TL:RADIO-ECOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN THE SURROUNDINGS OF MAPE URANIUM ORE PROCESSING PLANT NEAR CESKE BUDEJOVICE IN SOUTHERN BOHEMIA (CSFR CZECHOSLOVAKIA) SO: Greenpeace International (GP) DT: November 1990 Keywords: nuclear power czechoslovakia europe east uranium tailings mining problems radiation greenpeace reports gp / ****************** OESTERREICHISCHES OEKOLOGIEINSTITUT fuer angewandte Umweltforschung A-1070 Wien, Seideng. 13 Tel. (0222) 93 61 05 Gamma-Strahlenmessstelle Waehringerstr. 59/WUK, A-1090 Wien, Tel. (0222) 408 22 89 OEI-GAM--24 Peter Bossew: Radio-Ecological Investigations in the Surroundings of MAPE Uranium Ore Processing Plant near Ceske Budejovice in Southern Bohemia (CSFR) Report on behalf on Greenpeace Austria, (C) Nov. 1990 CONTENTS: 0. Introduction and summary.................. 3 1. External radiation........................ 7 2. Soil...................................... 10 3. Plants.................................... 11 4. Creek and lake sediments; surface water... 13 5. Ground water.............................. 16 6. Air....................................... 18 7. Tailings.................................. 19 8. Impact on humans.......................... 22 9. Experimental ............................. 25 10. References................................ 27 11. Tables.................................... 28 12. Maps and figures.......................... 39 S U M M A R Y: During the last years problems associated with uranium mining and processing have been given more attention than before. For 50 years, uranium has often been mined with neither regard to economical nor to ecological and radiological concerns. The results are landscapes devastated by open cut mines, dumps and pit disposed properly, contaminated ground water and health statistics showing elevated cancer fatality rates of uranium miners and workers. But also recently built uranium mining facilities involve various radiological problems, as can be seen, for example, in new Australian mines like Ranger, though much better safety efforts are now being made. - 2 - It has turned out that the part of nuclear fuel "cycle" which contributes most to the total dose induced by the use of nuclear energy is uranium ore mining and processing (normal operation with minor accidents assumed, i.e. nuclear wars and Chernobyl-type events excluded). Thus, though less spectacular than other parts of the fuel "cycle", the head end is most probably the dirtiest one. It must be emphasized that uranium ore mining and processing has not only radiological hazards. There is also a potential impact due to "conventional" chemical pollutants like sulphuric acid and heavy metals which take part in or are a byproduct or uranium processing. Furthermore, other types of negative impact have to be considered as well. These are 1) the land consumption which is very high for uranium mining and processing compared to the exploitation of other minerals and 2) the social impact on indigenous peoples as it occurs, e.g., in the U.S.A., Canada, Africa, Australia (This aspect, however, does not apply to Czechoslovakia). This report is restricted to some radio-ecological aspects of MAPE operation. Due to lack of time and money the investigations could not be done as systematically and completely as they should be for providing a data base being sufficient for a quantitative estimation of the radiological impact of MAPE. Furthermore, part of the investigations had to be made illegally, since co-operation with MAPE was not possible. Therefore, samples from the MAPE plant area had to be taken without permission (which was not difficult, however, since there are no fences). The main results of this report are: 1. There is a significant influence of MAPE on the environment. - Outside the MAPE plant and associated facilities area, at locations where public access is possible, external dose rates up to several times the natural background can be found. - Outside the actual MAPE plant area, but within the area of associated facilities like waste and tailings disposals, at locations where public access is possible, external dose rates up to 200 times the natural background can be found. - In soil and crop samples taken in the vicinity of MAPE elevated radium levels can be found. - The situation is unclear with respect to drinking water. Some results of surveys made by Czechoslovakian authorities suggest that ground water contamination has already occurred. - 3 - - Contamination of creek, lake and Vltava river sediments can be found. - Whereas elevated dose rates and elevated soil and crop contamination levels could only be found in the immediate vicinity of MAPE area, ground water (possibly) and sediment contamination can occur also in relatively far distances. 2. Places with material highly contaminated by radium like tailings or waste and debris material, with Ra-226 contaminations up to 800.000 (Bq/kg), are easily accessible to the public. 3. The present operation of MAPE would most probably not be legal in Austria and in West Germany. 4. It can be assumed that the time range of exposure due to MAPE operation will be some 100 000 years. The reason for that are the long half lives of Ra-226 (1 620 years) and its parent nuclide Th- 230 (75 000 years), both being accumulated in the tailings. (Uranium itself (4.5 billion years halflife) is not taken into account for this consideration. But although extracted by MAPE the U content of the tailings is still much higher than the natural background level in the region is.) This is why the tailings can be considered to be a potential radiological hazard. 5. Data are not sufficient for an estimation of doses received by the local population. Several exposure pathways must be taken into consideration which requires a large amount of contamination data. However, a non-occupational additional exposure due to MAPE of several 100 (uSv/a) (several (mrem/a) seem easily possible to us. We have no data about occupational exposure. Sediments and surface water: ---------------------------- A particularly interesting result is reported for the location where the MAPE effluents were led into Vltava river near the town of Hluboka. Upstream of this location the authors found 0.03 (Bq/l) gross-alpha, at the inlet the activity was 1.66 (Bq/l) (samples taken Sept. 18, 1980). Ground water: ------------- Only between 1985 and 1988 a dramatic rise in Ra-226 activities can be observed, with peak values 5 times or more the "background" value reported before. In 1988 and 1989, a clear decrease in Ra activity can be observed. (Fig. 7) - 4 - Air: ---- Parts of tailings dams not being used anymore have dried out, so that there is serious concern about resuspension of radioactive dust (= dust being raised by wind). Tailings: --------- Some of the tailings and deposits of drainage sediments and waste material have been found im immediate vicinity of agricultural areas. Therefore, they can be considered to be a potential radiological hazard. Waste and debris material from the plant, such as engine parts, have been disposed at a site which is very easily accessible to the public. The radium activity concentration of some of this material (sample Nos. 5-11, 7-3 to 7-5) is extremely high (higher than in uranium ore). The maximum Ra-226 activity concentration was 815 300 (Bq/kg). Waste disposal as it is done at MAPE would not be legal in Austria. According to Austrian nuclear regulations, storage of radioactive material of natural origin with activity concentrations of more than 500 000 (Bq/kg) is only allowed in especially marked containers and rooms. Thus, we think that current operation of MAPE would violate Austrian nuclear regulations. Soil profiles analyzed show that soil layers deeper than 0.5 (m) are still contaminated by the effluents. However, the data available to us are not sufficient to give information about radium migration rates. The preventive measures against radium proliferation into the environment seem to be very poor. A "recycling system" for the contaminated waste water from the plant has been installed. The water is re-pumped onto a former tailings dam (K1) which is now covered with soil and grass. Liquids leaching out of this dam are collected in a drainage creek and pumped back again, and so on. However, the waste water creek is a non covered stream and is separated from the environment only by a wooden slider valve (see fig. 8) samples 2-11 and 2-12). From there, excess waste water is led into a retention pond and subsequently into Soudny potok creek (see map 3 and fig. 11). This creek leads into Bezdrev swimming lake and further into Vltava river. In our view, this retention system does not provide an appropriate protection against spreading of radioactive pollutants, neither with respect to long term normal operation of MAPE, nor to accidental pollution. - 5 - Impact on humans: ----------------- Radium is known to be one of the most radiotoxic substances, being comparable to plutonium. But the effluents of uranium ore processing do not only consist of Ra but also of all other members of both U-238 and U-235 decay series with each of them having its specific toxicity plus a spectrum of "conventional" chemicals such as heavy metals, andprocessing products like sulphuric acid. However, we restrict ourselves to radiological exposure and to Ra in particular. In W-Germany the nuclear regulations allow operation of nuclear installations only if the annual dose at the "critical location" does not exceed 30 (mrem). This means that MAPE could not be operated legally in W-Germany (from the radiological point of view). Dose and risk: -------------- Since the migration of radium in the environment is a very long- term effect (with a time scale of some 100 000 years) we can be sure that the major part of the radiological dose (integrated over many generations) produced by MAPE is still to come, even when the plant has been closed and even when nobody will remember that it ever existed. [Greenbase Inventory December 29, 1990 ] =======#=======