Nuclear Geophysics And Its Applications

This report aims at providing background information and a comprehensive account of the nature of nuclear geophysics, its fundamentals, its objectives, its tools for investigation and its wide range of applications benefiting society and industry. It reviews the achievements and performance of nuclear geophysical measurements, particularly in applications to mining, industry and agriculture. It also analyses many of these important applications for their economic impact and updates the available information on nuclear geophysics by giving an account of the most relevant achievements and concepts introduced during recent years.

The fundamentals of methods in nuclear geophysics and their practical applications in engineering geology, hydrology, hydrogeology, agriculture and environmental science are discussed in this book. The methods and apparatus based on absorption and scattering of gamma and neutron radiation for determination of density and soil moisture in natural conditions are presented in Chapters 2, 3, and 4. The theoretical fundamentals and installations of the penetration logging techniques where gamma, gamma-gamma and neutron logging in combination with static penetration form common complexes for engineering geology and hydrogeology exploration without boring holes are described. The developed constructions and practical use penetration logging installations for applications on land and marine shelves are described in Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8. The physical fundamentals for the use of the natural stable and radioactive isotopes for study of the global hydrological cycle are provided. The experimental data, origin and distribution of cosmogenic and radiogenic isotopes in the oceans, atmospheric moisture, surface and underground waters are presented in Chapters 9, 10, and 11. The sources and conditions of the radioactive contamination of the natural waters are discussed in Chapters 12 and 13. This book will be of interest to scientists and researchers who use nuclear geophysics methods in engineering geology, hydrology, hydrogeology and hydrogeoecology. Lecturers, students, and postgraduates in these subjects will also find it useful.

Nuclear techniques are critical in the exploration for oil and in the control of oil wells, and intrinsic to uranium exploration. This volume includes comprehensive review articles by internationally eminent scientists and engineers, on a wide variety of techniques and applications in the area of nuclear geophysics, including important new techniques and equipment being developed for use in the metalliferous and industrial minerals industries. Also included is a description of neutron interaction methods now being introduced to give a total elemental analysis, calorific value and ash-content, on-line.

This book appears a century after the discovery of radioactivity. It was in 1896, when Henri Becquerel reported his first results about the penetrating radiation, which could darken the packed photographic plates. The initial fascination of radioactivity, e.g., the discovery of new radioactive elements, the first real description of the structure of atoms and their nuclei, the applications of radiotracers, the high sensitivity of activation analysis, etc., was followed by the use of atomic bomb in 1945. The mushroom cloud became a symbol of destructive nuclear power. And even nuclear energy production (which provides about 20% of the world's electricity) is overshadowed by radioactive waste. However, the latest results suggest that the Accelerator-Driven Transmutation Technology (ADTT) will solve this problem, since this technique can decrease the lifetime of the fission products comparatively to the human lifespan. Practical control of fusion may also be possible in the first decades of the next millennium.

The applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to petroleum exploration and production have become more and more important in recent years. The development of the NMR logging technology and the NMR applications to core analysis and formation evaluation have been very rapid and extensive. The scope of this book covers a wide range of NMR related petrophysical measurements on cores including brief descriptions of recent applications of Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) NMR and the basics of NMR imaging of cores. In the discussion of NMR logging applications various schemes of using NMR logs to obtain necessary information for formation evaluation are outlined, such as irreducible water saturation determination, hydrocarbon typing, oil viscosity estimation, and permeability prediction. The principles of these applications are discussed using schematic diagrams for illustration. A unique aspect of the book is that it provides a detailed account of the basic principles of spin diffusion and relaxation in porous media. Another important area that is covered is the inversion of NMR data into a distribution of amplitudes associated with relaxation time which provides the basic information needed to interpret the NMR measurements obtained from logging.

Due to growing global energy demand, many countries have seen a rise in uranium exploration activities in the past few years, and newly designed geophysical instruments and their application in uranium exploration are contributing to an increased probability of successful discoveries. This publication highlights advances in airborne and ground geophysical techniques and methods for uranium exploration, succinctly describing modern geophysical methods and demonstrating their application with examples.