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Oliver, IW, Graham, MC, MacKenzie, AB, Ellam, RM and Farmer, JG (2007) Assessing depleted uranium (DU) contamination of soil, plants and earthworms at UK weapons testing sites. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 9 (7). 740 - 748. ISSN 1464-0325
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OLIVER 2007 DU accepted paper JEM_ green access archives.pdf - Published Version
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Abstract
Depleted uranium (DU) weapons testing programmes have been conducted at two locations within the UK. An investigation was therefore carried out to assess the extent of any environmental contamination arising from these test programmes using both alpha spectrometry and mass spectrometry techniques. Uranium isotopic signatures indicative of DU contamination were observed in soil, plant and earthworm samples collected in the immediate vicinity of test firing points and targets, but contamination was found to be localised to these areas. This paper demonstrates the superiority of the (235)U : (238)U ratio over the (234)U : (238)U ratio for identifying and quantifying DU contamination in environmental samples, and also describes the respective circumstances under which alpha spectrometry or mass spectrometry may be the more appropriate analytical tool.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | Animals, England, Nuclear Warfare, Oligochaeta, Plants, Radiation Monitoring, Scotland, Soil Pollutants, Radioactive, Uranium |
Subjects: | G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) |
Divisions: | Faculty of Natural Sciences > School of Geography, Geology and the Environment |
Related URLs: | |
Depositing User: | Symplectic |
Date Deposited: | 17 Jan 2019 09:28 |
Last Modified: | 17 Jan 2019 09:28 |
URI: | https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/5701 |