UO2 ? spectrum

[Peter-1]

I'm looking for an explanation.
In 3 different samples, which always contain UO2, a very unusual picture was created in one case. The sample with pure UO2 shows a much smaller peak at 63.3 keV than the other two samples. My question: how can you explain that? Many of my uranium glasses show a spectrum as shown on GG17.

2020_04_10-UO2-GG17-C.jpg

Greetings Peter

[Geoff]

How old is the UO2 powder? My guess is it’s much younger than the other samples. When I extract uranium from ore as ammonium diurynate I use carbonate extraction which is very specific for uranium, leaving all daughters in the leachate. My fresh precipitate spectrum looks a lot like your UO2 spectrum.

[Peter-1]

I have no indication of the age of UO2, but i suspect that it came from a laboratory around 1970.
The soil sample from gottow is from 1940-1945. The accident is said to have been there in 1942. The uranium for the tests comes from the Auergesellschaft and Degussa. The GG17 colored glass from Schott is from 1975.

Peter

[Peter-1]

I tried to compare two samples. It is noticeable that with almost the same number of pulses at Th234, the number of pulses at U235 differs well. I can imagine that the uranium glass contains a depleted uranium. However, uranium was not depleted in Gottow in the uranium project from World War II. Can it be concluded from these measurements that the diagram has an indication of the ratio of U238 to U235?

2020_04_19-Gottow-Uranglas.jpg

Peter

[Svilen]

Interesting obeservations Peter. I also don't know if such quantitative conclusion can be made, but this is a good explanation for the lower U235 peak from the glass in this case.

[MartinM]

Here a quick spectrum of pure U metal I acquired using the PDS-100 for your reference.
I'm not sure about the exact composition, but assume it's depleted.

U.png