Radiometrics

Applications: Searching for uranium deposits Searching for metals Creating geochemical maps Age dating of rocks Environmental surveys

Isotopes of geophysical importance

40K 238U 235U 232Th

Type of particle

Travel distance in air

Alpha particle Helium nucleus

A few centimetres
A few tens of centimetres Hundreds of meters

Beta particle

Electron

Gamma ray

Electromagnetic radiation with a range of energy levels

Equipment
Geiger counter Scintillometer Gamma ray spectrometer Radon detectors

Ground survey gamma rays

Some corrections to airborne data

Cosmic Rays Attenuation with altitude Compton scattering

Compton Scattering

Corrections for Compton scattering

High energy gamma ray interacts with electron, and loses some energy. Energy levels, highest to lowest: Th, U, K Subtract some K counts and place in U. Subtract some K counts and place in Th Subtract some U counts and place in Th.

Searching for U deposits

U highs and U/Th highs Try Exercise 1

Uranium Industry in Canada

Open Pit Uranium Mine

McArthur River Underground Mine

Polymetallic mineralization Lou Lake, NWT

Ternary chart

Limitations
Radiation only measured from top few centimeters of rock. Overburden, water, snow a problem. Can sometimes use radiation from weathered rock if weathering in-situ, and no transport of K,U,Th. Errors due to topography.

Effect of topography

Law of Radioactive Decay

N=

t N0e

N0 is the number of atoms at time = 0 N is the number of atoms at time t is the decay constant for the isotope

Example 1: What proportion of radioactive material will remain after 2000 years?
N = N0e-t Solve for the proportion N/N0: N/N0 = e-t If is in seconds, then t must also be in seconds. To convert from years to seconds: # seconds = #years x 365.25 days/year x 24 hours/day x 3600 seconds per hour

Exercise
Try Exercise 2a (answer: 98.5%) Try Exercise 2b Answers:
25,000 years 50,000 years 100,000 years 80.5% 64.8% 42.0%

Example 2: How long will it take for a certain amount of radioactive material to decay to 5% of the original amount?
N = N0e-t Solve for t: e-t = N/N0 -t = ln(N/N0) t = ln(N/N0)/ - N = 0.05 N0 N/N0 = 0.05

t = ln(0.05)/ -

Exercise
How long will it take for Thorium 230 to drop to 1% of the original amount? Answer: 530,651 years

Radon Induced Lung Cancer

Radon occurs naturally in rocks and soils

10-15% of all lung cancer cases are due to radon

EPA estimates of US cancer deaths due to radon each year

Measuring Health Effects Using a Life-Cycle Approach

Uranium Mine & Wastes Refinery

Nuclear Reactor

Nuclear Waste Repository

Radon Accumulation Before Mining

Radon From Mine Tailings

Uranium mines abandoned in the 1950s

Have not been cleaned up Have been emitting radon for 50 years

Source: Saskatchewan Research Council

Lorado Mine

Source: Saskatchewan Research Council

Calculate the radiation dose

Measuring Health Effects Using a Life-Cycle Approach

Uranium Mine Wastes
250,000+ year lifetime

Uranium Mine
15-25 year lifetime