Sample records for beaverlodge
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MONTHLY REPORT OF DEVELOPMENT, SEPTEMBER 1963
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
None
1964-10-31
Methods for separating germanium from Taiga carbonaceous shale by flotation and salt roasting are described. The recovery of vanadium from Beaverlodge mill tailings by carbonate leaching is briefly discussed. Methods of chemical analysis are also discussed. (N.W.R.)
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Eidemüller, Markus; Jacob, Peter; Lane, Rachel S. D.; Frost, Stanley E.; Zablotska, Lydia B.
2012-01-01
Lung cancer mortality after exposure to radon decay products (RDP) among 16,236 male Eldorado uranium workers was analyzed. Male workers from the Beaverlodge and Port Radium uranium mines and the Port Hope radium and uranium refinery and processing facility who were first employed between 1932 and 1980 were followed up from 1950 to 1999. A total of 618 lung cancer deaths were observed. The analysis compared the results of the biologically-based two-stage clonal expansion (TSCE) model to the empirical excess risk model. The spontaneous clonal expansion rate of pre-malignant cells was reduced at older ages under the assumptions of the TSCE model. Exposure to RDP was associated with increase in the clonal expansion rate during exposure but not afterwards. The increase was stronger for lower exposure rates. A radiation-induced bystander effect could be a possible explanation for such an exposure response. Results on excess risks were compared to a linear dose-response parametric excess risk model with attained age, time since exposure and dose rate as effect modifiers. In all models the excess relative risk decreased with increasing attained age, increasing time since exposure and increasing exposure rate. Large model uncertainties were found in particular for small exposure rates. PMID:22936975
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Modeling of U-series Radionuclide Transport Through Soil at Pena Blanca, Chihuahua, Mexico
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Pekar, K. E.; Goodell, P. C.; Walton, J. C.; Anthony, E. Y.; Ren, M.
2007-05-01
The Nopal I uranium deposit is located at Pena Blanca in Chihuahua, Mexico. Mining of high-grade uranium ore occurred in the early 1980s, with the ore stockpiled nearby. The stockpile was mostly cleared in the 1990s; however, some of the high-grade boulders have remained there, creating localized sources of radioactivity for a period of 25-30 years. This provides a unique opportunity to study radionuclide transport, because the study area did not have any uranium contamination predating the stockpile in the 1980s. One high-grade boulder was selected for study based upon its shape, location, and high activity. The presumed drip-line off of the boulder was marked, samples from the boulder surface were taken, and then the boulder was moved several feet away. Soil samples were taken from directly beneath the boulder, around the drip-line, and down slope. Eight of these samples were collected in a vertical profile directly beneath the boulder. Visible flakes of boulder material were removed from the surficial soil samples, because they would have higher concentrations of U-series radionuclides and cause the activities in the soil samples to be excessively high. The vertical sampling profile used 2-inch thicknesses for each sample. The soil samples were packaged into thin plastic containers to minimize the attenuation and to standardize sample geometry, and then they were analyzed by gamma-ray spectroscopy with a Ge(Li) detector for Th-234, Pa-234, U-234, Th-230, Ra-226, Pb-214, Bi-214, and Pb-210. The raw counts were corrected for self-attenuation and normalized using BL-5, a uranium standard from Beaverlodge, Saskatchewan. BL-5 allowed the counts obtained on the Ge(Li) to be referenced to a known concentration or activity, which was then applied to the soil unknowns for a reliable calculation of their concentrations. Gamma ray spectra of five soil samples from the vertical profile exhibit decreasing activities with increasing depth for the selected radionuclides. Independent multi-element analyses of three samples by ICP-MS show decreasing uranium concentration with depth as well. The transport of the radionuclides is evaluated using STANMOD, a Windows-based software package for evaluating solute transport in porous media using analytical solutions of the advection-dispersion solute transport equation. The package allows various one-dimensional, advection-dispersion parameters to be determined by fitting mathematical solutions of theoretical transport models to observed data. The results are promising for future work on the release rate of radionuclides from the boulder, the dominant mode of transport (e.g., particulate or dissolution), and the movement of radionuclides through porous media. The measured subsurface transport rates provide modelers with a model validation dataset.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Cuney, M.
2009-12-01
U deposits are known at nearly all stages of the geological cycle, but are not known prior to 2.95 Ga. Also, U deposit types vary greatly from Mesoarchean to Present. Most of these changes through time can be attributed to major modifications in the geodynamic evolution of the Earth, in magmatic fractionation processes, in the composition of the Atmosphere and in the nature of life. The first U-rich granites able to crystallize uraninite, appeared at about 3.1 Ga. They correspond to the most fractionated terms of high-K calcalkaline suites, resulting from crystal fractionation of magmas possibly derived from melting of mantle wedges enriched in K, U, Th. Highly fractionated peraluminous leucogranites, able to crystallize uraninite, appeared at about 2.6 Ga. Erosion of these two granite types led to the detrital accumulation of uraninite that formed the first U deposits on Earth: the Quartz Pebble Conglomerates from 2.95 to 2.4 Ga. From 2.3 Ga onwards, uprise of oxygen level in the atmosphere led to the oxidation of U(IV) to U(VI), U transport in solution, and exuberant development of marine algae in epicontinental platform sediments. From 2.3 to 1.8 Ga large amounts of U, previously accumulated as U(IV) minerals, were dissolved and trapped preferentially in passive margin settings, in organic-rich sediments, and which led to the formation of the world’s largest Paleoproterozoic U provinces, e.g. : the Wollaston belt, Canada and the Cahill Formation, Australia. During and after the worldwide 2.1-1.75 Ga orogenic events, responsible for the formation of the Nuna supercontinent, U trapped in these formations was the source for several types of mineralization: (i) metamorphosed U-mineralized graphitic schists, calcsilicates and meta-arkoses, (ii) diagenetic-hydrothermal remobilization with the formation of the first deposits related to redox processes at 2.0 Ga (Oklo, Gabon), (iii) partial melting of U-rich metasediments forming the uraninite disseminations in pegmatoids (Charlebois, Canada), (iv) hydrothermal remobilization in veins (Beaverlodge, Canada) at about 1.75 Ga, and (v) U mineralization related to Na-metasomatism (Lagoa Real, Brazil ; Central Ukraine). After 1.75 Ga, a long period of tectonic quiescence occurred on the Earth, and large intracontinental basins, comprising at their base thick oxidized siliciclastic sequences were formed in many parts of the Nuna. In the Athabasca (Canada) and Kombolgie (Australia) basins, the siliciclastic sediments represented huge aquitards for sodic brines derived from overlying evaporites. The brines became calcic when infiltrated into the basement and leached U dominantly from Paleoproterozoic epicontinental sediments, their anatectic derivatives and high-K-U granites, to form the unconformity related U deposits. By the end of Silurian, with the apparition of land plants, deposits hosted by continental to marginal marine sandstone (roll front, tabular, tectono-lithologic, paleovalleys) became widespread. The largest volcanic related U-deposits are mostly known during the Mesozoic and calcrete are only known during late Caenozoic to Quaternary, but this may by due to the non preservation from erosion of such deposits formed at very shallow levels.