Professor Ray Frost at the School of Chemical and scientists at the Physical Sciences of Queensland University of Technology have found a safer way of detecting radioactive contamination in the ground and water, from a remote location. "The ability to be able to easily and readily detect uranium minerals, especially secondary minerals, is of great importance especially in today's current climate of terrorism and increased uranium mining," said Frost.
"What is not commonly known is that many uranium minerals, especially the secondary minerals,
are soluble and can translocate or move in water to areas far away from where uranium sites are found. This means that uranium minerals could arise in soils and sediments from unknown origins and in locations far from their origins."
The new near infrared spectroscopy technique detects radioactive minerals and their types far away from a contaminated site. "Using a fiber optic probe and the near infrared spectroscopy technique, we have found that we can detect whether uranium minerals are present in soil.
"This means we can now identify whether or not radioactive deposits exist and the risk these deposits might present to both the environment and the community."
Near infrared spectroscopy uses a light to scan the surfaces in order to see the chemical structure of those surfaces, so it detects the presence or not of radioactive uranium minerals present in the ground. Higher and higher use of nuclear power in order to decrease dependence on oil for electricity generation means that uranium mining will be increased in the future. "This will result in mine waste and the accumulation of hazardous minerals," he said.
The menace of so-called dirty bombs as terrorism weapons increases the importance of detecting radioactive uranium minerals from a distance. Due to the ability of uranium minerals to spread over large areas, there is a necessity for wide testing of sites for possible radioactive contamination.
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