Identification of uranium signatures relevant for nuclear safeguards and forensics

Table 2 Variation of impurity concentrations during ore leaching expressed as ratios of concentrations normalized to U

	Ratio ore total versus cleared leachate	Highly affected	In-house leach versus cleared leachate		Ratio ore total versus cleared leachate	Highly affected	In-house leach versus cleared leachate
Al	24	X	1.3	Nb	584	X	45
As	2.8	X	0.7	Nd	7.2	X	1.4
Ba	6600	X	28	Ni	1.5		0.6
Bi	31	X	32	P			2.0
Ca	2.3	X	3.0	Pb	21	X	4.6
Cd	2.3	X	0.2	Pd	1.4		1.0
Ce	11	X	1.5	Pr	8.8	X	1.5
Co	2.0	X	0.5	Rb	68	X	1.2
Cr	6.9	X	1.3	Re			1.3
Cs	9.0	X	1.8	S	0.8		32
Cu	3.4	X	0.9	Sb	14	X	1.3
Dy	1.2		1.0	Sc	7.5	X	1.1
Er	1.3		1.0	Se			2.0
Eu	3.3	X	1.1	Si	98	X	1.1
Fe	4.3	X	1.2	Sm	3.3	X	1.2
Ga	34	X	1.8	Sr	11	X	1.5
Gd	2.3	X	1.1	Tb	1.5		1.0
Hf	105	X	4.4	Th	1.2		1.0
Ho	1.2		1.0	Ti	646	X	41
K	43	X	0.9	Tl			1.0
La	14	X	1.7	Tm	1.3		0.9
Li			1.1	V	15	X	1.1
Lu	1.6		1.0	Y	1.2		1.0
Mg	2.8	X	1.2	Yb	1.4		1.0
Mn	0.18	X	0.2	Zn	2.1	X	0.2
Mo	38	X	8.5	Zr	695	X	25
Na			0.3

The highly affected elements, where the ratio of the analyte concentration in the ore measured after total dissolution versus the analyte concentration in the cleared leachate are higher than 2 (arbitrarily chosen), are indicated. Unlike all other impurities, the Mn concentration in the leachate is much higher than in ore. U concentration in the cleared leachate was (178.1 ± 2.3) μg g⁻¹