In KAZAKHSTAN in situ leaching of uranium imperils drinking water

Scientists studying the effects of ISL doubt how quickly mine sites can self-cleanse. This uncertainty appears to be little known to both Kazakhstan’s nuclear industry and fledgling environmentalists.

no site in the US has been entirely returned to pre-mining conditions

The cost of being the world’s No.1 uranium producer Kazakhstan’s industry has skyrocketed in the past 10 years. But what could that mean for the environment? Christian Science Monitor, By Ben Arnoldy, Staff writer / August 28, 2013 ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN

If you make a toxic mess under one of the most isolated parts of the planet, does it matter if you don’t clean it up? Does it make a difference if that mess will be there for thousands of years? Scientists are asking those questions as Kazakhstan has steadily risen to become the world’s No. 1 uranium producer, surpassing such nations as the United States, Canada, and Australia, which require more cleanup.

Rather than employing miners to haul rock up to the surface, mine operators in Kazakhstan have embraced a newer – and generally cleaner – process by which a chemical solution is injected down a pipe to dissolve the underground uranium deposits and then is sucked back up to the surface.

 

This in situ leach (ISL) method avoids making a mess above ground, but leaves toxic levels of heavy metals in the ground water. In the US, companies using the method have tried for years and failed to return ground water to its pre-mining state.

In Kazakhstan, a country that has seen the disastrous effects of the Soviet Union’s use of nuclear testing and waste disposal, officials with the state-owned uranium company, Kazatomprom, express no concern about the legacy of its rapidly expanding use of ISL mining. They argue that natural processes will clean the mine site.

Scientists studying the effects of ISL doubt how quickly mine sites can self-cleanse. This uncertainty appears to be little known to both Kazakhstan’s nuclear industry and fledgling environmentalists.

In the near term, the stakes do not appear high: Kazakhstan’s uranium mines are mostly located in deserted areas of an already sparsely populated country. But as the US learned in its own uranium-rich Southwest, population patterns and land use can change, potentially deferring an expensive cleanup or rendering some water resources unusable.

“Kazakhstan is a growing country and the pollution could persist for up to thousands of years, and you just don’t know in the future if people might live in the area,” says Brian Reinsch, an environmental scientist researching ISL remediation methods in Kazakhstan…….

Drinking water

ISL mining in many parts of the world involves some treatment of the solution that is left behind in the ore-bearing aquifers. If untreated, the solution could contain arsenic and cadmium at levels thousands of times higher than drinking water standards, says Gavin Mudd, an environmental engineer at Monash University in Australia. Arsenic can also be absorbed by plants, leaving the water unusable for irrigating crops.

Over time, the contaminated water will gradually spread laterally – often at paces as slow as a meter per year – beyond the mining site. ISL mine sites are chosen in areas where there are barriers like clay above and below the ore deposit to prevent water from seeping vertically into new aquifers with higher quality water.

But the clay layer is not entirely continuous, nor is it certain the mining acid wouldn’t dissolve the clay, according to Reinsch. Furthermore, the mining process treats the ore-bearing aquifer like a pincushion, drilling holes all over the area. These are plugged up. But there is uncertainty about the spread of contamination over the long haul.

“Even if we were monitoring for five or 10 years, that’s nowhere near enough. We need literally hundreds of years of data of watching these sites to show yes, they are stable,” says Dr. Mudd…….

no site in the US has been entirely returned to pre-mining conditions, says Dr. Hall. The difficulty has led to some soul-searching among regulators, she adds, who will ask: “Would natural processes just take care of it? Is it a wasted effort?… We don’t have the data to know.”…. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2013/0828/The-cost-of-being-the-world-s-No.1-uranium-producer

Challenges to uranium mining, including in situ leach process

Uranium Mining Environmental Consequences to Be Reviewed in Court, Switchboard, by Geoffrey Fettus, 14 May 12,  For decades, uranium has been mined in ways that damage our waters and land, put our communities at risk, and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in clean-up costs.

Now, for the first time in years, the environmental community has the chance to make its case before one of the crucial federal regulators on how we can do better. The stakes are high – especially for Western communities and their groundwater.

Last fall, NRDC and our Wyoming colleagues at the Powder River Basin Resources Council (PRBRC) challenged the proposed licensing of a planned uranium mine in Crook County, Wyoming.  The mine would use a process known as “in-situ leach” mining. This method combines the mining and milling of uranium into a single step, by leaching uranium and other heavy metals off the surface of uranium-bearing rock in place.

In-situ leaching uranium mining – threat to aquifers

It takes hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, to transform aquifer water back into a drinkable condition.
Scientists Back Navajos’ Uranium Mining Fight: Tribe fears contamination of drinking water BRENDA NORRELL Indian Country 19 July 2010,  “…….Abitz said in-situ leaching uses a hydrogen peroxide mixture to strip the uranium from the rock, which kills tissue and destroys cells in human and animal life. The addition of oxygen and sodium bicarbonate called oxygenates causes uranium and other radioactive substances and trace metals to be liberated from the rock into the groundwater.