Determination of radionuclide concentration and radiological hazard in soil and water near the uranium tailings reservoir in China

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of the study area and locations of sampling sites

Table 1. Activity concentration statistics of ²³⁸U, ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K in the soil samples

Location		Average (Bq g^−1)	Standard Deviation	CV (%)	Minimum (Bq g^−1)	Maximum (Bq g^−1)	National average [31] (Bq g^−1)	World average [23] (Bq g^−1)
Inside the reservoir	^238U	20.69	4.36	21.1	14.07	31.24	0.038	0.033
	^226Ra	12.85	1.82	14.1	8.27	16.06	0.037	0.035
	^232Th	1.21	0.24	19.9	0.70	1.58	0.055	0.045
	^40K	5.14	1.30	25.3	2.89	8.60	0.58	0.420
Outside the reservoir	^238U	7.97	6.14	77.1	1.65	18.13	0.038	0.033
	^226Ra	7.00	6.51	93.0	1.67	21.35	0.037	0.035
	^232Th	0.67	0.53	78.5	0.17	1.40	0.055	0.045
	^40K	2.65	2.09	78.8	0.75	6.42	0.58	0.420

Table 2. Activity concentrations of ²³⁸U, ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K (Bq kg⁻¹) in soils from the study area and those from other countries

Description	^238U		^226Ra		^232Th		^40K		reference
	Mean	Range	Mean	Range	Mean	Range	Mean	Range
Uranium mine, Spain	-	64–3388	NG	81–11038	NG	43–84	NG	NG	[30]
Tailings site, Tajikistan	-	270–1300	NG	770–26000	NG	20–73	NG	NG	[46]
Uranium mine, Portugal	2,530 ± 94	NG	24,717 ± 2039	NG	412 ± 32	NG	NG	NG	[37]
Uranium tailings, China	-	225–7538	NG	174–14426	NG	68–458	NG	675–3279	[47]
This work	20,690	14,070–31240	12,850	8270–16060	1210	700– 1581	5140	2890–8599

NG: Not given

Figure 2. Average radionuclide concentrations in various media

Table 3. Statistics of the radionuclide concentrations in water samples from the study area

	Average	Standard Deviation	CV (%)	Minimum	Maximum	Background (Bq L^−1)	Guidelines level (Bq L^−1)
	(Bq L^−1)			(Bq L^−1)	(Bq L^−1)
^238U	4.73	4.48	0.95	1.82	16.99	0.87	10 [33]
^226Ra	3.92	5.45	1.39	0.27	13.52	0.72	1.1 (GAQSIQ 2009)
^232Th	0.44	0.47	1.06	0.06	1.31	0.23	1.0 [33]
^40K	2.17	1.04	0.48	0.36	3.48	3.00	N/A

Table 4. Chemical parameters of the water samples

Site	pH	Electrical Conductivity (EC) μS/cm	Water type
W-1	7.92	1248	surface water
W-2	7.98	2553	surface water
W-3	8.74	2642	surface water
W-4	7.74	1049	discharged water
W-5	5.64	1386	discharged water
W-6	7.06	307	discharged water
W-7	4.59	725	surface water
W-8	6.00	667	surface water
W-9	8.28	118.3	surface water
W-10	5.84	31.9	surface water
W-11	7.84	221	surface water

Figure 3. Plots of pH versus nuclide contents in discharged water and surface water

Table 5. Radionuclide concentrations and transfer factors (TF) at two water sampling locations and in the soil

	Soil average (Bq kg^−1)	W-4 (Bq L^−1)	W-9 (Bq L^−1)	TFW-4	TFW-9
^238U	2.07E+04	16.99	1.82	8.21E-04	8.78E-05
^226Ra	1.29 E + 04	1.37	0.45	1.06E-04	3.46E-05
^232Th	1.21 E + 03	0.18	0.06	1.49E-04	4.71E-05
^40K	5.13 E + 04	2.60	3.48	5.07E-04	6.78E-04

Table 6. Radiation hazard indices calculated using the results obtained from the study area

Parameter	Dγ	AEDEout	AGDE	ELCRout	Sites
	(nGy h^−1)	(mSv y^−1)	(mSv y^−1)
Average	6884	8.4	46	31	Inside reservoir
Range	4561 ~ 8351	5.6 ~10.2	31 ~ 56	21 ~ 38
Average	3751	4.6	25	17	Outside reservoir
Range	938 ~ 10,955	1.2 ~ 13.4	6 ~ 74	4 ~ 49
World average	57 [12]	0.07 [12]	0.30 [45]	0.29 [25]

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