[en] Saline waters from underground coal mines in Poland often contain natural radioactive isotopes, mainly ²²⁶Ra from the uranium decay series and ²²⁸Ra from the thorium series. More than 70% of the total amount of radium remains underground as radioactive deposits due to spontaneous co-precipitation or water treatment technologies, but several tens of MBq of ²²⁶Ra and even higher activity of ²²⁸Ra are released daily into the rivers along with the other mine effluents from all Polish coal mines. Mine waters can have a severe impact on the natural environment, mainly due to its salinity. Additionally high levels of radium concentration in river waters, bottom sediments and vegetation were also observed. Sometimes radium concentrations in rivers exceeded 0.7 kBq/m³, which was the permitted level for wastewaters under Polish law. The investigations described here were carried out for all coal mines and on this basis the total radium balance in effluents has been calculated. Measurements in the vicinity of mine settling ponds and in rivers have given an opportunity to study radium behaviour in river waters and to assess the degree of contamination. For removal of radium from saline waters a method of purification has been developed and implemented in full technical scale in two of Polish coal mines. The purification station in Piast Colliery was unique, the first underground installation for the removal of radium isotopes from saline waters. Very good results have been achieved - approximately 6 m³/min of radium-bearing waters were treated there, more than 100 MBq of ²²⁶Ra and ²²⁸Ra remained underground each day. Purification has been started in 1999, therefore a lot of experiences have been gathered during this period. Since year 2006, a new purification station is working in another colliery, Ziemowit, at the level -650 meters. Barium chloride is used as a cleaning , agent, and amount of water to be purified is reaching 9 m³/min. Technical measures such as inducing the precipitation of radium in gobs, decreasing the amount of meteoric inflow water into underground workings etc., have been undertaken in several coal mines, and as a result of these measures the total amount of radium released to the surface waters is much has diminished significantly during the last 15 years. (author)(tk)

[en] Saline waters occurring in underground coal mines in Poland often contain natural radioactive isotopes, mainly ²²⁶Ra from uranium series and ²²⁸Ra from thorium series. Approximately 40% of total amount of radium remains underground in a form of radioactive deposits, but 225 MBq of ²²⁶Ra and 400 MBq of ²²⁸Ra are released daily into the rivers with mine effluents through surface settling ponds. Very peculiar situation is observed in coal mines, where as a result of precipitation of radium from radium-bearing waters radioactive deposits are formed. Sometimes natural radioactivity of such materials is very high, in case of scaling from coal mines radium concentration may reach 400000 Bq/kg - similar activity as for 3% uranium ore. Usually such deposits can be found underground, but sometimes co-precipitation of radium and barium takes place on the surface, in settling pond and in rivers. Therefore maintenance of solid and liquid waste with technologically enhanced natural radioactivity (TENORM) is a very important subject. Lately another problem appeared - due to the decrease of the production in Poland coal industry and dismantling of several coal mines, also the ground reclamation should be done in their vicinity. But in several cases deposits in the ponds contain enhanced levels of radium concentration. Therefore laboratory tests were done to investigate a possibility of the re-entry of radium into ground water or river waters from such deposits. Results show, that in the case of insoluble barium and radium sulphates co-precipitated out from waters type A, re-entry ratio is very small. Different situation can be observed in case of radium, adsorbed on bottom of sediments from waters type B, because re-entry ratio is much higher. Nevertheless, this phenomenon seems to be not so important and significant for the further pollution of the adjacent areas of the settling ponds in the future. (author)

[en] Measurements of potential alpha energy concentration (PAEC) of radon progeny are obligatory in Polish coal mines. Very important problem is a proper calibration of PAEC monitors for coal mining industry. It is very know fact, that is no possibility of producing of standard atmosphere of radon progeny. Therefore calibration is usually based on comparison of read-out of PAEC monitor with more counting of this filter immersed in a liquid scintillation counter (LSC) gives as a result an absolute method of PAEC measurements, because of very high efficiency for alpha and beta particles in liquid scintillator (almost 100%). (author). 30 refs, 2 figs

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[en] The article discuss mining as the source of radioisotope pollution. Authors try to clarify several issues that in their opinion were misinterpreted by the public media. The article conclude that main source of radioisotope contamination by coal mines is disposal of radium containing water to the surface. The system of monitoring this kind of contamination has been working in all Polish coal mines since 1986. Article discusses the tests of water purification systems designed for the use in coal mining

[en] Abstract only

[en] Construction and operation data for a system of of the multi-channel analyzer - computer interface are described. A typical program for γ-spectrometry is presented. Operation principles are given for any type of computer applied in γ-spectrometry. The data are exemplified by NOKIA-POLON analyzer coupled with ZX Spectrum +. (author)

[en] The effects of mine waste water treatment in the desalination process on radium concentration in final products have been shown on the example of installations working in 'Ziemowit' and 'Piast' Polish coal mines. The environmental impact and health hazard resulting deposition of waste water treatment plant by-products have been also discussed

[en] The method enables the determination of ²¹⁰Pb in water samples or in aqueous solutions. Therefore, it can be also applied to determination of ²¹⁰Pb in biological and mineral samples after their solubilization. Using samples of 1 dm³ in volume and 30 minutes of counting, a detection limit of 20 Bq/m³ was achieved. The method consists of chemical separation of lead and radium isotopes making use of the different stability of EDTA complexes formed by Pb²⁺, Ba²⁺, and Ra²⁺. ²¹⁰Pb is coprecipitated with a Pb²⁺ carrier in the form of PbSO₄ and then mixed with a liquid scintillator and measured with low-background liquid scintillation spectrometer 'Quantulus'. The described method enables also a simultaneous determination of ²¹⁰Pb, ²²⁴Ra and ²²⁶Ra. (author) 3 tabs., 2 figs., 4 refs