[en] The Radiological Surveys Activities Group (RASA) of Oak Ridge National Laboratory acts as the Inclusion Survey Contractor (ISC) to the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project of the US Department of Energy (DOE). The ISC investigates properties to determine whether the properties qualify for remedial action according to the standards set forth for the UMTRA Project by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The major work elements making up the ISC's activities are: consent form acquisition, land survey/drawing, inclusion survey, post-survey activities, survey report, file transmittal, and recommendation for a vicinity property to be included into or excluded from UMTRAP. The ISC will produce 2960 recommendations in FY 1988 for $3.98M

[en] An experiment was carried out to understand the chemical fractionation of uranium (U) in mill tailings in both operational and non operational tailing ponds (TP) of Jaduguda mining site of India. For the study composite tailings samples were collected as per standard procedure and analyzed for total U and U in different soil fractions using sequential extraction technique. Study revealed that, the concentration of U in TP-1 (non operational) is found in the range 57 to 79 mg/kg whereas, in TP-3 (operational) is from 58 to 122 mg/kg. U in the tailing ponds mainly associated to the residual fractions and interestingly the distribution of U in different fractions of both the tailing ponds are same. (author)

[en] Semi-aquatic and terrestrial areas on abandoned or inactive uranium mill tailings in Ontario were studied in order to identify the growth characteristics of the naturally invading species dominating these areas. Semi-aquatic areas of tailings sites have been invaded by cattails. These species formed wetland communities which varied in size, but all were essentially monocultures of Typha latifolia, T. angustifolia, or of the hybrids T. glauca. Sedges, Scripus cyperinus (wool-grass) and Phragmites australis (reed-grass), were found in transition zones between the cattail stand and the dry section of the tailings site. The expansion of the cattail stands appeared to be controlled by the hydrological conditions on the site, rather than the chemical characteristics of the tailings

[en] This paper is intended to shed some light on the multitude of problems and issues related to the acceleration of remedial action activities at the Department of Energy's Lowman, Idaho Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project site. The preremedial action and construction activities were accelerated to accommodate limited funding. This paper will concentrate on several major activities that were accelerated to enable construction activities to begin one year ahead of schedule and the issues and problems that arose during cleanup and construction

[en] The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978, PL95-604, grants the Secretary of Energy authority and responsibility to perform such actions as are necessary to minimize radiation health hazards and other environmental hazards from inactive uranium mill sites. These cleanup actions are to be performed in compliance with the EPA standards (40 CFR Part 192) which became final on March 7, 1983. This document describes the general technical approaches and design criteria that are adopted by the US Department of Energy (DOE) in order to implement Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) and final designs that comply with EPA standards

[en] The Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project is being performed by the US Department of Energy to accomplish environmental remediation at 24 abandoned uranium processing sites. In order to meet the 200- to 1000-year design life requirement the DOE has sponsored technology development in several areas, including: 1. determining the relationship between optimum moisture content and the initial tailings water content which will cause drainage from the tailings at a rate corresponding to adherence to groundwater standards, and 2. accounting for rock quality measurements in designing riprap for the specified design life. The technology for Item 1. includes the application of quasi-theoretical procedures to generate relationships between suction, moisture content and permeability, and the use of the computer program UNSAT2 to model the unsaturated flow involved. The technology for Item 2. consists of a scoring system, utilizing the results of durability tests and accounting for the relative importance of the different durability parameters to various rock types, combined with a quantitative procedure for increasing riprap diameter to allow for future weathering

[en] This paper describes the main wastes produced in the mining and milling of uranium ores. Waste management practice in Australia, Canada and the USA is reviewed, with an emphasis on recent trends that could reduce the overall environmental impact. Site-specific factors are shown to have more influence on waste management decisions than generalizations based on generic assessment

[en] Uranium mill tailings impoundments require long-term (200 to 1000 years) stabilization. This report reviews currently available methodologies for evaluating factors that can have a significant influence on tailings stabilization and develops methodologies in technical areas where none presently exist. Mill operators can use these methodologies to assist with (1) the selection of sites for mill tailings impoundments, (2) the design of stable impoundments, and (3) the development of reclamation plans for existing impoundments. These methodologies would also be useful for regulatory agency evaluations of proposals in permit or license applications. Methodologies were reviewed or developed in the following technical areas: (1) prediction of the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) and an accompanying Probable Maximum Flood (PMF); (2) prediction of the stability of local and regional fluvial systems; (3) design of impoundment surfaces resistant to gully erosion; (4) evaluation of the potential for surface sheet erosion; (5) design of riprap for protecting embankments from channel flood flow and overland flow; (6) selection of riprap with appropriate durability for its intended use; and (7) evaluation of oversizing required for marginal quality riprap

[en] This paper describes the covers used to stabilize inactive uranium mill tailings piles and the recent geotechnical advances incorporated into the design of such covers. Although generally too conservative and expensive for use in conventional mine reclamation projects, the covers designed and constructed to remediate inactive uranium mill tailings piles incorporated most or all of the components required to provide long-term erosion resistance and groundwater protection in reclaiming a mine waste disposal facility. This paper evaluates the applicability of established and new technical approaches for uranium mill tailings stabilization to the broader field of general mine reclamation

[en] This report identifies several key operations that are commonly carried out during decommissioning of tailings areas in the Canadian environment. These operations are unit costed for a generic site to provide a base reference case. The unit costs have also been scaled to the quantities required for the decommissioning of four Canadian sites and these scaled quantities compared with site-specific engineering cost estimates and actual costs incurred in carrying out the decommissioning activities. Variances in costing are discussed. The report also recommends a generic monitoring regime upon which both short- and longer-term environmental monitoring costs are calculated. Although every site must be addressed as a site-specific case, and monitoring programs must be tailored to fit a specific site, it would appear that for the conventional decommissioning and monitoring practices that have been employed to date, costs can be reasonably estimated when site-specific conditions are taken into account