The potential health hazard due to elevated radioactivity in old uranium mines in Dolina Białego, Tatra Mountains, Poland

Kozak, Krzysztof; Mazur, Jadwiga; Vaupotič, Janja; Grządziel, Dominik; Kobal, I.; Omran, K. H.

doi:10.1080/10256016.2013.771637

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…These mines have legacies of millions of tonnes of waste rock and mill tailings (wise-uranium.com; World Nuclear Association, 2015). The human health impact of solid waste comprising naturally-occurring radioactive material (NORM) is not fully understood (Brugge and Buchner, 2011) and is of concern in abandoned mines for example in France (Cuvier et al, 2015), Poland (Kozak et al, 2013), Portugal (Neiva et al, 2014), Serbia (Mom cilovi c et al, 2013) and Spain (Villa et al, 2011), where workers and members of the general public may be exposed to health risks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioaccessibility of U, Th and Pb in solid wastes and soils from an abandoned uranium mine

Foulkes

Millward

Henderson

et al. 2017

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bioaccessible U, Th, Pb and the U decay productsPb and Pb have been determined, using a modified Unified BARGE Method (UBM), in waste solids and soils from an abandoned uranium mine in South West England, UK. Maximum aqua regia extractable concentrations for U, Th and Pb were 16,200, 3.8 and 4750 μg g, respectively. U had highest activity concentrations near the mine shaft, where the decay productsPb and Pb had values of 235 and 180 Bq g, respectively. UBM extractions gave mean gastro-intestinal bioaccessibility factors (BAFs) for U and Pb in the waste solids of 0.05 and 0.03, respectively, whereas those for the soils were significantly higher at 0.24 and 0.17. The mean BAFs for the transient radionuclides, Pb andPb, were similar to those for stable Pb implying that the stable and radioactive Pb isotopes were attached to similar sites on the particles. The doses arising from the ingestion of particulate Pb due to soil pica behaviour were in the range 0.2-65 and< 0.1-6.2 μSv day for a 1-year old child or an adult (>17 years), respectively. The results suggest that the health risk posed by abandoned uranium mines, with waste rock and tailings, throughout the world should take account of the dose due to both bioaccessible radionuclides, as well as their stable counterparts.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioaccessibility of U, Th and Pb in solid wastes and soils from an abandoned uranium mine

Foulkes

Millward

Henderson

et al. 2017

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Two mining adits were dug, but no longer exploitation took place due to the low concentration of uranium. However, it may impact the rate of radon exhalation (Kozak et al 2013).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentary conditions based on the vertical distribution of radionuclides in small dystrophic lakes: a case study of Toporowe Stawy Lakes (Tatra Mountains, Poland)

Szarłowicz

Stobiński

Jędrzejek

et al. 2022

Environ Sci Pollut Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this work was to prove the use of radionuclides deposited in sediment core taken from an overgrowing dystrophic lakes surrounded by marsh-peat vegetation to estimate sedimentary conditions. Sediment core samples were taken from the Toporowe Stawy Lakes (Niżni (TSN) and Wyżni (TSW); Tatra Mountains). The sampling was done using a Limnos corer. After the physical sample preparations, gamma measurements were performed. Radiochemical analysis was applied with the aim of determining 210Pb radioactivity by means of 210Po. The mean values for TSN lake are as follows: 137Cs ~ 123 Bq∙kg−1, 40 K ~ 389 Bq∙kg−1, 228Th ~ 55 Bq∙kg−1, 226Ra ~ 86 Bq∙kg−1, 241Am ~ 5 Bq∙kg−1, and 210Pbuns ~ 180 Bq∙kg−1. For TSW lake, the radioactivity levels of 226Ra and 241Am are comparable to the TSN. The mean values of 137Cs, 40 K, and 228Th are almost twice as high as in TSN. The level of 210Pb in uppermost layer of TSN is higher than in TSW. Sediments were dated by use of 210Pb method, and the rate of sedimentation of each layer was also estimated. Basic chemometric tools were used to confirm the way of deposition of radionuclide, find the correlations between variables, and compare analyzed lakes. It was concluded that the presented type of lakes are a valuable source of information and the vertical distribution of radionuclide can be used to interpret the source of material supply and factors that influence the sedimentation process in recent 150–200 years.

show abstract

“…Anthropogenically, contamination of groundwater due to U mines is reported in different countries such as Poland (Kozak et al 2013), France (Cuvier et al 2015), Portugal (Neiva et al 2014), Spain (Villa et al 2011) and Serbia (Momčilović et al 2013). A high concentration of U in groundwater is attributed to the abundance of U-rich 2 mining waste.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrogeochemical Processes Governing Uranium Mobility: Inferences from the Anthropogenically Disturbed, Semi-arid Region of India

Punia

Bharti

Kumar

2021

Arch Environ Contam Toxicol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Khetri Copper Belt, Rajasthan is anthropogenically active and geologically belongs to the Delhi supergroup. To study the active geochemical processes controlling the elemental mobility, representative groundwater samples were analysed for heavy metals and radionuclide (U). A maximum U concentration (average 87 µgL -1 ) is observed in the quartzite mine zone whereas minimum (average 13 µgL -1 ) is found to be in the copper mine zone samples.Despite the presence of Jaspura and Gothra granitoid in the copper mine zone, the abundance of U is low suggesting the scavenging of U by sulphides or iron oxides. Additionally, at the confluence of two geological groups, Fe concentration is found high with a low concentration of U which further confirms scavenging of U. In the region, aquifers are shallow which supports the weathering of minerals. Thus, a high concentration of U in groundwater is attributed to mineral dissolution, faults or fractures. It is evident from the results that in the absence of iron-bearing sulphides, U concentration in groundwater would be very high compared to the current concentration. It also indicates low concentration of U in the copper mine zone, area is covered with abundant quantity of Fe sulphide rich waste. The present study recommends further research to understand the feasibility of mining waste for the removal of U contamination from groundwater.

show abstract

The potential health hazard due to elevated radioactivity in old uranium mines in Dolina Białego, Tatra Mountains, Poland

Cited by 12 publications

References 7 publications

Bioaccessibility of U, Th and Pb in solid wastes and soils from an abandoned uranium mine

Bioaccessibility of U, Th and Pb in solid wastes and soils from an abandoned uranium mine

Sedimentary conditions based on the vertical distribution of radionuclides in small dystrophic lakes: a case study of Toporowe Stawy Lakes (Tatra Mountains, Poland)

Hydrogeochemical Processes Governing Uranium Mobility: Inferences from the Anthropogenically Disturbed, Semi-arid Region of India

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About