Abstract
A microwave oven was utilised to decompose several geological materials by means of acid digestion. Dissolution was achieved in 5 min and238U,234U,232Th and230Th were all determined on the solutions by radiochemical separation and α-spectrometry. The materials, which include a granite, an arkose, a river sediment and a nearshore marine sediment, display a large range in U and Th contents /Th/U ratio of 0.7 to 7: U content of 12 to 1400 Bq kg−1/ and activity ratios /234U/238U of 0.95 to 1.50/. The data indicate that the microwave oven dissolution method produces data comparable to the traditional /open beaker/ method. Unit costs are, however, significantly reduced.
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Alexander, W.R., Shimmield, T.M. Microwave oven dissolution of geological samples: Novel application in the determination of natural decay series radionuclides. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry Letters 145, 301–310 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02163420
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02163420