Rapid Screening for Uranium in Soils Using Field Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer : A Comparative Study
Abstract
Depleted uranium armor penetrating munitions are used on testing and training ranges leading to elevated concentrations of U in range soils. To prevent exposure on secure areas contaminated with depleted uranium (DU) hotspots, easy and rapid screening methods are needed. This study explores the feasibility of field portable X-ray fluorescence (FPXRF) spectrometry as a fast screening tool for locating hotspots of DU in the field. Direct comparisons of results were made for U concentrations in soil obtained using a FPXRF spectrometry and measurement of U using ICP-MS after acid digestion. The environmental samples included both field range contaminated soils collected at a munition testing facility and soils spiked with uranium dioxide, uranium trioxide and uranyl nitrate. Using U concentrations measured with ICP-MS from split samples, FPXRF operating procedures and conditions such as analysis time, soil moisture content, sample amount, and sample packing factors were optimized. Results showed that the FPXRF technique yielded similar U concentrations as ICPMS measurements after acid digestion in both standard soil (NIST) samples and DU contaminated range soils. In field contaminated soils, U values with FPXRF were 88.8 percent of the measurements with ICPMS with a significant correlation (R2: 0.98, n=8). Sample preparation affected the uranium concentration measurements made with FPXRF in the laboratory and in the field. A loose packing of the samples in the sample containers, higher sample occupancy as well as low soil moisture yielded significantly high U concentrations by 4-5 percent, 15-50 percent and 43 percent, respectively. The measured soil U concentrations were not affected by the variation of the sample analysis time.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1102566
Entities
People
- Charles Waggonor
- Decheng Jin
- Fengxiang X. Han
- Georgio Proctor
- Hanrui Wang
- Heather M. Knotek-smith
- Jackeline Mccomb
- Jiangxia Li
- John H. Ballard
- Ron Unz
- Steven L. Larson
- Zikri Arslana
Organizations
- Engineer Research and Development Center