Uranium in the Environment, 2006
Mining Impact and Consequences

Uranium is an element to be found ubiquitous in rock, soil, and water. Uranium concentrations in natural ground water can be more than several hundreds µg/l without impact from mining, nuclear industry, and fertilizers. Considering the WHO recommendation for drinking water of 15 µg/l (has been as low as 2 µg/l before) due to the chemical toxicity of uranium the element uranium has become an important issue in environmental research. Besides natural enrichment of uranium in aquifers uranium mining and milling activities, further uranium processing to nuclear fuel, emissions form burning coal and oil, and the application of uranium containing phosphate fertilizers may enrich the natural uranium concentrations in soil and water by far. In October 1995 the first international conference on Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology (UMH I) was held in Freiberg being organized by the Department of Geology at the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg by the support of the Saxon State Ministry of Geology and Environment. Due to the large scientific interest in the topic of uranium a second conference (UMH II) took place in Freiberg in September 1998. Furthermore, in September 2002 scientists working on the topic of uranium mining and hydrogeology attended the third conference (UMH III) which was jointly held together with the International Mine Water - sociation (IMWA) Symposium 2002. The reviewed papers and posters of the 2002 conference have been published by Springer entitled Uranium in the aquatic en- ronment (edited by Merkel, Planer-Friedrich and Wolkersdorfer).

Long-term Aspects of Uranium Mining Remediation.- Returning the WISMUT Legacy to Productive Use.- The Effects of Weathering and Diagenetic Processes on the Geochemical Stability of Uranium Mill Tailings.- Long term fate of uranium tailings in mountain areas.- Rock phosphates and P fertilizers as sources of U contamination in agricultural soils.- Monitoring of natural radionuclides in soils as a tool for precision farming - methodical aspects.- Electrophoretic characterization of thorium species in very dilute solutions containing humic acid.- Field Portable and Autonomous Immunosensors for the Detection of Environmental Contaminants.- A method to measure arsenic readily released to pore waters from uranium mill tailings.- Impact of humic acid on the uranium migration in the environment.- Uranium speciation in two Freital mine tailing samples: EXAFS, µ-XRD, and µ-XRF results.- Site characterisation of the potential Natural Analogue Site Heselbach in Bavaria/Germany.- Speciation of Colloid-borne Uranium by EXAFS and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy.- Influence of allochthonous plant litter on the fixation of Uranium in sediments.- Advanced Investigations of Unconventional Uranium and Thorium Deposits by In-Situ ?-EDXRF Analysis.- Depleted Uranium (DU ) — Chemo- and Radiotoxicity.- Effect of uranium and cadmium uptake on oxidative stress reactions for Phaseolus vulgaris.- Coupled Microbial and Chemical Reactions in Uranium Bioremediation.- Biotransformation of uranium complexed with organic ligands.- Changes of bacterial community structure of a uranium mining waste pile sample induced by addition of U(VI).- Sorption mechanisms and models. Their influence on transport calculation.- Simulation of propagation of leachate after the ISL mining closure.- Raffinate Neutralization Experiments at the McClean Lake Mill — Removal of Arsenic and Nickel.- Dynamical Models for Uranium Leaching — Production and Remediation Cases.- Development of a 2-D modeling system for reactive transport in variable saturated porous media.- Modelling of uranium release from waste rock pile.- The Role of Groundwater-Stream Interactions for Uranium Fluxes in Fluvial Systems.- Long-term performance of reactive materials in PRBs for uranium remediation.- Uranium leaching during short term application of pit-water on a carbonate containing soil in the Mendoza province of Argentina.- Simultaneous In-Situ Immobilisation of Uranium and Arsenic by Injectible Iron and Stimulated Autotrophic Sulphate Reduction.- The modeling system for finding the optimal mining and wastewater discharge.- Pilot Scale RAPS-System in Gernrode/Harz Mountains.- Passive Biological Treatment Systems of Mine Waters at WISMUT Sites.- Uranium Fate in Saturated Porous Media under Arsenic, Iron and Bacteria Influence: The Role of Potassium.- Interaction of uranium from seepage water with hydroxyapatite.- Integrated water protection approaches under the WISMUT project: The Ronneburg case.- The results of the pilot plant study for arsenic removal.- Uranium in natural wetlands: a hydrogeochemical approach to reveal immobilization processes.- Removal of heavy metals, arsenic and uranium from model solutions and mine drainage waters.- Passive Treatment of Minewater at the Schlema-Alberoda Site.- Decommissioning of Uranium mill tailings ponds at WISMUT (Germany).- Characterizing Uranium Solubilization Under Natural Near Oxic Conditions.- The optimal strategy of cleaning of fucoid sandstone.- A novel technology for sealing and immobilization — the use of precipitation processes from supersaturated solutions.- Variation in heavy metal uptake by crop plants.- Phytoavailability of uranium: influence of plant species and soil characteristics.- Uranium accumulator plants from the centre of Portugal — their potential to phytoremediation.- Soil treatment with nitrogen facilitates continuous phytoextraction of heavy metals.- Possible biomineralisation of uranium in Lemna gibba G3.- Accumulation of natural radionuclides in wooden and grass vegetation from abandoned uranium mines. Opportunities for phytoremediation.- Study of radiophytoremediation on heavily polluted area in South Bohemia.- Localisation of uranium in roots by chemical extractions and by a short term uptake study. Influence of phosphate..- Study of the chemical leaching of uranium from several mineralogical layers.- Environmental Management and Optimization of In-situ-Leaching at Beverley.- Favourable Factors for Uranium Mineralization in District Surguja, India.- Long-term aspects of waste rock piles and tailing in Kyrgyzstan.- Risk assessment of emergency situation initiation in the uranium tailings of Kyrgyzstan.- Environmental regulation of uranium mining in Australia.- Former mining activities influence Uranium concentrations in the Elbe river near Magdeburg.- Modelling Underground Ventilation Networks and Radon Flow for Radiological Protection Using VUMA.- Integration of Life Cycle Assessments in the decision-making process for environmental protection measures and remedial action at active and abandoned mining sites.- Simulation of Liberation and Transport of Radium from Uranium Tailings.- Preliminary Hydrogeologic Investigations of Nubia Sandstone and fractured Basement Aquifers in the Area between El Shalateen and Halayeb, Eastern Desert, Egypt.- Development of water-borne radioactive discharges at WISMUT and resulting radiation exposures.- Radionuclide Data for Geothermal Prospection — A Contribution to the Geothermal Resources Map of Saxony.- Contaminated Sediments in the Elbe Basin and its Tributary Mulde.- Lead isotope ratios as a tracer for contaminated waters from uranium mining and milling.- Moab, Utah, UMTRA Site: The last large uranium mill tailings pile to be cleaned up in the United States.- U isotopic fractionation — a process characterising groundwater systems.- Contamination of Hydrographic Bassins in Uranium Mining Areas of Portugal.- Environmental impact evaluation of uranifer waste dumps from mining explorations — Barzava mine.- Hydrochemical Aspects of the Flooding of the Mine Königstein — A Water Mixing Model for Recognizing the Influence of Groundwater by Contaminated Water.- The use of BaSO4 supersaturated solutions for in-situ immobilization of heavy metals in the abandoned Wismut GmbH uranium mine at Königstein.- Management of uranium mill tailings and associated environmental monitoring in India.- Cover and final landform design for the B-zone waste rock pile at Rabbit Lake Mine.- A GPS-Based System for Radium/Uranium Contamination Gamma Scanning.- Use of underground excavated space for disposal of low radioactive mining waste resulted from uranium ore exploitation. Study case.- Changes in discharged water quality from abandoned uranium mines near Kalna.- Environmental impact evaluation of a pilot installation for “in situ” processing for uranium ore.- Concept of a Surface Water Monitoring at the Former Uranium Mining Site Schlema-Alberoda.- Potential environmental impact resulting from inadequate remediation of uranium mining in the Karoo Uranium Province, South Africa.- Regulating Idle Uranium Mines In Canada.- Long-term Impacts of Gold and Uranium Mining on Water Quality in Dolomitic Regions — examples from the Wonderfonteinspruit catchment in South Africa.- Tracer Tests as a Mean of Remediation Procedures in Mines.- Typification of Radioactive Contamination Conditions in Ground Water at the Semipalatinsk Test Site.- Spatial and temporal variations in the uranium series background in Alpine groundwater.- Distribution Pattern Uranium Isotopes in Lake Sediments.- Origin of high 234U/238U ratio in post-permafrost aquifers.- Uranium in phosphate fertilizer production.- Uranium contents in acidic lakes and groundwater of Lower Lusatia (Germany).- Changes in Uranium concentration in the Weisse Elster River as a mirror of the Remediation in the former WISMUT mining area.- Factors affecting the plant availability of uranium in soils.