Tkavadze Levan, Brey Richard R, Dudgeon John
*Idaho State University, 921 South 8th Avenue, Pocatello, ID.
Health Phys. 2018 Jan;114(1):73-76. doi: 10.1097/HP.0000000000000727.
Analyzing uranium isotopic and activity ratios can give valuable information for hydrologic and environmental studies such as insights to weathering processes, estimating water mixing ratios, and identifying water sources. The authors employed an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) to perform environmental level concentration measurements of isotopic uranium on 380 groundwater samples from various locations within the state of Idaho. The U:U uranium activity ratios (UAR) for these samples range between 0.91 and 6.21, which suggests that the parent U is not in equilibrium with its decay product U. The U:U isotopic ratio was also measured for each sample to confirm that there was no depleted or enriched uranium present. All 380 samples exhibited the natural isotopic ratios of U and U isotopes. Therefore, it was concluded that the U:U UARs reflect natural variations in the Idaho groundwater systems.
分析铀同位素和活度比可为水文与环境研究提供有价值的信息，比如洞察风化过程、估算水混合比以及识别水源。作者使用电感耦合等离子体质谱仪（ICP-MS）对爱达荷州各地的380个地下水样本进行了环境水平的同位素铀浓度测量。这些样本的U:U铀活度比（UAR）在0.91至6.21之间，这表明母体U与其衰变产物U未处于平衡状态。还对每个样本测量了U:U同位素比，以确认不存在贫化或富集铀。所有380个样本均呈现出U和U同位素的天然同位素比。因此，得出的结论是，U:U UAR反映了爱达荷州地下水系统的自然变化。
