Groundwater restoration following in-situ recovery (ISR) mining of uranium

Ruiz, Omar; Thomson, Bruce M.; Cerrato, José M.; Rodríguez-Freire, Lucía

doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2019.104418

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The Br − breakthrough experiment was conducted on the packed and pretreated columns using 100 mg/L NaBr solution to obtain Br − breakthrough curves. The starting and ending times of Br breakthrough were determined based on C = 5%C 0 and C = 95%C 0 , respectively (Ruiz et al 2019). The basic information and experimental conditions of various columns are shown in Table 1.…”

Section: Column Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics and influencing factors of uranium adsorption by sandstones outside an acid in situ leaching uranium mining area

Yang,

Cui,

Meng

et al. 2023

Environ Earth Sci

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Uranium (U) contamination in groundwater of the uranium mines exploited using the in-situ leaching (ISL) technology (also referred to as the ISL uranium mines) has attracted wide international attention. Since the adsorption of U in groundwater by aquifer media in uences the migration scope of U, understanding the U adsorption by aquifer media is of great signi cance for accurately predicting the in uencing scope of ISL uranium mines on groundwater. This study collected sandstone samples from the ore-bearing aquifer outside a typical mining area in a uranium mine exploited using the acid ISL (AISL) technology (also referred to as an AISL uranium mine) in northern China. Using these sandstone samples, this study conducted batch adsorption experiments and column experiments of U to reveal the characteristics and major in uencing factors of U adsorption under different conditions. The results show that the adsorption of U by sandstones in the ore-bearing aquifer outside a mining area satis es the pseudo-second-order kinetic equation and the linear isothermal adsorption model. In the batch U adsorption experiments, the adsorption e ciency and capacity for U reached maxima of 77.45% and 0.069 mg/g at pH 7, respectively. As shown by column experiments, the sandstones showed a signi cant increase in the U adsorption and retardation as pH increased. The SO 4 2− concentration has minor effects on U adsorption under experimental conditions. Sandstones from different monitoring wells exhibited different U adsorption characteristics. Sandstone cores with relatively high contents of clay minerals such as illite showed strong U adsorption. Under the same experimental conditions, the U distribution coe cient K d (6.91×10 − 2 L/g) obtained from column experiments is much less than that (0.14 L/g) obtained from the batch U adsorption experiments. These results suggest that it is necessary to take into account the U adsorption and retardation by aquifer media in predicting the impacts of ISL uranium mines on the groundwater environment.

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Section: Column Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics and influencing factors of uranium adsorption by sandstones outside an acid in situ leaching uranium mining area

Yang,

Cui,

Meng

et al. 2023

Environ Earth Sci

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“…The latter uncertainty is especially a concern at a location such as SRH, where native and post-mining waters contain high calcium concentrations. In a recent laboratory column study to evaluate remediation after U ISR [21], a phosphate amendment was found to be ineffective in removing uranium from solution.…”

Section: Introduction 1historical Reductant Use For U Isr Restorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Restoration Insights Gained from a Field Deployment of Dithionite and Acetate at a Uranium In Situ Recovery Mine

Reimus

Clay²,

Jemison

2022

Minerals

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Mining uranium by in situ recovery (ISR) typically involves injecting an oxidant and a complexing agent to mobilize and extract uranium in a saturated ore zone. This strategy involves less infrastructure and invasive techniques than traditional mining, but ISR often results in persistently elevated concentrations of U and other contaminants of concern in groundwater after mining. These concentrations may remain elevated for an extended period without remediation. Here, we describe a field experiment at an ISR facility in which both a chemical reductant (sodium dithionite) and a biostimulant (sodium acetate) were sequentially introduced into a previously mined ore zone in an attempt to establish reducing geochemical conditions that, in principle, should decrease and stabilize aqueous U concentrations. While several lines of evidence indicated that reducing conditions were established, U concentrations did not decrease, and in fact increased after the amendment deployments. We discuss likely reasons for this behavior, and we also discuss how the results provide insights into improvements that could be made to the restoration process to benefit from the seemingly detrimental behavior.

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Environmental Contamination from Uranium Mining and Milling in the Western U.S.

Thomson

2021

Practical Applications of Medical Geology

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Groundwater restoration following in-situ recovery (ISR) mining of uranium

Cited by 11 publications

References 29 publications

Characteristics and influencing factors of uranium adsorption by sandstones outside an acid in situ leaching uranium mining area

Characteristics and influencing factors of uranium adsorption by sandstones outside an acid in situ leaching uranium mining area

Restoration Insights Gained from a Field Deployment of Dithionite and Acetate at a Uranium In Situ Recovery Mine

Environmental Contamination from Uranium Mining and Milling in the Western U.S.

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