Tailings uranium milling

National Academies 1987. Scientific Basis for Risk Assessment and Management of Uranium Mill Tailings, Uranium Mill Tailings Study Panel, National Academy Press, Washington DC, USA, also DOE/DP/93032. 

Control layers, such as those used to minimize animal intrusion, promote drainage, and control and collect landfill gas, are often included for conventional cover systems and may also be incorporated into ET cover system designs. For example, a proposed monolithic ET cover at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico will have a biointrusion fence with 1/4-in. squares between the topsoil layer and the native soil layer to prevent animals from creating preferential pathways, potentially resulting in percolation. The biointrusion layer, however, will not inhibit root growth to allow for transpiration. At another site, Monticello Uranium Mill Tailings Site in Utah, a capillary barrier ET design has a 12-in. soil/rock admixture as an animal intrusion layer located 44 in. below the surface, directly above the capillary barrier layer. 

Uranium Mill Tailings Repository, UT (ACAP project) Hazardous waste landfill Operational July 2000... 

A major objective in developing these risk estimation procedures was to provide a method capable of evaluating hundreds of properties in several communities within the DOE Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Program in a timely manner. Therefore, we chose a calculation scheme that could be performed using commercially available database software (dBASE II, a trademark of Ashton-Tate, Culver City, CA), but that at the same time would be flexible enough that assessments for other contaminants could be readily incorporated. 

We have previously documented the methodology (Marks et al., 1985a) and presented a summary of the technique (Marks et al., 1985b) at the Maastricht, The Netherlands, Seminar on Exposure to Enhanced Natural Radiation and Its Regulatory Implications. This paper represents a synthesis of the work we have conducted to date on risk assessment at uranium mill tailings vicinity properties. 

Table II Range of Observed Radiation Levels and Radionuclide Concentrations at Uranium Mill Tailings Vicinity Properties...

Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Surveys of the Uranium Mill Tailings Pile and Surrounding Areas, Salt Lake City, Report No. EPA-520/6-74-006, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Las Vegas, NV (1974). 

Donahue, R., Hendry, M.J., Landine, P. 2000. Distribution of arsenic and nickel in uranium mill tailings, Rabbit Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. Applied Geochemistry, 15, 1097-1119. 

Keywords phytoremediation, radionuclides, 137-caesium, 90-strontium, 125-iodine, uranium, radium, uranium mill tailings, biomonitoring... 

Radium, thorium, and other radionuclides accumulate in uranium mill tailings. The potential environmental effects of these radionuclides has become of increasing concern to the public. In the future, it may be necessary to modify existing uranium recovery processes to accommodate removal of radium and perhaps other radioactive decay products of uranium. 

Bradbury, J. W. 2002. Insights from process-level modeling of contaminant transport from uranium mill tailings. Annual Meeting Geological Society of America, Denver, CO, United States, 2002. 

Crim, R. G., Shepherd, T. A. Nelson, J. D. 1979. Stability of natural clay liners in a low pH environment. Proc. Second Symposium on Uranium Mill Tailings Management, Fort Collins, CO, USA, 19-20 November, 1979, 41-53. 

Dodson, M. E., Opitz, B. E. Sherwood, D. R. 1985. Two-reagent neutralization scheme for controlling the migration of contaminants from a uranium mill tailings disposal pond, PNL-SA-12629 CONF-850242,Managementof uranium mill tailings, low-level waste and hazardous waste. Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium, Fort Collins, CO, 6-8 February 1985, 401-410. 

DOE 1996. Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Ground Water Project, DOE/ EIS-0198, DOE, Washington, USA. 

Fernades, H. M., Franklin, M. R., Veiga, L. H. S., Freitas, P. Gomiero, L. A. 1996. Management of uranium mill tailing geochemical processes and radiological risk assessment. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 30, 69-95. 

Levins, D. M., Ring, R. J. Hart, K. P. 1983. Mobilization of radionuclides and heavy metals in uranium mill and tailings dam circuits. Proc. Scientific Workshop on the Environmental Protection in the Alligator Rivers Region, sponsored by the Office of the Supervising Scientist, Jabiru, NT, Australia, 17-20 May, 10-1. 

Ruhlmann, F., Pacquet, A., Reyx, J., Thiry, J., Pagel, M. Somot, S. 1996. Evidence of dia-genetic processes in uranium mill tailings from the Ecarpiere Uranium Deposit (COGEMA - France). Proceedings of the Waste Management Conference WM 96, Tucson, AZ, 25-29 February. 

Spangler, R. Morrison, S. J. 1991. Laboratory-scale tests of a chemical barrier for use at uranium mill tailings disposal sites, CONF-910981. In Wood, D. E. (ed) Proceedings Environmental Remediation 91 Cleaning Up the Environment for the 21st Century, Pasco, WA, 8-11 September, 739-744. 

Plan for Mill Tailings Sites Under Title II of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act. US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington DC, USA, NUREG-1620. 

Australia. Proceedings of the 6th Symposium on Uranium Mill Tailings Management, Fort Collins, Colorado, 1-3 February 1984, 319-328. 

Waugh, W. J., Smith, G. M., Bergman-Tabbert, D. Metzle, D. R. 2001. Evolution of cover systems for the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project, USA. Mine Water and the Environment, 20, 190-197. 

Langmuir, D., Mahoney, J., MacDonald, A. and Rowson, J. (1999) Predicting arsenic concentrations in the porewaters of buried uranium mill tailings. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 63(19-20), 3379-94. 

Thomson, B.M., Longmire, P.A. and Brookins, D.G. (1986) Geochemical constraints on underground disposal of uranium mill tailings. Applied Geochemistry, 1, 335-343. 

Kalin M. 1988. Long-term ecological behaviour of abandoned uranium mill tailings. 3. Radionuclide concentrations and other characteristics of tailings, surface waters, and vegetation. Report to Environment Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, by Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Report No. EPS 3/HA/4. 

---