Happy Jack Uraninite: A New Reference Material for High Spatial Resolution Analysis of U-Rich Matrices

Corinne Dorais; Antonio Simonetti; Loretta Corcoran; Tyler L. Spano; Peter C. Burns

doi:10.1111/ggr.12293

Happy Jack Uraninite: A New Reference Material for High Spatial Resolution Analysis of U-Rich Matrices

Corinne Dorais, Antonio Simonetti, Loretta Corcoran, Tyler L. Spano, Peter C. Burns

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

There is currently a lack of well-characterised matrix-matched reference materials (RMs) for forensic analysis of U-rich materials at high spatial resolution. This study reports a detailed characterisation of uraninite (nominally UO_2+x) from the Happy Jack Mine (UT, USA). The Happy Jack uraninite can be used as a RM for the determination of rare earth element (REE) mass fractions in nuclear materials, which provide critical information for source attribution purposes. This investigation includes powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD) data, as well as major, minor and trace element abundances determined using a variety of micro-analytical techniques. The chemical signature of the uraninite was investigated at the macro (cm)-scale with micro-X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) mapping and at high spatial resolution (tens of micrometre scale) using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses. Based on EPMA results, the uraninite is characterised by homogeneous UO₂ and CaO contents of 91.57 ± 1.49% m/m (2s uncertainty) and 2.70 ± 0.38% m/m (2s), respectively. Therefore, CaO abundances were used as the internal standard when conducting LA-ICP-MS analyses. Overall, the major element and REE compositions are homogeneous at both the centimetre and micrometre scales, allowing this material to be used as a RM for high spatial resolution analysis of U-rich samples.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	125-132
Number of pages	8
Journal	Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research
Volume	44
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ggr.12293
State	Published - Mar 1 2020
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The authors thank Dr. Ian Steele for his generous assistance with EPMA analyses, Dr. Enrica Balboni for her assistance with preliminary sample identification, the University of Notre Dame Center for Environmental Science and Technology (CEST) for the use of the µXRF, and ND Energy’s Materials Characterisation Facility for access to EPMA. The HJ uraninite was obtained from the Rod Ewing Mineral Collection, housed at the University of Notre Dame. Funding for this work was provided by the United States Department of Homeland Security grant DHS-14-DN-077-ARI-001.

Funders	Funder number
U.S. Department of Homeland Security	DHS-14-DN-077-ARI-001
Center for Environmental Science and Technology, University of Notre Dame

Keywords

LA-ICP-MS
high spatial resolution
rare earth elements
reference material
uranium

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10.1111/ggr.12293

Cite this

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title = "Happy Jack Uraninite: A New Reference Material for High Spatial Resolution Analysis of U-Rich Matrices",

abstract = "There is currently a lack of well-characterised matrix-matched reference materials (RMs) for forensic analysis of U-rich materials at high spatial resolution. This study reports a detailed characterisation of uraninite (nominally UO2+x) from the Happy Jack Mine (UT, USA). The Happy Jack uraninite can be used as a RM for the determination of rare earth element (REE) mass fractions in nuclear materials, which provide critical information for source attribution purposes. This investigation includes powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD) data, as well as major, minor and trace element abundances determined using a variety of micro-analytical techniques. The chemical signature of the uraninite was investigated at the macro (cm)-scale with micro-X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) mapping and at high spatial resolution (tens of micrometre scale) using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses. Based on EPMA results, the uraninite is characterised by homogeneous UO2 and CaO contents of 91.57 ± 1.49% m/m (2s uncertainty) and 2.70 ± 0.38% m/m (2s), respectively. Therefore, CaO abundances were used as the internal standard when conducting LA-ICP-MS analyses. Overall, the major element and REE compositions are homogeneous at both the centimetre and micrometre scales, allowing this material to be used as a RM for high spatial resolution analysis of U-rich samples.",

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author = "Corinne Dorais and Antonio Simonetti and Loretta Corcoran and Spano, {Tyler L.} and Burns, {Peter C.}",

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AB - There is currently a lack of well-characterised matrix-matched reference materials (RMs) for forensic analysis of U-rich materials at high spatial resolution. This study reports a detailed characterisation of uraninite (nominally UO2+x) from the Happy Jack Mine (UT, USA). The Happy Jack uraninite can be used as a RM for the determination of rare earth element (REE) mass fractions in nuclear materials, which provide critical information for source attribution purposes. This investigation includes powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD) data, as well as major, minor and trace element abundances determined using a variety of micro-analytical techniques. The chemical signature of the uraninite was investigated at the macro (cm)-scale with micro-X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) mapping and at high spatial resolution (tens of micrometre scale) using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses. Based on EPMA results, the uraninite is characterised by homogeneous UO2 and CaO contents of 91.57 ± 1.49% m/m (2s uncertainty) and 2.70 ± 0.38% m/m (2s), respectively. Therefore, CaO abundances were used as the internal standard when conducting LA-ICP-MS analyses. Overall, the major element and REE compositions are homogeneous at both the centimetre and micrometre scales, allowing this material to be used as a RM for high spatial resolution analysis of U-rich samples.

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Happy Jack Uraninite: A New Reference Material for High Spatial Resolution Analysis of U-Rich Matrices

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