Environmental Characteristics of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (²³⁸U,²²²Rn) Concentration in Drinking Groundwaters of Metamorphic Rock Areas: Korea

Abstract

This study has investigated naturally occurring radioactive materials (N.O.R.M; 238 U, 222 Rn) for 353 drinking groundwater wells in metamorphic rock areas in Korea. Uranium concentrations ranged from N.D (not detected) to 563.56 µg/L (median value, 0.68 µg/L) and radon concentrations ranged from 108 to 11,612 pCi/L (median value, 1,400 pCi/L). Uranium and radon concentrations in the groundwater generally are similar to USA with similar geological setting. Uranium concentrations in 9 wells (2.6%) exceeded 30 µg/L, which is the maximum contaminant level (MCL) by the US environmental protection agency (EPA), radon concentrations in 46 wells (13%) exceeded 4,000 pCi/L, which is the Alternative MCL (AMCL) by the US.EPA. The log-log correlation coefficient between uranium and radon was 0.32. The correlation coefficient between uranium and pH was 0.12 and the correlation coefficient between radon and temperature was −0.01. The correlation coefficient between uranium and HCO 3 was 0.09 and the correlation coefficient between uranium and Ca was 0.11. The median value of uranium was high Chung-Buk (1.78 µg/L), Gyeong-Buk (1.37 µg/L), In-Cheon (1.06 µg/L) for each province. On the other hand, the median value of radon was high In-Cheon (2,962 pCi/L), Chung-Buk (2,339 pCi/L), Jeon-Buk (2,165 pCi/L) for each province. Jeon-Buk for log-log correlation coefficient is the highest (0.63) among provinces.

Geochemical Occurrence Characteristics of Geogenic Heavy Metals in Korea Evaluated Using Geochemical Map Data

“…pISSN 1225-7281 eISSN 2288-7962 자원환경지질, 제55권, 제4호, 339-352, 2022 먼저, 불소의 경우 음용 지하수에서의 부화양상이 예 전부터 보고되어 왔으며, 형석광화대로 알려진 금산과 완 주 지역 (Hwang, 2001), 제천 황강리 지역 (Hwang, 2002), 양산단층을 중심으로 한 포항-경주지역 (Kim and Jeong, 2005;Jeong et al, 2003), 온천지역인 포천시 (Chae et al, 2006), 이외 화강암 분포지역으로 충북 보은군 일부 (Chae et al, 2008)와 경남 거창-합천지역 (Choo et al, 2008) (Lee et al, 2018b;Lee, 2018;Yun et al, 2018;Moon et al, 2018;Kim et al, 2018)뿐만 아니라 전라남도, 경상 남북도 등의 도 단위별 (Cho, 2017a;Cho, 2017b;Cho et al, 2014) 또는 화강암, 퇴적암, 변성암, 화산암 등의 지 질단위별 (Cho et al, 2018;Ju et al, 2013;Jeong et al, 2013;Noh et al, 2011) (Yun et al, 2004;Ahn et al, 2005;Ahn and Ko, 2008;Chon et al, 2009), 환경부 지 하수 수질측정망 자료를 활용하여 전국의 전반적인 산출 양상이 평가 (Ahn et al, 2007) (Chon et al, 1997a;Lee et al, 1997). 제주도 화산회 토양의 아연, 니켈 등의 중금속 부화양상도 토양 오염조사 과정에서 흔히 나타나고 있다 (Ahn et al, 2006;Chon et al, 2008) 348 (Park et al, 2012), 사문암 풍화 토양에서는 낮은 Ca/ Mg 비를 가지고 Co, Cr, Ni 함량이 높은 것으로 알려져 있다 (Kim et al, 2000).…”