Radioactive Disequilibrium Studies in Uranium Series of Core Samples of Koppunuru Area, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh, India

Linkage between economic growth of any country and energy requirement is well known, and hence, sustainable energy resources are essential. During the past three decades the world was able to cope with an increasing energy demand by relying more on fossil fuel [1-3]. However, the progressively dwindling reserves of fossil fuel and a deeprooted concern about global warming, arising out of CO2 emission due to the excessive use of fossil fuel, have now developed a growing interest in nuclear energy as an alternative green source [4,5]. Uranium is one of the main nuclear fuels, continuous supply of which is needed for sustainable development in the energy field. In India, an extensive exploration programme is being carried out in different geological domains to establish new uranium resources and reserves to overcome the demand and supply gap in nuclear energy sector. The uranium series disequilibrium in radioactive ore poses a critical problem for proper assessment of the resource in most of the cases. However, it is observed that the magnitude and frequency of radioactive disequilibria is generally ignored which leads to underestimation or overestimation of ore reserve [6,7]. Thus, to overcome uranium ore deposit evaluation related constraints, the disequilibrium studies are significant both in field and laboratory counting measurements.