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

Abstract

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.

High Specific Activity of Radium Isotopes in Baryte from the Czech Part of the Upper Silesian Basin—An Example of Spontaneous Mine Water Treatment

“…Radium-rich mine waters are present, according to [49], and they pose a possible hazard to the environment, since ca. one-half of the radioactive nuclides (mostly radium) flowing into the mines are discharged to surface waters [58]. There, the radioactive nuclides become part of the sediment, fixed in baryte, witherite (BaCO 3 ), or metal oxyhydroxides [59].…”

A Methodology for the Systematic Identification of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (Norm)

“…• local hydrogeological conditions, considering mainly formation water occurrence (Wysocka et al, 2019), Fig. 2.…”

“…Other situations of concern include specific workplaces situated in spaces that may be confined or poorly ventilated or both (for example: underground mines). In such cases, regardless the properties of excavated material or conditions for ongoing activities, favourable circumstances for radon exhalation may be created (UNSCEAR, 2016;Skubacz et al, 2019;Bonczyk et al, 2022aBonczyk et al, , 2022b, formation water may be released (Wysocka et al, 2019;Haluszczak et al, 2013;Kharaka et al, 2013) or increased exposure to external radiation emitted by surrounding walls and rocks may result (Wysocka et al, 2019). Finally, a further obstacle to the identification of NORM exposure situations is the fact that the processing of excavated raw material, use of commodities, products, or merchandise as well as waste treatment often happens outside the industry where they were initially created.…”

Influence of Dose Conversions, Equilibrium Factors, and Unattached Fractions on Radon Risk Assessment in Operating and Show Underground Mines

“…Further studies conducted in later years on the phenomenon of natural radioactivity in coal mines helped identify additional sources of natural ionising radiation in these mines. It turned out that the primary sources of natural ionising radiation in mines are waters containing radium isotopes, precipitates from these waters, and short-lived radon decay products [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. These problems are not only the domain of Polish coal mines.…”