Uranium, Radium in Groundwater

["Dick, Gil (GID) " <gid@ornl.gov>]

On Fri, 26 Jan 2001, BLHamrick@aol.com wrote:

We have seen other wells with comparable levels in a few private wells in 
California, in remote areas.  The one I particularly remember had about 3560

pCi/L total uranium.  The isotopic ratios in that case, appeared to confirm 
that it was natural uranium.  I have heard similar stories out of other 
states, but don't have the data with me here at home.
-------------------------------------------------
About 20 years ago, there was a government project called the National
Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) that used geologists to sample soils,
ground water, and stream water all over the US.  I had the pleasure of
working on the part of this project that was located at the then K-25 Plant
in Oak Ridge and do know that Uranium was (naturally) one of the things they
analyzed the samples for.  There were several other radioactive elements
that they analyzed for but I don't remember after this many years what all
of them were but if someone were interested in dusting off the reports, I'm
sure there would be plenty of interesting data on this subject.... 

Gil Dick
BWXT Y-12 RADCON/Source Control
(ph)574-3541/(pg)873-7184/(FAX)574-1770


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