Sample records for uranothorianite
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Reconnaissance for radioactive deposits in Alaska, 1953
Matzko, John J.; Bates, Robert G.
1955-01-01
During the summer of 1953 the areas investigated for radioactive deposits in Alaska were on Nikolai Creek near Tyonek and on Likes Creek near Seward in south-central Alaska where carnotite-type minerals had been reported; in the headwaters of the Peace River in the eastern part of the Seward Peninsula and at Gold Bench on the South Fork of the Koyukuk River in east-central Alaska, where uranothorianite occurs in places associated with base metal sulfides and hematite; in the vicinity of Port Malmesbury in southeastern Alaska to check a reported occurrence of pitchblende; and, in the Miller House-Circle Hot Springs area of east-central Alaska where geochemical studies were made. No significant lode deposits of radioactive materials were found. However, the placer uranothorianite in the headwaters of the Peace River yet remains as an important lead to bedrock radioactive source materials in Alaska. Tundra cover prevents satisfactory radiometric reconnaissance of the area, and methods of geochemical prospecting such as soil and vegetation sampling may ultimately prove more fruitful in the search for the uranothorianite-sulfide lode source than geophysical methods.
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Reconnaissance for uranium and thorium in Alaska, 1954
Matzko, John J.; Bates, Robert G.
1957-01-01
During 1954 reconnaissance investigations to locate minable deposits of uranium and thorium in Alaska were unsuccessful. Areas examined, from which prospectors had submitted radioactive samples, include Cap Yakataga, Kodiak Island, and Shirley Lake. Unconcentrated gravels from the beach at Cape Yakataga average about 0.001 percent equivalent uranium. Uranothorianite has been identified by X-ray diffraction data and is the principal source of radioactivity in the Cape Yakataga beach sands studied; but the zircon, monazite, and uranothorite are also radioactive. The black, opaque uranothorianite generally occurs as minute euhedral cubs, the majority of which will pass through a 100-mesh screen. The bedrock source of the radioactive samples from Kodiak Island was not found; the maximum radioactivity of samples from the Shirley Lake area was equivalent to about 0.02 percent uranium. Radiometric traverses of the 460-foot level of the Garnet shaft of the Nixon Fork mine in the Nixon Fork mining district indicated a maximum of 0.15 mr/hr. In the Hot Springs district, drill hole concentrates of gravels examined contained a maximum of 0.03 percent equivalent uranium. A radioactivity anomaly noted during the Survey's airborne reconnaissance of portions of the Territory during 1954 is located in the Fairhaven district. A ground check disclosed that the radioactivity was due to accessory minerals in the granitic rock.
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Evolution of spent nuclear fuel in dry storage conditions for millennia and beyond
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Wiss, Thierry; Hiernaut, Jean-Pol; Roudil, Danièle; Colle, Jean-Yves; Maugeri, Emilio; Talip, Zeynep; Janssen, Arne; Rondinella, Vincenzo; Konings, Rudy J. M.; Matzke, Hans-Joachim; Weber, William J.
2014-08-01
Significant amounts of spent uranium dioxide nuclear fuel are accumulating worldwide from decades of commercial nuclear power production. While such spent fuel is intended to be reprocessed or disposed in geologic repositories, out-of-reactor radiation damage from alpha decay can be detrimental to its structural stability. Here we report on an experimental study in which radiation damage in plutonium dioxide, uranium dioxide samples doped with short-lived alpha-emitters and urano-thorianite minerals have been characterized by XRD, transmission electron microscopy, thermal desorption spectrometry and hardness measurements to assess the long-term stability of spent nuclear fuel to substantial alpha-decay doses. Defect accumulation is predicted to result in swelling of the atomic structure and decrease in fracture toughness; whereas, the accumulation of helium will produce bubbles that result in much larger gaseous-induced swelling that substantially increases the stresses in the constrained spent fuel. Based on these results, the radiation-ageing of highly-aged spent nuclear fuel over more than 10,000 years is predicted.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Pradel, J.f Billard, F.
1959-10-31
Thoron and its daughters are continually released from thorium compounds, and their radiations present a danger to persons handling the compounds. A study was made of various methods for the determination of thoron in equilibrium with ThA in the air. The danger presented by thoron in the immediate vicinity of Th sources in a plant extracting thorium from uranothorianite ores was evaluated. A comparison was made of a continuous and a discontinuous method for the determination of thoron alone in air. The determination of thoron and radon with a scintillation chamber is described in detail. The evaluation of the dangersmore » associated with the handling of thorium ore and compounds showed that the maximum permissible concentration for thoron in equilibrium with ThA is 10/sup -6/ mu c/cm/sup 3/ and is 10/sup -10/ mu c/cm/ sup 3/ for ThB in equilibrium with its daughters. (J.S.R.)« less
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hurai, Vratislav; Huraiová, Monika; Gajdošová, Michaela; Konečný, Patrik; Slobodník, Marek; Siegfried, Pete R.
2018-06-01
Zirconolite is documented from the Evate apatite-magnetite-carbonate deposit in the circular Monapo Klippe (eastern Mozambique)—a relic of Neoproterozoic nappe thrusted over the Mesoproterozoic basement of the Nampula block. Zirconolite enriched in rare earth elements—REE = Y + Lu+ΣLa-Yb (up to 24.11 wt% REE2O3, 0.596 apfu REE) creates thin rims around spinel and magnetite grains, whereas zirconolite enriched in U and Th (up to 18.88 wt% ThO2 + UO2, 0.293 apfu Th + U) replace the Late Ediacaran ( 590 Ma) zircon and baddeleyite along contacts with pyrrhotite and magnetite. Both types of zirconolite contain locally increased Nb and Ta concentrations (up to 7.58 wt% Nb2O5 + Ta2O5, 0.202 apfu Nb + Ta). Typical substitutions in zirconolite from Evate involve REE + U,Th → Ca, and M 2++ M 5+→Ti + M 3+ ( M 2+ = Fe2++Mg, M 3+ = Fe3+, M 5+ = Nb5++Ta5+). In addition, REE-zirconolite is typical of the REE + M 2+ → Ca + M 3+ substitution ( M 2+ = Mg, M 3+ = Fe3++Al3+). Hence, Fe3+ predominates over Fe2+ in all types of zirconolite, thus enabling the high REE content in Nb-poor zirconolites to be stored in locally dominant REEZrTiFe3+O7 component known so far only as a synthetic analogue of natural zirconolite. Other types of zirconolite from Evate are dominated by the common CaZrTi2O7 end member, but the aforementioned "synthetic" REEZrTiFe3+O7 accompanied by another `synthetic' (U,Th)ZrFe3 + 2O7 component are also abundant. The U,Pb,Th concentrations in U,Th-zirconolites plot discordantly to theoretical isochrons, thus indicating 440 ppm of non-radiogenic excess lead in earlier Nb-rich zirconolite contrasting with secondary Pb loss from later Nb-poor zirconolite. The non-radiogenic Pb-corrected age of the early zirconolite corresponded to 485 ± 9 Ma, within uncertainty limit identical with the 493 ± 10 Ma age of the associated uranothorianite. The variegated chemical composition of zirconolites reflects the complex history of the Evate deposit. Compositional and substitution trends of the REE-zirconolite overlaps that genetically linked with carbonatites, syenites and mafic igneous rocks, whereas the U,Th-zirconolite is reminiscent of hydrothermal-metasomatic deposits. The predominance of trivalent iron in zirconolite most likely reflects strongly oxidizing parental fluids that percolated during episodic Late Ordovician to Late Cambrian rifting of Gondwana.
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Wedow, Helmuth
1956-01-01
In the period 1945-1954 over 100 investigations for radioactive source materials were made in Alaska. The nature of these investigations ranged from field examinations of individual prospects or the laboratory analysis of significantly radioactive samples submitted by prospectors to reconnaissance studies of large districts. In this period no deposits of uranium or thorium that would warrant commercial exploitation were discovered. The investigations, however, disclosed that radioactive materials occur in widely scattered areas of Alaska and in widely diverse environments. Many igneous rocks throughout Alaska are weakly radioactive because of uranium- and thorium-bearing accessory minerals, such as allanite, apatite, monazite, sphene, xenotime, and zircon; more rarely the radioactivity of these rocks is due to thorianite or thorite and their uranoan varieties. The felsic rocks, for example, granites and syenites, are generally more radioactive than the mafic igneous rocks. Pegmatites, locally, have also proved to be radioactive, but they have little commercial significance. No primary uranium oxide minerals have been found yet in Alaskan vein deposits, except, perhaps, for a mineral tentatively identified as pitchblende in the Hyder district of southeastern Alaska. However, certain occurrences of secondary uranium minerals, chiefly those of the uranite group, on the Seward Peninsula, in the Russian Mountains, and in the vicinity of Kodiak suggest that pitchblende-type ores may occur at depth beneath zones of alteration. Thorite-bearing veins have been discovered on Prince of Wales Island in southeastern Alaska. Although no deposits or carnotite-type minerals have been found in Alaska, several samples containing such minerals have been submitted by Alaskan prospectors. Efforts to locate the deposits from which these minerals were obtained have been unsuccessful, but review of available geologic data suggests that several Alaskan areas are potentially favorable for carnotite-type deposits. The chief of these areas is the Alaska Peninsula-Cook Inlet area which encompasses most of the reported occurrences of the prospectors' carnotite-type samples. Alaska is also potentially favorable for the occurrence of large bodies of the very low-grade uraniferous sedimentary rocks, such as phosphorites and black shales. This type of deposit, however, has not received much study because of the emphasis on the search for bonanza-type high-grade ores. Uraniferous phosphorites similar to those of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming occur in northern Alaska on the north flank of the Brooks Range; black shales comparable to the uraniferous shales of the Chattanooga formation of southeastern United States have been noted along the Yukon River near the international boundary. Placer deposits in Alaska have some small potential for the production of the radioactive elements as byproducts of gold- and tin-placer mining. the placer area believed to have the relatively greatest potential in Alaska lies in the Kahiltna River valley where concentrates are known to contain such commercial minerals as ilmenite, cassiterite, platinum, and gold in addition to uranothorianite and monazite. The possibilities of the natural fluids--water and petroleum--have not yet been tested in Alaska to any great extent. Studies of fluids are in progress to determine whether they may be used to discover and define areas potentially favorable for the occurrence of uraniferous lodes.