Abstract
Since 1989, collected discharges of uranium loads via the water pathway have dropped from a total of 27.5 tonnes to less than 3 tonnes in 2004. Commissioning of modern water treatment plants has greatly contributed to this achievement. Resulting site-specific effective doses to the population are significantly below 1 mSv/a. However, diffuse discharges of contaminated seepage or percolation waters from tailings ponds may cause doses in the order of 1 mSv/a. Capping operations are instrumental in reducing the diffuse discharge of radioactive effluents via the water pathway to a reasonably low level.
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References
Wismut (2000) Environmental impact assessment for the remedial measure “Final Covering of the Trünzig Tailings Pond” (Umweltbewertung für die Sanierungsmaßnahme “Endabdeckung der IAA Trünzig”); WISMUT GmbH, Department of Engineering; WIS-S178/6, Chemnitz, November 2000 (in German)
BMU (1999) Guidelines on How to Calculate Effective Doses Caused by Natural Radioactivity at Mining Sites“ (Berechnungsgrundlagen zur Ermittlung der Strahlenexposition infolge bergbaubedingter Umweltradioaktivität-Berechnungsgrundlagen Bergbau), Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Protection and Reactor Safety, Bonn, July 1999 (in German)
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© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Schmidt, P., Lindner, T. (2006). Development of water-borne radioactive discharges at WISMUT and resulting radiation exposures. In: Merkel, B.J., Hasche-Berger, A. (eds) Uranium in the Environment. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-28367-6_64
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-28367-6_64
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-28363-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-28367-6
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