclides inphosphogypsum leachates” (Ref.: PID2020-116461RB-C21) and “Valorization of wastes generatedfrom the process for removing natural radionuclides in phosphogypsum leachates” (Ref.: PID2020-116461RA-C22), and the Project for Novel Principal Investigators “Quantitative study of the variablesinvolved in the radon exhalation rate for granular solids; application to rafts of granular solidphosphogypsum” (Ref.: UHUPJ-00005-632)
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 30 may 2026