Fractionation of natural radionuclides in soils from a uranium mineralized area in the south-west of Spain

A new version of a classical method was applied to study the distribution of natural radionuclides (U-238, Th-230, and Ra-226) in the soil fractions obtained by a sequential extraction procedure. The potential significance of the fractions obtained with this method was tested on two very similar soils but with very different contents of the three radionuclides, collected in the proximity of a disused uranium mine located in the Extremadura region in the southwest of Spain. The results confirmed that, if only non-residual fractions are considered, the sequential method applied shows a characteristic speciation pattern of these natural radionuclides in this soil matrix, i.e., the distribution of each of the three radionuclides was very similar for the two soil samples. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.