Natural Radioactivity in Polish Coal Mines: An Attempt to Assess the Trend of Radium Release into the Environment

• Published in: Mine water and the environment Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 581 - 589
• Main Authors: Wysocka, Małgorzata, Chałupnik, Stanisław, Chmielewska, Izabela, Janson, Ewa, Radziejowski, Wiktor, Samolej, Krzysztof
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-09-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquifers; Barium; Bearing; Coal; Coal mines; Coal mining; Coprecipitation; Discharge; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Ecotoxicology; Geology; Groundwater; Hydrogeology; Industrial Pollution Prevention; Inflow; Ions; Isotopes; Mineral Resources; Mines; Natural radioactivity; Nuclides; Radio; Radioactivity; Radioisotopes; Radium; Radium 226; Radium isotopes; Radium radioisotopes; Salinity; Sediments; Sulfates; Surface water; Technical Article; Underground mines; Water Quality/Water Pollution; Poland; Bottom sediments; Radium inflows; Coal mining; Radium balance; Formation waters
• ISSN: 1025-9112; 1616-1068
• DOI: 10.1007/s10230-019-00626-0

The highly mineralised formation waters in the coal mines of Poland’s Upper Silesian Coal Basin contain natural radioactive nuclides, mostly radium. The
226
Ra concentration in the groundwater that flows into the underground mine workings reaches 390 Bq/L, and is sometimes exceeded by the
228
Ra concentration. The radium-bearing water sometimes also contain barium ions, which enables coprecipitation of barium-radium sulphate. Another type of radium-bearing water contains sulphate ions instead of barium; in this case, radium is transported to settling ponds and downstream. We have assessed the daily activity of radium in waters flowing into the underground mines and being discharged to the environment. Based on 1995 data, we estimate that the total activity of radium isotopes flowing into the mines was about 1300 MBq/day, while the radium activity in the discharge waters was about 700 MBq/day. A similar assessment performed with 2016 data indicated that the total activity in inflows was roughly 1150 MBq/day, while that discharged to surface waters was about 450 MBq/day.