A simplified determination of uranium in phosphate rock and phosphogypsum by alpha-spectroscopy after its separation by liquid-extraction

A relatively rapid, economic and robust procedure is described for the radiometric analysis of uranium in phosphate rock and phosphogypsum. The analysis is performed by alpha spectroscopy after pre-concentration and separation of uranium by liquid-extraction using tributyl-phosphate (30% TBP in dodecan) and finally its electrodeposition on stainless steel discs. The method has been successfully applied to 0.1 g samples of phosphate rock and phosphogypsum resulting in high-quality spectra for measurement times a parts per thousand yen15 h. The main advantage of the procedure is the use of tracer solution (U-232) that allows reliable measurements and evaluation of the separation procedure. The separation efficiency of the proposed method has been estimated to be (75 +/- A 20)%.