Ambient Radiological Condition around an Operating Uranium Mill Tailings Disposal Facility at Turamdih, India

Abstract

Large quantity of the feed forms part of the solid waste (tailings) slurry in the low grade uranium ore processing plant at Turamdih in Singhbhum region of Jharkhand, India. Coarser size fraction of this waste is used for backfilling of the underground uranium mines and fine fraction is discharged into an engineered impoundment system or tailings pond. Since inception of the discharges, field expeditions have been performed as part of the comprehensive radiological monitoring program for the facility. The monitoring program broadly consists of ambient gamma dose rate, atmospheric ²²²Rn and long lived alpha activity measurement around the facility and the estimation of radionuclide in diverse environmental matrices collected from the adjoining sites. Findings reflect that the radiological conditions are comparable to the pre-existing background level adjoining the tailings pond impoundment. Further, measurements for more than a decade confirm that the atmospheric radon concentration profile just a few meters beyond the embankment is indistinguishable from the background.