Radioactivity of Mine Waters in Upper Silesian Coal Basin and its Influence on Natural Environment (original) (raw)
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Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 2001
Saline waters from underground coal mines in Poland often contain natural radioactive isotopes, mainly 226 Ra from the uranium decay series and 228 Ra from the thorium series. Approximately 40% of the total amount of radium remains underground as radioactive deposits, but 225 MBq of 226 Ra and 400 MBq of 228 Ra are released daily into the rivers along with the other mine effluents from all Polish coal mines. Technical measures such as inducing the precipitation of radium in gobs, decreasing the amount of meteoric inflow water into underground workings, etc. have been undertaken in several coal mines, and as a result of these measures, the total amount of radium released to the surface waters has diminished by about 60% during the last 5-6 years. Mine water can have a severe impact on the natural environment, mainly due to its salinity. However, associated high levels of radium concentration in river waters, bottom sediments and vegetation have also been observed. Sometimes radium concentrations in rivers exceed 0.7 kBq/m 3 , which is the permitted level for waste waters under Polish law. The extensive investigations described here were carried out for all coal mines and on this basis the total radium balance in the effluents has been calculated. Measurements in the vicinity of mine settling ponds and in rivers have given us an opportunity to study radium behaviour in river waters and to assess the degree of contamination. Solid waste materials with enhanced natural radioactivity have been produced in huge amounts in the power and coal industries in Poland. As a result of the combustion of coal in power plants, low-radioactive waste materials are produced, with 226 Ra concentration seldom exceeding a few hundreds of Bq/kg. A different situation is observed in coal mines, where, as a result of precipitation of radium from radium-bearing waters, highly radioactive deposits are formed. Sometimes the radioactivity of such materials is extremely high; precipitates from coal mines
Radioprotection, 2009
Saline waters from underground coal mines in Poland often contain natural radioactive isotopes, mainly 226 Ra from the uranium decay series and 228 Ra from the thorium series. More than 70% of the total amount of radium remains underground as radioactive deposits due to spontaneous co-precipitation or water treatment technologies, but several tens of MBq of 226 Ra and even higher activity of 228 Ra are released daily into the rivers along with the other mine effluents from all Polish coal mines.
Fate of radium in river and lake sediments impacted by coal mining sites in Silesia ( Poland )
2016
The Upper Silesian Coal Basin has been extensively mined since the beginning of the 20th century. Wastewaters released from Polish coal mines contain radium (Ra) in ionic form as well as in suspended matter. Although co-precipitation of Ra into radio-barite ((Ba,Ra)SO4) has been enhanced for reducing the impact of mining activities on water quality, sediments in rivers and lakes surrounding mining sites still show relevant activities of both 226Ra (1600 y half-life) and 228Ra (5.7 y half-life) isotopes. The management of this contamination currently relies on natural attenuation. This study focuses on assessing the long-term impact of Ra which has been trapped into river and lake sediments in the vicinity of coal mining sites in Poland. Two geochemical interfaces have been surveyed by sampling sediment, surface and pore waters downstream from coal mining sites: (1) the hyporheic zone of a river, where groundwater tends to mix with surface waters within the river bed; and (2) the wat...
Contamination caused by radium discharged with mine effluents into inland waters
Radioprotection, 2005
One of the most serious problems occurring during coal extraction in Upper Silesia in Poland is caused by waters with very high salinity. These waters often contain also high concentrations of natural radionuclides, mainly 226 Ra from uranium series and 228 Ra from thorium series. At least 70% of the total amount of radium carried by this waters remains nowadays in underground galleries as radioactive deposits. But, during the period of the most extensive coal extraction up to 225 MBq of 226 Ra and 400 MBq of 228 Ra were released daily into surface along with the other mine effluents. As a result of discharge of radium-bearing waters into settling ponds and later into rivers a significant increase of radium concentration in bottom sediments has been observed. Sometimes there is also a contamination of river beds, soils and biota. The paper describes results of investigation of waters and sediments with enhanced natural radioactivity, that occur in settling ponds, where mine waters have been dumped. Measurements of different factors of radiological hazard were made, such as radium content in the soil from ponds' banks, variations of gamma radiation background and radon exhalation. Additionally radium transfer to vegetation that had transgressed into the ponds has been calculated.
Radium isotopes in the Polish Outer Carpathian mineral waters of various chemical composition
Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 2012
The paper presents the activity concentrations of radium isotopes (226 Ra, 228 Ra) and chemical compositions of above 70 mineral water samples collected from several dozens of springs and boreholes localized in the Polish Outer Carpathians. The activity concentrations of both radium isotopes clearly increase with the increase of water TDS, but decrease when the SO 2À 4 content increases. These concentrations vary in the broad interval from a few to near 1000 mBq/L. The coefficient of the linear correlation between concentrations of these isotopes amounts to 0.85, and the activity ratio 226 Ra/ 228 Ra is >1 for chloride-sodium waters, being z1 for hydrogen-carbonate and <1 for the sulfate ones.
Minerals, 2020
Radium-bearing barytes (radiobarytes) have been known since the beginning of the 20th century. They are mainly found as precipitates of low-temperature hydrothermal solutions. In anthropogenic environments, they frequently occur as crusts on oil industry equipment used for borehole extraction, in leachates from uranium mill tailings, and as a by-product of phosphoric acid manufacturing. Recently, we recognized Ra-rich baryte as a precipitate in the water drainage system of a bituminous coal mine in the Czech part of the Upper Silesian Basin. The precipitate is a relatively pure baryte, with the empirical formula (Ba0.934Sr0.058Ca0.051Mg0.003)Σ1.046S0.985O4.000. The mean specific activity of 226Ra was investigated by the two-sample method and it equals 39.62(22) Bq/g, a level that exceeds known natural occurrences. The values for 228Ra and 224Ra are 23.39(26) Bq/g and 11.03(25) Bq/g. The radium content in the baryte is 1.071 ng/g. It is clear that the Ra-rich baryte results from the ...
DETERMINATION OF RADIUM IN MINE WATER FROM THE NORTH OF TRANSYLVANIA, ROMANIA
Groundwater, once surfaced, may contain some radioactive elements that can increase the natural radioactivity levels of different environmental factors, having a varied impact on the ionizing radiation dose received by the human body. This paper presents radium in groundwater concentration measurements from various galleries of disused mines. The studied area is located in Gutâi, Rodna and Maramures Mountains, in the northern region of Transylvania, Romania. In order to determine the radium concentration in the collected water samples, two methods were used, both based on radium and its decay product, radon, secular equilibrium. After achieving the radioactive balance, the radon was measured using two types of scintillation Lucas cells. The obtained values of radium concentration range from 20 to 510 mBq/l for the 1 liter Lucas cell method and from 50 to 501mBq/l for the 145 ml Lucas cell method. The highest radium concentration values were found for samples from Nistru Gallery (510mBq/1, respectively, 501mBq/l) and Herja Gallery -Baia Mare (410 mBq/l, respectively, 463 mBq/ l). The lowest values radium was determined for samples from Boului Gallery -Baia Sprie (20 mBq/l and 50 mBq/l) and Băiuţ Gallery (45 mBq/l, respectively, 50 mBq/l). The average obtained radium concentrations values are of 138 mBq/l for 1l Lucas cell method and 171 mBq/l for 145 ml Lucas cell method.
Hard coal mining activity is one of the Technologically Enhanced Natural Radiation sources introduced more than a hundred years ago in the southern part of Poland. This study of radionuclides (K-40, Ra-226, Ra-228) in river sediments showed the principal factors determining the specific activity of radionuclides are distance from mines and sorption by clay particles in river sediments. The K-40 specific activity varies between 185 and 595 Bq/kg. The highest Ra-228 and Ra-226 specific activities, 280-610 and 205-415 Bq/kg, respectively, were detected in sediments of the Vistula in the vicinity of Silesia region.
ENHANCED NATURAL RADIOACTIVITY IN POLISH HARD COAL MINING INDUSTRY
The radiation risk due to the exposure to natural radionuclides, especially to short-lived radon progeny, is a component of the radiation hazard, common in the natural environment and working environment of people. The effective dose, caused by the exposure to radon (radon progeny), exceeds 50% of the average dose for a man from all sources of the ionising radiation. Under specific circumstances, for example as a result of working in confined space with low ventilation rate (cellars, underground galleries, tunnels, mines), the risk caused by radon and its progeny can be enhanced and can reach significant levels. In Polish mining industry the radiation hazard, caused by natural radionuclides is one among many other natural hazards. It is worth to be point out that besides radon another source of radiation hazard in coal mines is radium, present in underground brines. Sediments, precipitated out from such waters, have enhanced radium content and may cause the increase of external gamm...
Journal of radioanalytical …, 2002
This work characterizes the occurrence of radionuclides 222 Rn and 226 Ra in the mineralized groundwaters of Gorzanów. The village is situated in the Sudeten Mountains, which are known in Poland for having increased concentrations of the aforesaid radionuclides in their groundwaters. However, in Gorzanów, the measured concentrations of 226 Ra were low both in the reservoir rocks and mineralized waters. Consequently, the 222 Rn concentration in the groundwaters also turned out to be low. The 226 Ra content of these waters should mainly be associated with the dissolution of this nuclide, together with other main ions, at large depths, at slightly enhanced temperature. Radon-222, on the other hand, penetrates into the water during its outflow to the surface, in the zones of intensive friable deformations near fault zones. Thus, in the groundwaters of Gorzanów, the concentrations of these nuclides, subsequent in the uranium series, do not have a common genesis and they are not correlated with each other.