Leaching of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials

A form of waste associated with mining activities is related to the type of deposit being mined and to the procedure of exploitation and enrichment adopted. The wastes usually contain relatively large amounts of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM). The TENORM are often stored on the surface. Consequently, they can be leached as a result of interaction with aqueous solutions of different chemical composition. This further leads to pollution of water and soil in the vicinity of the stored wastes. The paper presents the results of laboratory investigation aimed at quantifying the leaching process of samples originating from uranium dumps and storage reservoirs associated with brine pumped from coal mines. The leaching process was investigated with respect to selected elements: uranium isotopes, radium isotopes, iron, barium and sodium. The samples were exposed to aqueous solutions of different chemical composition. The experiments revealed that TENORM in form of sulphate compounds are the most resistant against leaching. The leaching coefficient for radium isotopes varies from a few thousandth percent to a few hundredth percent. On the other hand, for TENORM occurring in sand or sludge, the leaching coefficient for uranium and radium isotopes ranged from a few hundredth percent to a few percent.