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The natural radioactivity of Brazilian phosphogypsum

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Abstract

Phosphogypsum is a high volume by-product from the phosphoric acidindustries containing naturally occurring radionuclides. Envisaging the usesof phosphogypsum, a characterization of this material in terms of spatialdistribution of radionuclides was carried out by core samples taken from stacksof two important Brazilian phosphoric acid facilities. Samples were analyzedfor 238U, 234U, 232Th, 226Ra, 228Ra, 210Pb and 210Po using alpha- and gamma-spectrometryand UV-VIS spectrophotometry. Specific activities of 238U, 234U, 226 Ra and 210Po obtained were comparablewith data reported in the phosphogypsum literature, while higher values werefound for 232 Th and 228Ra.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Universidade de Săo Paulo, CENA/USP, CP 96, 13400-970, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

    M.H. T. Taddei

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  1. M.H. T. Taddei
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Taddei, M.T. The natural radioactivity of Brazilian phosphogypsum. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 249, 251–255 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013215215484

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