Impact of mining and fuel and energy enterprises on the radiation background of territories

Abstract

This review provides information on the radiation situation in mining and energy production facilities. Mining activities are considered as one of the significant sources of radioactivity. Many radionuclides and metals that are transported by surface and ground waters, air flows over significant distances, contaminating soils, subsoil and bottom sediments of the adjacent territory, forming geochemically specific naturaltechnogenic areas. In this work is given an overview of radiation conditions in the territories of potassium phosphate, hydrocarbon and coal deposits. Developed potassium ores are the source of 40K emission into the environment. According to the results obtained, the migration of investigated radionuclides is limited to the zone of 2 km. Only an insignificant part of the investigated samples (8%) exceeds the world average activity of 40K for soils. In bottom sediments, the average activity of 40K does not exceed the values for other territories with anthropogenic impact. More than 30 million tonnes of phosphate fertilizers are consumed worldwide each year, and their use increases crop production. However, a possible negative effect of these fertilisers is the contamination of cultivated land with some natural radionuclides. Uranium concentrations in phosphate vary from 37 to 4900 Bq/kg for 238U and from 100 to 10 000 Bq/kg for 226Ra. The amount of radioactivity in oil, gas and formation water is estimated through determination of 40K, 226Ra, 232Th. According to the published data, increased radiation background is observed near wellheads, in the places of oil sludge accumulation, near the flares at oil and gas enterprises, as a result of bringing a number of natural and man-made radionuclides (226Ra, 232Th, 40K, 137Cs, 90Sr, etc.) to the day surface. Coal mines are sources of radioactive contamination. This results from the extraction of large amounts of natural radionuclides from the subsoil together with the coal. This paper presents the average natural radionuclides content in coals from some of the world’s coal mines. With the development of mining and fuel-energy complexes, there is an active export to the surface together with minerals of natural radionuclides 40K, 232Th, 226Ra, 238U, which leads to an increase in the radiation load on the environment. In this connection, the problems of ensuring radiation safety at the facilities of mining and fuel and energy industry require the closest attention.