Kakadu mine: risk of uranium leakage could be greater than thought

[kristopher]

Kakadu mine: risk of uranium leakage could be greater than thought
Study shows the radioactive particles can escape into the environment, raising alarms about the national park

Oliver Milman
theguardian.com, Wednesday 18 December 2013 02.47 EST

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A study published in Nature Communications found that seemingly immobile uranium particles “piggybacked” onto iron and organic material and flowed into a stream that joined a wetland in France.

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“This research is extremely significant as strategies thought to control uranium migration in some circumstances don’t work,” he told Guardian Australia. “That’s really problematic. It shows that we need to go back to the drawing board, look at all the factors involved in the mobilisation of uranium and have a rethink.”

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Before, we knew that one form of uranium, uranium oxide, could move in the environment and to prevent it from moving we transformed it to uranium 4,” she said. “Once we did that we could stop worrying about it because it wouldn’t go anywhere.

“What we found is that particles, under special conditions, can move into groundwater and spread around. It needs to be an organic-rich environment, there needs to be iron and an absence of sulphate for this to happen.

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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/18/ranger-mine-risk-of-uranium-leakage-could-be-greater-than-thought

Ooops.

[kristopher]

1. The issues with this uranium mine are longstanding...

Polluted water leaking into Kakadu from uranium mine
March 13, 2009 Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin

THE Ranger uranium mine inside the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park is leaking 100,000 litres of contaminated water into the ground beneath the park every day, a Government appointed scientist has revealed.

Alan Hughes, the Commonwealth supervising scientist appointed to monitor the mine's environmental impact, confirmed at a Senate committee hearing that about 100 cubic metres a day — the equivalent of 100,000 litres or three petrol tankers — of contaminant were leaking from the mine's tailings dam into rock fissures beneath Kakadu.

There have been more than 150 leaks, spills and licence breaches at the Ranger uranium mine since it opened in 1981.

The mine's owner, Energy Resources of Australia, has been repeatedly warned about its management of the mine, with a previous government-appointed scientist declaring in 2004 that ERA was "complacent" about protecting workers and people living near the mine.

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The mine was originally scheduled to cease mining last year but...



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/polluted-water-leaking-into-kakadu-from-uranium-mine-20090312-8whw.html#ixzz2nsYh0nsQ