Application of neodymium isotope ratio measurements for the origin assessment of uranium ore concentrates

TALANTA

卷:129

Article

Krajko, Judit^1,2  Varga, Zsolt¹  Yalcintas, Ezgi³  Wallenius, Maria¹  Mayer, Klaus¹ 

[1] European Commiss, Joint Res Ctr, Inst Transuranium Elements, D-76125 Karlsruhe, Germany

[2] Delft Univ Technol, Fac Sci Appl, NL-2629 JB Delft, Netherlands

[3] Karlsruhe Inst Technol, Inst Nucl Waste Disposal, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany

关键词: Nuclear forensics;    Neodymium isotope ratio;    Origin assessment;    Uranium ore concentrate;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.talanta.2014.06.022

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

A novel procedure has been developed for the measurement of Nd-143/Nd-144 isotope ratio in various uranium-bearing materials, such as uranium ores and ore concentrates (UOC) in order to evaluate the usefulness and applicability of variations of Nd-143/Nd-144 isotope ratio for provenance assessment in nuclear forensics. Neodymium was separated and pre-concentrated by extraction chromatography and then the isotope ratios were measured by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). The method was validated by the measurement of standard reference materials (La Jolla, JB-2 and BCR-2) and the applicability of the procedure was demonstrated by the analysis of uranium samples of worldwide origin. The investigated samples show distinct Nd-143/Nd-144 ratio depending on the ore type, deposit age and Sm/Nd ratio. Together with other characteristics of the material in question, the Nd isotope ratio is a promising signature for nuclear forensics and suggests being indicative of the source material, the uranium ore. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

【 授权许可】

Free