Author: M. Kalin

Publisher:

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13:

Inactive or abandoned uranium mill tailings in the uranium producing provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan, have been studied to obtain information on some of the parameters that will enable predictions to be made about possible pathways for long-lived radionuclides to enter the surrounding environment. Populations of the major indigenous plant species that colonize these waste sites were identified. Physical and chemical data describing the surface of the uranium tailings and the associated surface water and biological data on the indigenous vegetation growing on the tailings were collected and are summarized. A comparison of physical factors and chemical factors of the tailings surface from three sites (Bancroft, Elliot Lake, and Uranium City) with soils from nearby control areas is presented. Similar physical and chemical characteristics were determined for surface waters and the results from these analyses are compared with those derived from leachate solutions from the root-zone depths of tailings. Vegetation are analyzed for radionuclide concentrations, and above-ground biomass and associated litter accumulations were also analyzed. The tailings characteristics reported are from four abandoned, unreclaimed uranium tailings sites; six inactive, revegetated sites; and two abandoned sites. All of the investigated sites are one to two decades old.