THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF THE ABANDONED URANIUM MINING EXPLOITATIONS ON ROCKS AND SOILS - ZIMBRU PERIMETER, ARAD COUNTY
DIANA M. BANU 1, 2*, VIORICA E. IONITA 2, AURA D. RADU 2, MIHAI NITA 3 1. University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics,
6 Traian Vuia Street, Bucharest, Romania
2. National Institute of Research and Development National Institute for Metals and Radioactive Resources, 70 Carol I Blvd, Bucharest, Romania
3. University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, 405 Atomistilor Street, Magurele, Ilfov, Romania
*Corresponding author: banudianamaria@yahoo.com
The mining exploration and exploitation, especially the activity of uranium mineralization exploration and exploitation has a negative impact on the environment by the alterations of the landscape and the degradation of the environmental factors' quality. The principal environmental factors that could be affected by mining operations resulting from uranium exploitation are: water, air, soil, population, fauna, and flora. The aim of this study is, first, to identify the sources of pollution (natural radionuclides - natural radioactive series of uranium, radium, thorium, potassium and heavy metals that are accompanying the mineralizations) for two of the most important environmental factors: rocks and soils: and, second, to assess the pollution impact on those two environmental factors. In order to identify this pollutants and their impact assessment it was selected as a study case an abandoned uranium mining perimeter named the Zimbru perimeter located in Arad County, Romania.