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Radiological Studies at the Largest Mining Centers of Armenia

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Abstract—

The mining industry adversely impacts natural environments and contaminates them with accessory elements, including so-called primordial radionuclides: the 238U, 232Th, and 40K isotopes. The towns of Kapan and Kajaran are the largest mining centers of Armenia, at which Cu, Mo, and other metals were mined and processed starting in the 1950s. Our study was centered on the technologically enhanced natural radioactivity of urban soil and wastes of the mining industry and on the evaluation of the radiation doze and excess lifetime cancer risk induced by naturally occurring radioactive materials. These studies have shown that industrial facilities in the town of Kapan are the main factors of the redistribution of radionuclides in the urban soil, but the health risks mostly do not exceed the global average levels because of the low level of the natural radioactivity of the ore. The natural radioactivity of soil in Kajaran is controlled by the parent rocks of the soil (these are intrusive rocks, mostly monzonite), and the mining facilities only insignificantly affect the radioactivity redistribution. The higher natural radioactivity of the urban soils at Kajaran causes a potential health risk.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank the staff of the Department of Environmental Geochemistry at the Center for Ecological–Noosphere Studies, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic Armenia, and the staff of the Laboratory For Environmental Protection of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant for providing factual materials for this research.

Funding

The ecological–geochemical studies in the town of Kajaran were financially supported by the OSCE office in Yerevan and the municipality of the town of Kajaran in 2005. The paedogeochemical survey in the territory of the town of Kapan was financially supported by the OSCE office in Yerevan in 2007. The radiological study was conducted under government-financed research project for the Center for Ecological–Noosphere Studies, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic Armenia, in 2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Ecological–Noosphere Studies, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic Armenia, 0025, Yerevan, Armenia

    G. A. Demirchyan, N. E. Movsisyan, K. I. Pyuskyulyan & O. A. Belyaeva

  2. Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, 0910, Metsamor, Armenia

    K. I. Pyuskyulyan

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  1. G. A. Demirchyan
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  2. N. E. Movsisyan
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  3. K. I. Pyuskyulyan
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  4. O. A. Belyaeva
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Correspondence to O. A. Belyaeva.

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Translated by E. Kurdyukov

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Demirchyan, G.A., Movsisyan, N.E., Pyuskyulyan, K.I. et al. Radiological Studies at the Largest Mining Centers of Armenia. Geochem. Int. 60, 122–136 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702922010049

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702922010049

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