Environment Remediation Project on the Nuclear Legacy sites in - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Environment Remediation Project

• n the Nuclear Legacy sites in Ukraine

Challenge and Implementation

The ENVIRONET – Network on Environmental Management and Remediation

Oleg Voitsekhovych and Gennady Laptev

Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (UA)

Department of Environment Radiation Monitoring Center for Monitoring Studies and Environment Technologies

www.uhmi.org.ua/dep/rm

The 3d Technical Meeting on Environmental Modeling for Radiation Safety IAEA, 24 – 28 January 2011

Rodolfo Avila

Facilia AB (SE)

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Remediation of the Uranium Production Legacy Sites

Since 2009, State Remediation Program ( Uranium Production Legacy Site Remediation and Reclamation of the site in Dneprodzerzhinsk) is established, however lack of experience in project planning and insufficient funding mechanisms making this program implementation much less efficient than was expected

– lack of regulatory provisions – Lack of project management experience of such scales – Lack of knowledge in Risk communication and long term institutional control

In a past Ukraine (as a part of USSR) was among the leaders in Uranium Mining and Milling Industry - 36 Mines, Two Large Milling and Extraction Facilities At the moment the Uranium Industry in Ukraine is on the way to Renaissance and returning back to active Mining and ISL (in-situ leaching) U-exploration Environment Remediation and Safe Management of the Uranium Legacy Sites are serious challenge for the Government of Ukraine The most serious problems are in Dnieprodzerzhinsk town (legacy) and Zhevty Wody town (in operation)

Ukraine participate in IAEA RER3010 and some other relevant project targeted on extension

• f cooperation via ENVIRONET networking

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Background and problem description

• After collapse of the USSR
• ne of the largest Uranium

Milling facility “Pridneprovski Chemical Plant” in Dniprodzerzhinsk become inactive,

• was in operation from 1948

till 1991

• The plant is being in the

sanation stage since 1991 with the number of Uranium tailings located on its territory.

• There has been no regular

surveillance of the Uranium residue and other toxic waste and releases from the tailing sites.

• New monitoring programme

launched in 2005 and founded by Ministry of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

• .

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The Public opinion is to remove tailings away of the town

9 tailings dump site were created – 23,320 ha 42 million tons of Uranium Production Residues (Total activity is uncertain) Residues are located within the territory of the Industrial zone of town (280,000 citizens),

Uranium Residue in Dneprodzerzhinsk

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Schematic map of the PChP industrial site

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine



0.25

Kilometers

0.5

69 70 68 65 62 58 56 53 52

Хвостосховище “Дніпровське” Хвостосховище “Південно-Східне” Кар’єр “Тритузний” р.Коноплянка Відходи ДМК р.Дніпро Умовні позначення

70

гідроізогіпса і її висотне положення; Хвостосховище “Західне” Хвостосховище “Центральний Яр” стрічка руху підземних вод.

BASELINE MONITORING Surface water level and discharges Groundwater regime Meteorological regime

Кількість випадків напрямку вітру в %

5 10 15 20 Пн ПнСх Сх ПдСх Пд ПдЗх Зх ПнЗх

Кількість випадків напрямку вітру в (%)

Середня швидкість по напрямку вітру 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 Пн ПнСх Сх ПдСх Пд ПдЗх Зх ПнЗх

Середня швидкість по напрямку вітру

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Observational network at the Dnieprodzerzhinsk Uranium production Legacy Site

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

 Groundwater About 50 wells at the territory

Most observational wells are not in use Regular sampling take place and 1-2 time per year at 10-15 wells

Maximal levels of 238+234U in pore water (100-500 Bq/l) Drainage water has high mineralization (Sulfates and Chlorides ions) Ground waters discharges to the Dnieper reservoir The high concentration of Uranium in neighboring villages in the drinking wells

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Former Uranium Extraction facilities

Special attention towards radiation safety will be needed during demolishing of the former uranium extraction

• facility. Some of them situated just about 20 m nearby to

the enterprise which is still in operation. Dismantling of the most contaminated pipe line has been significantly reduced radiological risk factors at the Legacy

Specific objects for monitoring and surveillance The former U-Extraction Facility

About 2 km of highly contaminated pipelines and tubes were cut, removed from the territory, packed to special containers and temporarily stored in a fenced storage place.

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

The Instruments and Analytical Services have been supplied by Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (Kiev)

Gamma – spectroscopy

• f aerosols and solid materials
• 4 HPGe Semiconductor Detectors

Type - GEM, GWL, GMX – ORTEC, BE5030 - CANBERRA Measurement - 234Th (238U), 235U, 234U, 226Ra, 228Ra ,210Pb, 228Th , 40K, and ets.

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Routine analyses of water samples were provided with Alpha radiometry and alpha spectrometry

• Spectrometers – UMF-2000
• Semiconductor Detectors

Efficiency for registration – 44 % Energy resolution 180 кeV . Alpha Spec Dec. Software spectra processing Wet chemistry for sample preparation

• Measurement - 238U, 235U ,234U, 226Ra, 210Po,

232Th, 230Th, 228Th.

Alpha Spec, of sample with tracers 232U, 229Th, 209Po

α –spectroscopy with semiconductor detector UMF-2000 ( DOZA Produced) were procured by IAEA

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

α – β - spectroscopy with liquid scintillation methods have been applied

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Gamma dose survey show very inhomogeneous external exposure due to insufficient tailing covers in many places µSv/a

Central Yar Western

Baza C

БДКС-96 GPS-60

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Rn-222 exhalation studies at spring and autumn period 2009 (mBq/m2 per sec.) May-June 2009 September-October 2009

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

1 10 100 1000

Meteostantion

• t. Western
• t. Central Yar
• t. South-Western
• b. 103
• t. Dnieprovskoe
• v. Taromskoe

10-6 Bq m-3

U-238 Ra-226 Th-228 K-40

1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 8 .0 6 - 0 4 .0 7 .0 8 0 4 .0 7 - 0 1 .0 8 .0 8 0 1 .0 8 - 1 5 .0 8 .0 8 1 5 .0 8 - 0 1 .0 9 .0 8 0 1 .0 9 - 1 5 .1 0 .0 8 1 5 .0 9 - 0 3 .1 0 .0 8 0 3 .1 0 - 3 1 .1 0 .0 8 1 7 .1 0 - 3 1 .1 0 .0 8

1 0 - 6Á ê ì

• 3

U -2 3 8 R a -2 2 6 T h-2 2 8 K -4 0

Monitoring of the Aerosol pollution

Annually averaged RN concentration in air Aerosol contamination during tailing cover work

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Chemical pollution of aerosols fallout (µg/·м-2). Monitoring data. Pb, Co, Cd, Mn, Cu, Fe, Zn

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Konoplianka River is a main sink of the radionuclides released with ground water fluxes, erosion and runoff

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine Typical ranges of the environmental contamination by radionuclides of 238U series

Type of samples Units

238U 230Th 226Ra 210Pb 210Po

Soils at the inhabitant areas Bq kg-1 20-30 50-70 20-40 50 -90 40-70 Soils at the Industrial site Bq kg-1 102 -103 102 -103 10-102 102 -103 102 -103 Soils and tailing material at the Uranium residue dump sites, Bq kg-1 103 -104 103 -104 104-105 104-105 104-105 Groundwater (pore water) at the aquifer at the tailing site Bq m-3 102 -105 10-103 10-103 15-300 Surface water in a drainage systems inlet to the Dnieper River Bq m-3 200-500 15-30 15-20 5-10 Aerosols at the tailing dump sites and nearby contaminated buildings 10-6 Bq m-3 50-300 100-150 600-1100 150-400 Aerosols at the inhabitant area nearby

• f industrial sites

10-6 Bq m-3 15-20 10-30 50-200 15-40

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Results: Current exposure of personnel

Description of scenario / exposed group Main exposure pathways mSv y-1

MIN

mSv y-1

MAX

1A Staff periodically working in contaminated building no.103

External irrad., Rn-222 Inhalation

2,3 – 4,0 25-35 1B Staff periodically working in in basements of buildings 6 і 109

Rn-222

6,0-8,0 10-13 2 Staff with work places near tailings and hot spots (Central Yar)

External irrad., Inhalation

1,0-1,6 2,5-3,5 3 Workers of North sector, working in non-contaminated premises

External irrad., Inhalation

0,6-1,0 1,4-1,8 4 Staff of SE “Baryer” (working in contaminated areas)

External irrad., Rn-222 Inhalation

1,4-2,0 8,0-12,0 5 Administrative workers 0,1-0,3 0,3-0,5 Assessment by EcoMonitor (O.Voitsekhovitch. T.Lavrova, S.Todosieno, R.Girak)

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine Preliminary conclusions

• The doses for people living at the vicinity of the site are estimated to be lower

than 1 mSv per year for any potentially calculated scenario.

• However an accidental situation affecting the tailing dams and removing the

cover may lead to significant radiological consequences which still require assessment and long-term surveillance at least for periods of 100 - 1000 years.

• For most of workers, whose work places are in a non-contaminated buildings
• r who are mainly working in a non contaminated area of the legacy site the

total annual dose values are estimated to be in the range of 0,1-0,5 mSv/a.

• The annual doses (maximum) of workers, whose work places are located

nearby the tailing dumps or near the contaminated buildings may vary from 1-2 to 8-12 mSv/a dependent upon their specific duties and time spent at the contaminated areas or contaminated premises.

• The highest doses (30-45 mSv/a) will be obtained by those who have regular

access to the contaminated premises and will be involved into remediation activities in removal and utilization of the tailing materials and/or of the most contaminated equipment thus representing a worst case scenario (mainly due to high Rn concentration and external gamma dose expose

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine First priority actions

• Institutional control (safe management at the industrial site, Risk

communication et. sat),

• Safe management of the contaminated machinery, equipment, metal scrap etc.

,which are still currently are kept close to former Uranium production workshops.

• Fencing and marking of the tailing dumps and “hot spots”,
• Dismantling of the contaminated pipe lines and former Uranium production

infrastructure residues,

• Reparation of the broken parts of he existing tailing covers
• Exhausting inventory of the tailing dumps and surrounding territory at the Site
• Establishing adequate environmental monitoring network and radiological

inspections at the all facilities, which are relevant to the former Uranium extraction facilities

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine Long-term remedial options

Extraction facilities

• Dismantling of the most contaminated buildings contaminated pipe lines and former Uranium

production infrastructure residues

• Clean-up and further re-profiling former Uranium extraction facility

Tailings

1) Conservation in place of the tailing dumps 2) Removal of the all tailings from the Industrial Site to 14 km far away from town at the fully engineered tailing Sukhachevskoe, which are still in operation 3) Removal the main Uranium residue tailing dumps at the Industrial site to the largest tailing Dnieprovskoe

JUSTIFICATION

• Long term hydro-geological predictions show that removal of the tailing materials from the largest

tailing site “D” may not bring significant reduction of the radionuclide transport into the Dnieper River for the next 500-1000 years, because aquifer is already significantly contaminated with U-series radionuclides

• This results may justify the strategy to concentrate all tailing dumps materials at the industrial site to

the tailing “D” and its further remediation as an economically and ecologically justified optimal strategy

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine Remediation Planning

• Phase 0 (2009). Tailing Inventory and Safety barrier characterisation. Safety Assessment.

Monitoring and Surveillance network development

• Phase 1 (2010). Start State Remediation Program Conceptual planning and justification of

the strategy and detailed action plan. Design and Action Strategy agreement. Regulatory framework development and administrative actions. Public consideration. International Expertises of the Remediation Action Plans and designs (2011)

• Phase 2 (2011-2015). Implementation of the main set of engineering as a first priority

action at territory of PChP (preparatory activity and decontamination of the most contaminated buildings .

• Phase 3 (2016-2020). Preliminary actions on possible removal of the tailing materials from

the industrial site to the tailing “D”. Justification and partly relocation of the tailing materials at the surface of tailing “D”.

• Further remedial actions at a later phase have to be focused on the neighbouring areas
• Phase 4. (2021-2025). Stewardship and handover the re-profiled facilities to the basic

enterprises and neighbouring areas of the town.

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Preliminary Remediation Options

• 1. Clean-up industrial area
• 2. To create sufficient impounds in place
• 3. Remove tailing materials (collect in one place)
• 4. Establishing Long-term institutional control

State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine

Thank you for your attention!