Abstract
Radionuclides from uranium and thorium series were analyzed to evaluate the radiological quality of the released wastewater from a uranium mine under decommissioning process. The results based on Pearson's R2 analysis showed that the activity concentration of radionuclides in soluble and particulate fractions were statistically independent. The wastewater poses no radiological impacts to surrounding waters, generating maximum dose rates of 65 µSv·y−1. Cancer risk was analyzed, and the value found is below that suggested to undertake some actions. Among the radionuclides studied, 210Pb and 228Ra were the major contributors to both dose rate and cancer risk.
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Individual contributions to the paper using the relevant CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) roles. WSP Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Supervision, Writing—review & editing. AK Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing—review & editing. JML Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. ASC Methodology, Supervision, Writing—review & editing. CBE Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. ELCC Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. FL Data curation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing—review & editing. AXS Project administration, Supervision, Funding acquisition.
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Pereira, W.S., Kelecom, A., Lopes, J.M. et al. Radiological quality of wastewater released from a waste dam containing natural radionuclides. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 332, 2419–2433 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07973-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07973-9