Locating underground uranium deposits
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorPatrick E. Felice
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Underground uranium deposits are located by placing pairs of dosimeters each about 5 to 18 mg/cm.sup.2 thick underground in a grid pattern. Each dosimeter contains a phosphor which is capable of storing the energy of alpha particles. In each pair one dosimeter is shielded from alpha particles with more than 18 mg/cm.sup.2 thick opaque material but not gamma and beta rays and the other dosimeter is shielded with less than 1 mg/cm.sup.2 thick opaque material to exclude dust. After a period underground the dosimeters are heated which releases the stored energy as light. The amount of light produced from the heavily shielded dosimeter is subtracted from the amount of light produced from the thinly shielded dosimeter to give an indication of the location and quantity of uranium underground.
Claims31
A method of locating underground deposits of uranium comprising
- A. placing underground a dosimeter in the form of a thin layer about 5 to about 18 mg/cm.sup.2 thick which is capable of storing energy from alpha particles:
- B. activating said dosimeter to cause it to release said stored energy from alpha particles;
- and
- C. measuring the amount of energy released.
Apparatus for locating underground deposits of uranium comprising pairs of dosimeters each dosimeter being a thin layer about 5 to about 18 mg/cm.sup.2 thick, each dosimeter containing a phosphor which is capable of storing energy from alpha particles, one of said dosimeters in each pair being unshielded from alpha particles and the other being enclosed in a shield which excludes alpha particles but not gamma and beta rays.
A shielded dosimeter comprising a dosimeter in the form of a thin layer about 5 to about 18 mg/cm.sup.2 thick which is capable of storing energy from alpha particles, enclosed in a shield which excludes alpha particles but not gamma and beta rays.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.