Abstract
α-SPECTROMETRIC uranium isotopes analyses on groundwater samples from the highly fertilised Handschuhsheimer Feld area in Heidelberg suggest that the uranium content of the groundwater is primarily of natural origin; uranium derived from phosphate fertilisers is adsorbed on the uppermost soil layers and the uranium content of the water is correlated to the HCO−3 content. A similar relationship between uranium and HCO−3 also applies for world rivers and lakes. We show here that this indicates that a low uranium content is due to low HCO−3 contents and not to lower contamination levels. On the basis of this correlation the average natural uranium content of world rivers, for 35% of the water input to the ocean, was calculated to be µg l−1.
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MANGINI, A., SONNTAG, C., BERTSCH, G. et al. Evidence for a higher natural uranium content in world rivers. Nature 278, 337–339 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/278337a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/278337a0
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