LOGGING TECHNIQUE FOR ASSAYING FOR URANIUM IN ROCK FORMATIONS

摘要

Disclosed is a uranium exploration technique for determining the uranium content of a formation traversed by a borehole. A delayed fission neutron assay log is obtained by irradiating the formation with repetitive bursts of fast neutrons and detecting delayed neutrons resulting from neutron fission of uranium at time intervals between the fast neutron bursts and after dissipation of the neutrons originating in the bursts. In addition, a response log is obtained by irradiating the formation with a source of fast neutrons whereby the neutrons from this source are moderated in the formation to lower energy levels and are subject to absorption. Secondary radiation attendant to these lower energy neutrons is recorded in order to obtain a log representative of the response of the formation to moderation and absorption of the neutrons. The two logs thus obtained are correlated in order to determine a corrected value of uranium content of the formation.