Uranium content and leachable fraction of fluorspars.

Much attention in the radiological health community has recently focused on the management and regulation of naturally occurring radioactive materials. Although uranium-bearing minerals are present in a variety of fluorspar deposits, their potential consideration as naturally occurring radioactive materials has received only limited recognition. The uranium content of 28 samples of acid- and cryolite-grade (>97% CaF2) fluorspar from the National Defense Stockpile was found to range from 120 to 24,200 microg kg(-1), with a mean of 2,145 microg kg(-1). As a point of comparison, the average concentration of uranium in the upper crust of the earth is about 2,500 microg kg(-1). Leachability of this uranium was assessed by means of the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP). The TCLP extractable fraction ranged from 1 to 98%, with a mean of 24% of the total uranium. The typically low concentrations of uranium seen in these materials probably reflects the removal of uranium-bearing mineral phases during the beneficiation of the crude fluorspar ore to achieve industrial specifications. Future NORM studies should examine crude fluorspar ores and flotation tailings.

Tritium and plutonium in waters from the Bering and Chukchi seas.

During the summer of 1993, seawater in the Bering and Chukchi Seas was sampled on a joint Russian-American cruise [BERPAC] of the RV Okean to determine concentrations of tritium, 239Pu and 240Pu. Concentrations of tritium were determined by electrolytic enrichment and liquid scintillation counting. Tritium levels ranged up to 420 mBq L(-1) and showed no evidence of inputs other than those attributed to atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. Plutonium was recovered from water samples by ferric hydroxide precipitation, and concentrations were determined by thermal ionization mass spectrometry. 239+240Pu concentrations ranged from < 1 to 5.5 microBq L(-1). These concentrations are lower than those measured in water samples from other parts of the ocean during the mid-1960's to the late 1980's. The 240Pu:239Pu ratios, although associated with large uncertainties, suggest that most of the plutonium is derived from world-wide fallout. As points of comparison, the highest concentrations of tritium and plutonium observed here were about five orders of magnitude lower than the maximum permissible concentrations allowed in water released to the off-site environs from licensed nuclear facilities in the United States. This study and others sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Office of Naval Research's Arctic Nuclear Waste Assessment Program are providing data for the assessment of potential radiological impacts in the Arctic regions associated with nuclear waste disposal by the former Soviet Union.

Use of therapeutic radionuclides in medicine.

The purpose of this paper is to follow the course of historical development in the use of radiopharmaceuticals as a therapeutic tool in nuclear medicine. This chapter is designed to point out the different phases of the development of therapeutic nuclear medicine, pointing out the events which most shaped its history along the way. Those events included the discovery of radioactivity, the development of the cyclotron and nuclear reactor as a method of delivering high specific activity radioactive sources, and a few significant therapeutic radionuclides such as 131I and 32P. The most significant therapeutic radionuclide was radium, which is treated very extensively in this paper from an historical viewpoint. It is only recently that attention of the nuclear medicine community turned to new therapeutic agents, such as bone pain palliation agents, monoclonal antibodies, and others. It may be that the next growth phase of nuclear medicine will revolve around therapy with these radionuclides.

Leaching of uranium from glass and ceramic foodware and decorative items.

Beginning as early as the first century A. D. and continuing until at least the 1970s, uranium was used as a coloring agent in glass and in ceramic glazes. The leaching of uranium from such items is of interest as some were designed for food storage or serving. Thirty-three glass items and two ceramic items were leached sequentially with deionized water, dilute acetic acid, and 1 M nitric acid to assess realistic and worst-case scenario leaching by foods and beverages. The maximum quantity of uranium leached from the uranium-bearing glasses was about 30 micrograms L-1, while that from the ceramic-glazed items was about 300,000 micrograms L-1.

Radium-226 contents and Rn emanation coefficients of particle-size fractions of alkaline, acid and mixed U mill tailings.

Alkaline circuit and mixed, acid and alkaline circuit U mill tailings sampled at an inactive mill site near Monticello, UT, and tailings from an active, acid-leach U mill were separated into particle-size fractions ranging from +10 mesh to -325 mesh by dry and wet separation techniques. The 226Ra contents and 222Rn emanation coefficients of these fractions were determined. Dry tailings show a high degree of aggregation that tends to mask the relation of properties, such as Ra content and Rn emanating power, to dispersed-particle size. Coarse-tailings fractions (+325 mesh) had emanation coefficients which were from 25 to 45% lower than those of their fine-fraction counterparts. Emanation coefficients measured for tailings derived from a salt roast/carbonate-leach process suggest that such are roasting does not lead to reductions in Rn emanation in the tailings derived therefrom.

Ecological aspects of microorganisms inhabiting uranium mill tailings.

Numbers and types of microorganisms in uranium mill tailings were determined using culturing techniques.Arthrobacter were found to be the predominant microorganism inhabiting the sandy tailings, whereasBacillus and fungi predominated in the slime tailings. Sulfate-reducing bacteria, capable of leaching radium, were isolated in low numbers from tailings samples but were isolated in significantly high numbers from topsoil in contact with the tailings. The results are placed in the context of the magnitude of uranium mill tailings in the United States, the hazards posed by the tailings, and how such hazards could be enhanced or diminished by microbial activities. Patterns in the composition of the microbial population are evaluated with respect to the ecological variables that influence microbial growth.

Leaching of 226Ra from U mill tailings by sulfate-reducing bacteria.

Relatively insoluble sulfate precipitates appear to be a major host for Ra in sulfuric acid-treated, U mill tailings. The dissolution of such precipitates by natural processes, such as metabolism by sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), creates the potential for release of Ra to contacting waters. Significant leaching of Ra by SRB was achieved in the laboratory during the anaerobic incubation (1 to 119 days) of U mill tailings with pure cultures of Desulfovibrio desulfuricans and mixed cultures containing SRB isolated from the tailings, all grown on a lactate medium at room temperature. While the maximum 226Ra concentration reached in a sterile media control was 0.44 Bq/L (12 pCi/L), that in the SRB systems was 61 Bq/L (1640 pCi/L) or about 20% of the total Ra inventory in the original tailings sample. The leaching of Ra in SRB systems was accompanied by a decrease in soluble sulfate concentration, an increase in total sulfide concentration, and an increase in the number of SRB. The observed leaching effect does not appear to be due to the action of microbial chelates or to binding to cell walls. Potential implications of these findings to the management of U mill tailings and other radioactive wastes are discussed.

Geochemical and radiological characterization of soils from former radium processing sites.

Soil samples were collected from former radium processing sites in Denver, CO, and East Orange, NJ. Particle-size separations and radiochemical analyses of selected samples showed that while the greatest contents of both 226Ra and U were generally found in the finest (less than 45 micron) fraction, the pattern was not always of progressive increase in radionuclide content with decreasing particle size. Leaching tests on these samples showed a large portion of the 226Ra and U to be soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid. Radon-emanation coefficients measured for bulk samples of contaminated soil were about 20%. Recovery of residual uranium and vanadium, as an adjunct to any remedial action program, appears unlikely due to economic considerations.