Modelling of radionuclides transport in groundwater around a proposed uranium tailings pond in Southern India

Abstract

Uranium ore is mined basically for generating atomic energy by newlinefission of uranium into smaller atoms through nuclear fuel cycle As the newlineuranium content in the ore is globally vary often between 01 and 02 but newlinein India it is less than these values a large quantity of ore has to be mined to newlineget an appreciable amount of uranium Uranium ore is mined from which newlineuranium is extracted in a uranium mill Due to technical limitations all the newlineuranium present in the ore cannot be extracted After the extraction of newlineuranium from the ore the tailings are dumped in a tailings pond The amount newlineof tailings produced is nearly the same as that of the ore milled These tailings newlinemay contain nearly all the radionuclides in the uranium decay series newlineespecially those of U Though the tailings pond is safely constructed newlineseepage from the tailings pond is inevitable and it leads to major hazards newlineSeepage poses a risk of contamination to the ground and the surface waters newlineIn India uranium reserves have been recently identified in newlineLambapurPeddagattu and Tummallapalle of Andhra Pradesh Western Kasi newlinehills of Meghalaya and Gogi of Karnataka Among these reserves the newlineLambapur and Peddagattu areas of Andhra Pradesh have been selected to newlinemine uraninite ore in the near future In this regard the UCIL has proposed newlinethe location of the uranium tailings pond at Seripalli in Nalgonda district newlineAndhra Pradesh after a thorough geological and hydrogeological study newlineTo assess the future seepage and transport of the radionuclides in newlinegroundwater around the proposed uranium tailings pond at Seripalli in newlineSouthern India a three dimensional hydrogeological model of the study area newlinewas constructed using FEFLOW 6 a threedimensional finite element newlinenumerical code The model incorporated the existing and observed geological newlinedata and the results of hydrogeological analysis newlineMonitoring of groundwater level was carried out in 18 monitoring newlinewells once in two months from March 2008 to January 2010 newlineHydrogeological investigation indicates that rainfall is the major source for newlinerecharge of grou