D. J. Liu, M. Hendry
Dec 1, 2011
Citations
3
Influential Citations
19
Citations
Journal
Applied Geochemistry
Abstract
Abstract This study was conducted to define the geochemical controls on 226Ra during raffinate (pH = 1.2) neutralization to pH 10 at the Key Lake U mill in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. High activities (120–150 Bq/L) of aqueous phase 226Ra are present in raffinate produced during milling of U ore. The solubility control of 226Ra in the SO4-rich, hydrometallurgical raffinate solutions often involves the addition of BaCl2 to form a radium-barite co-precipitate (Ba(Ra)SO4). As such, neutralization experiments were conducted with samples of mill raffinate using Ca(OH)2 or NaOH with and without the addition of BaCl2. Radium-226 activity decreased from 150 to