Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T01:42:15.792Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Phytotechnology – is there a possibility to use it for land reclamation of areas contaminated by Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2009

J. Barescut ,
B. Michalik ,
M. Wysocka  and
I. Chmielewska
B. Michalik
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Radiometry, Główny Instytut Górnictwa, Plac Gwarków 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
M. Wysocka
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Radiometry, Główny Instytut Górnictwa, Plac Gwarków 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
I. Chmielewska
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Radiometry, Główny Instytut Górnictwa, Plac Gwarków 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
Get access

Abstract

Presently, excavation and shipping to a distant waste disposal site is the most commonly used method for handling waste contaminated with radionuclides. Due to international recommendation waste containing enhanced concentration of natural radioactivity should be treated in the same way. In case of TENORMs, which usually occur in huge quantity, this method would be very expensive and can be disruptive to the environment in which the contamination was found as well as direct effects of this pollutant occurrence.

Biological treatment methods, such as phytoextraction or at last phytostabilisation could provide an attractive alternative to the excavation of waste. It is entirely possible that methods successful for heavy metals may be successful for the radioactive elements. Seven-years observation of the a settling pond contaminated with radium isotopes showed that even natural plant transgression into contaminated area can be an effective tool to stabilize pollutants. On the other hand, the assessment of the effectiveness of phytoextraction based on natural plants gave not so promising results.

Type
Research Article
Information
Radioprotection , Volume 44 , Issue 5: ECORAD 2008 - Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity , 2009 , pp. 799 - 804
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Tomza I., Lebecka J., Radium Bearing Waters in Coal Mines. Proc of Int. Conf. on Radiation Hazard in Mining. Golden, Colorado, USA, (1981).
S. Chałupnik, B. Michalik, M. Wysocka, Wysoka. Skubacz. A. Mielnikow. Contamination of settling ponds and rivers as a result of discharge of radium bearing waters from Polish coal mines, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Volume 54 number 1, (2001).
Michalik B. Wysocka M., Chałupnik S., Skubacz K., Mielnikow A., Trząski L., Contamination Caused by Radium Discharged with Mine Effluents into Inland Waters, Radioprotection, Volume 40, Suppl.1 p. 503–509, (2005).
Chau N.D., Chrus'ciel E. Leaching of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials Applied Radiation and Isotopes 65, 968–974 (2007).
Leopold Karsten; Michalik Boguslaw; Wiegand Jens. Availability of radium isotopes and heavy metals from scales and tailings of Polish hard coal mining. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 94 (2007) pp. 137–150.
Michalik B. The assessment of exposure to ionizing radiation at spoil banks. Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials “NORM IV”. IAEA-TECDOC-1472, IAEA, p. 104–116, (2005)
Victor Madu Ibeanusi, Denise Antonia Grab, Larry Jensen, Stephen Ostrodka Radionuclide Biological Remediation Resource Guide. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA 905-B-04-001 (2004). www.epa.gov/region5superfund
El Afifi E.M., Awwad N.S., Hilal M.A., Sequential chemical treatment of radium species in TENORM waste sludge produced from oil and natural gas production, J. Hazard. Mater. (2008), doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2008.04.036. (article in press) CrossRef