• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 2001

Rare earth elements(REE) were separated by solvent extraction with tri-n-butyl phosphate(TBP) and $NaNO_3$, followed by back extraction with water. The method was applied to the determination of REE to circumvent the spectral interferences of ICP-AES analysis. The effects of the $NaNO_3$ concentration and the addition of hydrophobic solvents on the extraction efficiencies were investigated. Increases of the $NaNO_3$ concentration enhanced the extraction efficiencies of REE, and more than 95% recoveries were obtained at 5M of $NaNO_3$ concentration. On the other hand, addition of hydrophobic solvents lowered the extraction efficiencies. The method was applied to determine the REE in the monazite sample. But the precisions of the analytical results were more than 20%.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2002

A mineralogical study was made in order to identify the relationship between uranium content in groundwater and rock chemistry using core rocks recovered from the drilling holes for wells in the Daebo Granite areas. Uraniferous minerals are of primary origin and occur as inclusions in accessory minerals such as zircon, monazite, and xenotime. Since the uraniferous minerals are very small to be 1 ~ 2 $\mu$m in size, it is difficult to distinguish their mineralogical species precisely. The frequent presence of dissolution cavities or dissolved textures in the accessory minerals suggests that uraniferous minerals dissolved partially and contributed to the groundwater chemistry. Because there is no clear relationship between host rocks and groundwater for uranium concentration, mineralogical characteristics of uraniferous minerals, together with aqueous geochemical conditions favorable for uranium dissolution, could play important roles in groundwaster chemistry.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.319-328
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• 2001

The Fe-REE deposit of the Hongcheon-Jaeun district occurs in Precambrian gneiss, and is classified into two ore bodies: the Jaeun ore body (northern ore body) and the Hongcheon ore body (southern ore body). Ecomonically important minerals consist of magnetite, monazite, strontianite and barite. Based on mineral assemblages and textures, the mineralization can be classified into two stages (Na-carbonatite stage and Fe-carbonatite stage). Main REE minerals were precipitated during the Fe-carbonatite stage. Some evidences of the carbonatite origin include: 1) strontianite-monazite exolution texture, 2) strontianite-barite exolution texture, 3) the occurrence of acmite of igneous origin at the area with abundant rare earth minerals, 4) the occurrence of the mineral assemblage consisting of carbonate minerals + magnetite + REE minerals. Therefore, we suggest that Fe-REE mineralization in the study area was related to carbonatite of igneous origin.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.553-559
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• 1991

The elution characteristics of rare earth elements in $NH^{4+}$ form cation exchange resin had been investigated. Elution were performed varing the loading amount, column diameter, column length and eluent pH. Analysing the chemical species contained in each effluent, elution mechanisms of rare earth elements and the separation of rare earth elements in monazite could be understood. The resolution values of adjacent rare earth elements were improved increasing rare earths adsorption amount wfith the same column within it's exchange capacity. With $NH^{4+}$ resin form, column length does not affect on the resolution values and retention time of rare earth elements and the rare earth-EDTA complex were not adsorbed on $NH^{4+}$ resin form. pH of eluent affected on the reactivities between rare earth elements and EDTA. Decreasing eluent pH, resolution values of adjacent rare earth elements were increased while increasing elution time.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.173-181
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• 2008

CHIME ages were obtained from monazites in metamorphic rocks from the Seosan and Siheung Groups in the Gyeonggi gneiss complex, Korean peninsula. Monazite CHIME ages range from 234 to 257 Ma, corresponding to the late Permian to middle Triassic Songrim disturbance due to the collision event between the North and South China blocks within the Gyeonggi gneiss complex in the Korean peninsula. The CHIME ages are consistent with the metamorphic ages from the Hongseong area (231 Ma, Kim et al., 2006) and the Odesan area (245-248 Ma, Oh et al., 2006b) in the Gyeonggi gneiss complex and are older than those from the Dabie-Sulu collision belt (220${\sim}$242 Ma, Yang or of., 2003; Liu et al., 2003, 2004) suggesting that the collision between the North and South China blocks had occurred earlier in Korea than China.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2010

In the pyroprocessing of spent nuclear fuels, LiCl-KCl waste salt containing radioactive rare earth chlorides are generated. The radioactive rare earth oxides are recovered by co-oxidative precipitation of rare earth elements. The powder phase of rare eath oxide waste must be immobilized to produce a monolithic wasteform suitable for storage and ultimate disposal. The immobilization of these waste developed in this study involves a solid state sintering of the waste with host borosilicate glass and zinc titanate based ceramic matrix(ZIT). And the rare-earth monazite which synthesised by reaction of ammonium di-hydrogen phosphate with the rare earth oxides waste, were immobilzed with the borosilicate glass. It is shown that the developed ZIT ceramic wasteform is highly resistant the leaching process, high density and thermal conductivity.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.946-954
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• 1995

The physico-chemical nature of the rare earth oxide which was produced by the caustic fritting of monazite was studied to furnish fundamental data that are required for its efficient use and processing. It was found that the material which was mainly constituted of light rare earths and thorium was a solid solution phase of oxide whose structure was fluorite-type face centered cubic. Its density was 6.75 g/$cm^3$ and it had a uniform particle size distribution at around 1 ${\mu}m.$ The crystallinity improved by heating to elevated temperatures, whereas the solubility in HCl decreased as the crystallinity improved. Complete dissolution in conc. HCl solution in short time (30 min.) was attained by heating to 70$^{\circ}C$. The measurement of zeta potential showed its I.E.P. to be at pH 8.6 of the suspension.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.88-91
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• 1964

A rapid and simple method is described here for the determination of scandium in monazite by neutron activation analysis. The sample is irradiated for 20 hours at the neutron flux of $10^{12}$ thermal neutrons/$cm^2$/sec in the TRIGA MARK Ⅱ reactor, after which the sample is decomposed by fusion with concentrated sulfuric acid. The scandium-46 together with scandium carrier are separated from the irradiated sample by precipitating with ammonia, and are extracted by solvent extraction of the thiocyanate complex into ether. The induced radioactivity is measured by gamma scintillation spectrometry using the Multichannel Pulse Height Analyzer connected with 2"${\times}$2" NaI(Tl). The chemical yield is determined gravimetrically by precipitating scandium with mandelic acid. In order to check the efficiency of scandium separation and the errors from interfering activities of the other elements, scandium was separated by the cation exchange resin column, and the results from both samples were compared each other, which showed that the chemical procedure used in this work was as selective as the ion-exchange method with respect to scandium separation. The scandium contents in Korean monazite were found to be about 12 p. p. m.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.99-112
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• 2019

Objective: This study aims to analyze the characteristics of airborne radon and thoron level ($Bq/m^3$) generated from household products containing monazites, and estimate the effective doses (mSv/yr). Method: Radon & Thoron detector EQF3220 was used to monitor real-time airborne radon and thoron level ($Bq/m^3$), and their daughters ($Bq/m^3$) were recorded every two hours. Effective doses (mSv/yr) for radon and thoron were estimated according to models developed by International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) and United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). Results: The average levels of radon and thoron were $87.8Bq/m^3$ (range; $20.8-156.3Bq/m^3$) and $1,347.5Bq/m^3$ (range; $4-5,839.7Bq/m^3$), respectively. The average equilibrium factors (F) were 0.23 and 0.007, respectively. The levels of radon progeny were far higher than that thoron. Latex mattress showed the highest F (0.38). The average effective doses were estimated to be ICRP (1.9 mSv/yr) and UNSCER (1.3 mSv/yr) for radon and UNSCEAR (1.6 mSv/yr) for thoron. Conclusions: Our results have far exceeded the allowable effective dose for general population (1 mSv/yr). The government's actions such as the ban of use of consumer products containing monazite and the establishment of surveillance system to evaluate health effects for the people affected should be taken as early as possible.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.631-640
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• 2019

Thorium ($^{232}Th$) is four times more abundant than uranium in nature and has become a new important source of energy in the future. This is due to the ability of thorium to undergo the bombardment of neutron to produce uranium-233 ($^{233}U$). The aim of this study is to investigate the production cost of thorium oxide ($ThO_2$) resulted from the thorium extraction process. Four main parameters were studied which include raw material and chemical cost, total capital investment, direct cost and indirect cost. These parameters were justified to obtain the final production cost for the thorium extraction process. The result showed that the raw material costs were $63,126.00 - $104,120.77 (0.5 ton), $126,252.00 - $178,241.53 (1.0 ton), and $1,262,520.00 - $1,782,415.33 (10.0 tons). The total installed equipment and total cost investment were estimated to be approximately $11,542,984.10 and $13,274,431.715 respectively. Hence, the total costs for producing 1 kg $ThO_2$ were $6829.79 - $6911.78, $3540.95 - $3592.94, and $501.18 - $553.17 for 0.5, 1.0, and 10.0 tons respectively. The result concluded that with higher mass production, the cost of 1 kg $ThO_2$ would be reduced which in this scenario, the lowest production cost was $$501.18kg^{-1}$-$$553.17kg^{-1}$ for 10.0 tons of $ThO_2$ production.