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Updated: Nov 26, 2025

Separation of Uranium and Thorium for 230Th-U Dating of Submarine Hydrothermal Sulfides
Published on: May 20, 2019
Comparison of three analytical techniques for determination of Th and U in environmental samples
Kh Haddad1, M S Al-Masri1, M A Al-Haleem1
1Protection & Safety Deptartment, Atomic Energy Commission, P.O. Box 6091, Damascus, Syria.
Abstract:
Alpha-particle spectrometry, gamma spectrometry and neutron activation analysis techniques for determination of Th and U in environmental samples have been compared. The analytical parameters studied include detection limit, accuracy, repeatability, reproducibility and surrogate recovery. The results show that neutron activation analysis technique has the best accuracy among the studied techniques; the other two techniques were assessed relative to it. The percentage difference between the three techniques results is about [-20, 20]. In addition, U and Th concentrations are generally overestimated by gamma spectrometry and alpha-particle spectrometry in all cases except Th concentration in the former technique, which is underestimated.
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