Radiological impact of uranium tailings and alternatives for their management
Uncontrolled tailings piles are mobile sources of fugitive dust that may produce a practically uncleanable adjacent environment. A practical procedure for managing solid tailings is addition of surface moisture, mechanical and gravitational separation of slimes, and storage of slimes below solution tailings. Presently practical alternatives for tailings management are variations of two basic methods - surface below-ground disposal. Isolation of tailings by natural materials such as clay lenses and combinations of overburden, top soil, vegetation and rip-rap may provide both minimization of exposure and stability. Experimental measurement of radon flux over two inactive tailings, acid and carbonate leached tailings resulted in average specific flux values of phi infinity approx. = 0.64 and phi infinity approx. = 0.30 (pCi Rn-222/m/sup 2/ sec) / (pCi Ra-226/g), respectively. The average diffusion coefficient for these tailings were, respectively, 2.4 x 10/sup -3/ and 5.7 x 10/sup -4/ cm/sup 2//sec. Tailings covered with native soil of clay-silt-sand mixture to a depth of 225 cm resulted in attenuation of flux with diffusion coefficients of 3.69 x 10/sup -3/ and 3.60 x 10/sup -3/ cm/sup 2//sec for ACID and ALKO sites, respectively. By means of the UDAD code dose commitments were estimated for inhalation of particulates and radon and for external exposure under three degrees of surface moisture on the tailings. Based on these analyses and assumption that the dose contribution from ingestion pathway is comparable in magnitude to that of inhalation, both compliance with the 25 mrem/year limit and reduction of flux to background level is feasible. Stability of alternative decommissioned tailings over the predictable future is discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31-109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 6148068
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-790209-7; TRN: 79-016890
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 12. Health Physics Society midyear topical symposium, Williamsburg, VA, USA, 12 Feb 1979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
FEED MATERIALS PLANTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
HUMAN POPULATIONS
RADIATION DOSES
MILL TAILINGS
AEROSOLS
ALPHA SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE PATHWAY
PARTICLES
URANIUM ORES
COLLOIDS
DISPERSIONS
DOSES
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
ION SOURCES
MANAGEMENT
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ORES
PARTICLE SOURCES
POPULATIONS
RADIATION SOURCES
SOLID WASTES
SOLS
TAILINGS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
054000* - Nuclear Fuels- Health & Safety
052000 - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Management