Elevated Alpha Radiation Level in Water of River Subarnarekha and Tube Well at In-and-Off Zone of Jaduguda Mine, India

¹ Biren Roy Research Laboratory for Radioactivity and Earthquake Studies School of Studies in Environmental Radiation and Archaeological Sciences, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India

² Nuclear and Particle Physics Research Centre, Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India

³ Sitananda College, Nandigram, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India

AJWEP 2010, 7(1), 71–76; https://doi.org/10.3233/AJW-2010-7_1_10

Submitted: 12 March 2009 | Accepted: 8 December 2009 | Published: 1 January 2010

© 2010 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )

Download PDF

Cite

XML

Abstract

The Subarnarekha river is a major river rising from the Chota Nagpur plateau of Jharkhand State, India. After passing through Jharkhand state, the river enters the Indian state of West Bengal, Orissa and finally falls into the Bay of Bengal. Jaduguda mine which is the foundation on which the Indian nuclear fuel chain rests is situated at Jharkhand state near the R. Subarnarekha course. In order to observe the contamination effect of Jaduguda mine on the river, we have collected river water samples from nine different locations along the path of the river and measured alpha activity in those samples. High level of alpha radioactivity is found in all the samples even at far sites from mine region and it is interestingly seen that alpha activity decreases as we go near-to-far locations from the mine. Tube-well samples were also collected from the same locations and in that case also similar trend was seen.

Keywords

R. Subarnarekha

Jaduguda mine

alpha activity

river and tube-well water

Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no competing interests.

References

ATSDR (1990). Toxicological profile for uranium. Agency for toxic substances and disease registry, Report TP-90–29, Atlanta, USA.

ATSDR (1999). U.S. agency for toxic substances and disease registry toxicological profile for Uranium, September 1999.

Chalupnik, S., Michalik, B., Wysocka, M., Skubacz, K. and A. Mielnikow (2001). Contamination of settling ponds and rivers as a result of discharge of radium-bearing waters from Polish coal mines. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity,54(1): 85-98.

Decree (1989). Decree of the president of Polish atomic energy agency — a guide of classification of radioactive waste materials. Monitor Polski, 18: 125 (in Polish).

DiFranza, J.R. and T.H. Winters (1982). Radioactivity in Cigarette Smoke. New England Journal of Medicine,
306(6): 364.

Fernandes, H.M., Gomiero, L.A., Peres, V., Franklin, M.R., F. Filho, F.L.S. (2008). Critical analysis of the waste management performance of two uranium production units in Brazil. Part II: Caetite production center. Journal of Environmental Management, 88(4): 914-925.

Henahaw, D.L. (1989). Proceedings of the International Workshop on Radon Monitoring in Radioprotection, Environmental Radioactivity and Earth Sciences. ICTP, Trieste, Italy 1989; April 3-14: 70.

Kilthau, Gustave F. (1996). Cancer risk in relation to radioactivity in tobacco. Radiologic Technology, 67(3): 217.

Mehra, R., Singh, S. and K. Singh (2007). Uranium studies in water samples belonging to Malwa region of Punjab, using track etching technique, Radiation Measurements, 42: 441- 445.

Panda, U.C., Rath, P., Sahu, K.C., Majumdar, S. and S.K. Sundaray (2006). Environmental Quantification of Heavy Metals in the Subarnarekha, Estuary and Near-shore

Environment, East Coast of India. Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, 3(2): 85-92.

Saad, A.F. (2008). Radium activity and radon exhalation rates from phosphate ores using CR-39 on-line with an electronic radon gas analyzer “AlphaGUARD”, Radiation Measurements, 43: S463-S466.

Skubacz, K. et al. (1993). Assessment of the radiological impact of the discharge of radium-bearing waters into Golawiecki River, Wiadomosci Gornicze, 5: 93, Katowice (in Polish).

Tripathi, R.M., Sahoo, S.K., Jha, V.N., Khan, A.H. and V.D. Puranik (2008). Assessment of environmental radioactivity at uranium mining, processing and tailings management facility at Jaduguda, India. Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 66(11): 1666-1670.

United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) (1993). Sources and effects of ionizing radiation. 1993 report to the General Assembly, United Nations, New York.

Wu, A., Yin, S., Wang, H., Qin, W. and G. Qiu (2009). Technological assessment of a mining-waste dump at the Dexing copper mine, China, for possible conversion to an in situ bioleaching operation. Bioresource Technology, 100: 1931-1936.

WHO (World Health Organization) (1996). Indoor quality: A risk-based approach to health criteria for radon indoors: report on a WHO working group, Eilat, Iseael, 28 March-4 April. 1993. EUR/ICP/CEH 108(A). WHO Regional office for Europe. Denmark.

WHO (World Health Organization) (1998). Guidelines for drinking-water quality, addendum to vol. 1, recommenda- tions. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO.

Previous article in this issue

Next article in this issue

Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing