A-000

DETERMINATION OF NATURAL URANIUM AND THORIUM BY VARIOUS ANALYTICAL

TECHNIQUES IN SOILS OF ZACATECAS STATE (MEXICO)

R. Pardo1,2, E. Escareño1, C. Gascó3, M. Vega1,2

1Department of Analytical Chemistry and 2Institute of Sustainable Processes, Faculty of

Sciences, University of Valladolid, Paseo de Belén 7, 47011 Valladolid (Spain). 3Unit of
Environmental Radioactivity and Radiological Surveillance, Center for Energy, Environment and
Technology Research (CIEMAT), Av. Complutense 40,28040 Madrid, Spain
e-mail corresponding author: rpardo@qa.uva.es

Radionuclides with a long half-life such as uranium (238U) and thorium (232Th) represent today,
along with other toxic trace elements, an important category of inorganic pollutants to be
monitored because of their environmental hazards. Therefore, the knowledge of the amount of
radioactivity in different environmental matrices, such as topsoils, has been a concern in many
countries and has led to its determination in order to know the average background activity of
these natural radionuclides in different geographical areas.
Besides the problems derived of the low concentrations (activities) of these radionuclides, their
determination in soils is further complicated because a total mineralization of the samples, with
nitric, hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids, must be carried out previously to the application of
the analytical technique chosen for their final determination. This leads to variable chemical
recoveries and uncertainties that increase if additional separation or pre-concentration steps are
necessary.
There are several analytical techniques proposed to determine uranium and thorium in the liquid
extracts: Alpha-spectrometry (α-spec), inductively coupled plasma optical emission
spectrometry (ICP-OES), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), inductively
coupled plasma double focusing sector field mass spectrometry (ICP-SF-MS) and X-ray
Fluorescence (XRF). Each technique has advantages and shortcomings relative to
interferences, precision, accuracy and cost, but their global suitability must also take into
consideration whether each detection technique is overly complex or requires extensive and
laborious pre-determination steps, as is the case with α-spec.
In this communication, we describe the results found when the analytical techniques listed
above were applied to 32 top-soils sampled in undisturbed areas of the State of Zacatecas
(Mexico), known for its large deposits of silver and other minerals, but with scarce and very old
information about actinides contents. The objective is to find the more suitable analytical
technique for this type of samples, optimizing the procedures and selecting the most
appropriate methodologies, taking into account analytical parameters such as accuracy and
time of analysis.
In order to assess if there are statistically significant differences among the results provided by
the various analytical techniques, parametric (t-Student test) and/or non-parametric (sign test
and Wilcoxon signed-rank test) paired-samples tests were applied No significant differences
were found for ICP-MS and α-spec results, for both radionuclides, uranium and thorium.
Although α-spec is the most widely used technique, it requires a laborious and time-consuming
procedure involving the use of ion-exchange resins and a electrolysis pre-concentration
previous to the determination, whereas ICP-MS can be used directly after the mineralization
step. Therefore the use of ICP-MS can be proposed as an alternative to α-spec.
Finally, and after elimination of outlier samples, the average background concentrations of
uranium and thorium in undisturbed top-soils of Zacatecas state, were stablished as 2.1 mg Kg-
1 and 10.75 mg Kg-1, respectively, being these values similar to those found in similar areas of
Mexico.

Authors wish to thank Junta de Castilla y León for the financial support (Ref. VA068G18)