Quantitative autoradiography of alpha particle emission in geo-materials using the Beaver™ system

Abstract

In rocks or artificial geo-materials, radioactive isotopes emitting alpha particles are dispersed according to the mineralogy. At hand specimen scale, the achievement of quantitative chemical mapping of these isotopes takes on a specific importance. Knowledge of the distribution of the uranium and thorium series radionuclides is of prime interest to several disciplines, from the geochemistry of uranium deposits, to the dispersion of uranium mill tailings in the biosphere. The disequilibrium of these disintegration chains is also commonly used for dating. However, some prime importance isotopes, such as 226Ra, are complicated to localize in geo-materials. Because of its high specific activity, 226Ra is found in very low concentrations (~ppq), preventing its accurate localization in rock forming minerals.This paper formulates a quantitative answer to the following question: at hand specimen scale, how can alpha emitters in geo-materials be mapped quantitatively? In this study, we tested a new digital autoradiographic method (called the Beaver™) based on a Micro Patterned Gaseous Detector (MPGD) in order to quantitatively map alpha emission at the centimeter scale rock section. Firstly, for two thin sections containing U-bearing minerals at secular equilibrium, we compared the experimental and theoretical alpha count rates, measured by the Beaver™ and calculated from the uranium content, respectively. We found that they are very similar. Secondly, for a set of eight homemade standards made up of a mixture of inactive sand and low-radioactivity mud, we compared the count rates obtained by the Beaver™ and by an alpha spectrometer. The results indicate (i) a linearity between both count rates, and (ii) that the count obtained by the Beaver™ can be estimated from the count obtained by the alpha spectrometry using a factor of 0.82.