Natural radioactive nuclides in the thermal waters of the Polish Inner Carpathians

Abstract

Abstract:The chemical compositions and activity concentrations of 238 U, 234 U, 226 Ra, 228 Ra and 222 Rn were measured in the thermal waters occurring in the Podhale Trough. This region, part of the Polish Inner Carpathians, is the artesian basin situated between two groundwater recharging zones, the Tatras to the south and the Pieniny Klippen Belt to the north. The thermal water samples were collected from nine selected boreholes with the depths from 1113 m (Zakopane IG-2) to 5526 m (Bańska Niżna IG-1). The waters belong to four hydrochemical types: HCO 3 -SO 4 -Ca-Mg-Na, SO 4 -HCO 3 -Cl-Na-Ca, SO 4 -Ca-Na and SO 4 -Cl-Ca-Na. Their mineralization and temperature range from several hundreds to 2500 mg/l and 23.9 to 86.3 °C, respectively. Excluding the waters from the Szymoszkowa GT-1 and Chochołów PIG-1 boreholes, the activity concentrations of the uranium and radium isotopes in the waters are relatively low and vary from decimals to above ten mBq/l and from several tens to about 600 mBq/l, respectively. They are classified as radon-poor waters. The phenomena mentioned seem to be characteristic of the waters draining limestone formations overlaying the crystalline rocks, namely the principal aquifers in the Tatras. The significant levels of the uranium and radium activity concentrations in the waters from Szymoszkowa GT-1 and Chochołów PIG-1 can be connected with the presences of Lower Triassic black shales with tuffites rich in uranium in the respective recharge areas. Comparing the parameters of the Podhale thermal waters with those of some selected thermal waters occurring in other regions of Poland and in northwest Croatia, the French Massif Central, Spanish Andalusia and north-east Tunisia, the authors found that the temperature of the thermal waters is contained between 16 and about 100 °C; the mineralization and concentrations of radionuclides vary in broad intervals and are considerably affected by the lithology and the geological structure of the region. The 226 Ra activity concentration exceeds that of 228 Ra in almost each of the thermal waters compared, which is similar to the waters from Podhale.

High level of natural ionizing radiation at a thermal bath in Dehloran, Iran

“…A large number of studies have been conducted on indoor radon concentrations in thermal spas, e.g. in the Middle-Slovakian region, Lądek-Zdr oj in south-western Poland, the thermal spas of Rudas and H evíz in Hungary, J achymov in the Czech Republic, etc (Szerbin et al, 1994;Lu civjanský;Durecov a, 2000;Domb ov ary et al, 2006;Jobb agy et al, 2010;Nowak et al, 2012;Z€ olzer et al, 2013;Walczak et al, 2016). Nikolov et al (2012) studied radon levels at the spa in Ni ska Banja, Serbia and measured activity concentrations indoors and in water in thermal pools and therapy rooms.…”

Factors controlling 226Ra, 228Ra and their activity ratio in groundwater – an application in Polish Carpathian mineral waters

“…Several studies on radium isotopes in thermal waters show that due to the high temperature the high activities of radium isotopes as well as their large activity ratios ( 226 Ra/ 228 Ra) are often observed (Rihs & Condomines 2002, Whitehead at al. 2007, Nowak et al 2012. Krishnaswami et al (1982) investigated radium isotopes in Connecticut groundwater and stated that the desorption coefficient of radium isotopes (k ds ) is much lower than the adsorption coefficient (k ad ), and the k ds varies in a range of decay constant of 228 Ra (λ Ra228 -2.2⋅10 −9 s) to that of 224 Ra (λ Ra224 -3.8⋅10 −6 s).…”