Issues in the disposal of waste containing naturally occurring radioactive material

Microbial communities in a former pilot-scale uranium mine in Eastern Finland - Association with radium immobilization

The bacterial, fungal and archaeal communities were characterized in 17 top soil organic and mineral layer samples and in top sediment samples of the Paukkajanvaara area, a former pilot-scale uranium mine, located in Eno, Eastern Finland, using amplicon sequencing and qPCR. Soil and sediment samples were in addition analyzed for radium (²²⁶Ra), sulfate (SO₄^2-), nitrate (NO₃^-) and phosphate (PO₄^3-) concentrations. New bacterial strains, representing Pseudomonas spp., were isolated from the mine and reference area and used in laboratory experiments on uptake and leaching of radium (Ra). The effect of these strains on the sulfate leaching from the soil samples was also tested in vitro. Between 6 × 10⁶ and 5 × 10⁸ copies g^-1 DW (dry weight) of bacterial 16S rRNA genes, 5 × 10⁵-1 × 10⁸ copies g^-1 DW archaeal 16S rRNA genes and 1 × 10⁵-1 × 10⁸ copies g^-1 DW fungal 5.8S rRNA genes were detected in the samples. A total of 814, 54 and 167 bacterial, archaeal and fungal genera, respectively, were identified. Proteobacteria, Euryarchaeota and Mortiriella were the dominant bacterial, archaeal and fungal phyla, respectively. All tested Pseudomonas spp. strains isolates from Paukkajanvaara removed Ra from the solution, but the amount of removed Ra depended on incubation conditions (temperature, time and nutrient broth). The highest removal of Ra (5320 L/kg DW) was observed by the Pseudomonas sp. strain T5-6-I at 37 °C. All Pseudomonas spp. strains decreased the release of Ra from soil with an average of 23% while simultaneously increasing the concentration of SO₄^2- in the solution by 11%. As Pseudomonas spp. were frequent in both the sequence data and the cultures, these bacteria may play an important role in the immobilization of Ra in the Paukkajanvaara mine area.

Behaviour of radionuclides during microbially-induced mining of nickel at Talvivaara, Eastern Finland

The Talvivaara mine in Eastern Finland utilizes microbe-induced heap leaching to recover nickel and other valuable metals (Zn, Cu, Co) from a black schist ore. In addition to the target metals, the ore contains uranium at a concentration of 17 mg/kg, incorporated as uraninite (UO2). Uranium oxidizes from the U(IV) to U(VI) state during leaching and dissolves as the uranyl ion (UO2(2+)) in the acidic pregnant leach solution. Mobilisation of uranium has caused sufficient concern that plans have been developed for uranium recovery. The aim of this study is to generate new data leading to a better understanding of the fate of its radiotoxic daughter nuclides, primarily (226)Ra, (210)Pb and (210)Po, in the mining process. It is shown that uranium daughters mostly remain in the heaps during the leaching process and are associated with secondary minerals, including jarosite, goethite and gypsum. Thorium and progeny ((232)Th plus (228)Th, (228)Ra) are also mainly retained. High sulphate concentrations in the acidic solutions limit the solubility of radium by incorporation in the crystal lattices of precipitated secondary sulphates. Electron probe microanalysis shows that goethite in the heaps is uraniferous, resulting from the adsorption of U(VI). After recovery of target metals, the pregnant leach solution is neutralized to further remove metal contaminants and the resulting slurries stored in a bunded tailings pond. The activity concentrations of thorium, radium, lead and polonium isotopes are generally low in the pond owing to prior retention by secondary minerals in the heaps. However, (238)U activity concentrations range up to 3375 Bq/kg, which exceeds the permitted value (1000 Bq/kg) for natural radionuclides of the (238)U series.

In situ radiometric mapping as a proxy of sediment contamination: Assessment of the underlying geochemical and -physical principles

Correlations between sediment contaminants like heavy metals or organic micro-compounds and natural or anthropogenic radionuclides ((40)K, (238)U, (232)Th, (137)Cs) facilitates in situ mapping of the contaminated sediment using gamma-ray detectors. These maps can be made quickly and economically using surveys with towed underwater gamma-ray detectors and based on the fundamental correlation of contaminants with radioactivity. This paper aims at an assessment of the geochemical and -physical principles underlying these correlations. This assessment uses multivariate analysis of a data base containing information on radionuclides and contaminants for a large number of sediment samples used to derive radionuclide-contaminant correlations in radiometric mapping projects in freshwater bodies of the Netherlands. More specifically, the aims of this study are to test if these correlations are valid for the entire Dutch freshwater environment and to investigate the validity of the thesis that these correlations are mainly due to the presence of clay.