Radiochemical Procedure for Measurement Specific Activities of Uranium Isotopes in Asphaltite Bioleaching Liquor by Alpha-Particle Spectrometry

Year 2022, , 79 - 86, 30.06.2022

Meryem Seferinoglu

https://doi.org/10.54287/gujsa.1117169

Abstract

An analytical procedure for the alpha-source preparation is investigated in the study to determine uranium radioisotopes specific activities in the bioleaching liquor leach from asphaltite samples taken from the Silopi region in Türkiye. The purpose is to develop a new radiochemical method that can provide the alpha-particle spectrometry requirements. The proposed analytical procedure includes sample preparation, radiochemical purification of uranium from bioleaching liquor, alpha-source preparation on a substrate and alpha-particle spectrometric analysis of isolated uranium. The method is valid for availability using the z-test, relative bias, and relative uncertainty outlier tests. The results show that the proposed analytical procedure is successfully implemented for measuring the activity concentration of uranium with high accuracy and precision in the bioleaching liquor.

Keywords

Radiochemical Separation, Bioleaching Liquor, Uranium Measurement, Alpha-Particle Spectrometry

Thanks

The author is thankful to Professor Jan Paul and Professor Åke Sandström from the Luleå University of Technology, Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Division of Process Metallurgy, Sweden for supplying bioleaching liquor. The author would like to thank Dr. Hüseyin Şahiner for reviewing the paper and providing valuable comments.

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