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Measurement of uranium in phosphate fertilizers for groundwater contamination employing X-ray and γ-ray spectroscopic techniques

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Abstract

The contribution of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizers to groundwater uranium contamination was investigated using the wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique and direct measurement of emitted γ-ray energy from primordial radionuclide present in the collected fertilizer samples. The role of fertilizers in uranium poisoning of groundwater has been studied for the first time. DAP fertilizer samples were gathered from Chandigarh and other places in Punjab state, India. About 30% of the DAP fertilizer samples have uranium concentrations between 100 and 200 ppm, whereas the rest have a low uranium content (less than 50 ppm). The strength of the 63.3 keV γ-ray signal produced by the decay of 234Th was also used to assess the uranium concentration in DAP samples. Furthermore, the impact of uranium poisoning of groundwater via fertilizers has been determined to have a substantial role in the water-logged region.

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Acknowledgements

The financial help provided to Dr. Harpreet Singh Kainth under the DS Kothari contract [F.4-2/2006 (BSR)/PH/18-19/0084] is highly regarded. Dr. Gurjeet Singh is grateful for the financial support he received from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) New Delhi, grant number YSS/2015/001862 in the form of the Young Scientist Award (YST).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Punjabi University, Patiala, 147002, India

    Gurjeet Singh & Nisha Rani

  2. Department of Basic and Applied Sciences, Punjabi University, Patiala, 147002, India

    Harpreet Singh Kainth

  3. Department of Physics, Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary University, Gurgaon, 122505, India

    Gurjot Singh

  4. Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India

    Heena Duggal & Devinder Mehta

  5. Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chitkara University, Rajpura, 140401, India

    Arun Upmanyu

  6. Department of Physics, D.A.V. College, Jalandhar, 144008, India

    Atul Bhalla

  7. Department of Physics, Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharma College, Sector-32 C, Chandigarh, India

    Sanjeev Kumar

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  1. Gurjeet Singh
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Singh, G., Kainth, H.S., Singh, G. et al. Measurement of uranium in phosphate fertilizers for groundwater contamination employing X-ray and γ-ray spectroscopic techniques. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 331, 1715–1722 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08269-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08269-2

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