RESUMO
We report a radiological study of a uranium mine located in Extremadura, in the south-west of Spain, in which mining work had ceased. One interest in the work is that the results can be used as a reference for the future evaluation of the effects produced by the restoration program. The radiological parameters selected to estimate the impact of the inactive mine were: 222Rn in air and water, 222Rn exhalation, effective 226Ra in soils and sediments, and natural uranium and 226Ra in water. Chemical analyses of water samples and measurements of meteorological variables were also made. Average values of these radiological parameters are presented. We characterize the zone radiologically and estimate the influence of the mine on the basis of some of these parameters, while others are used to reflect the status of the installation, information which could be very useful in the near future when restoration is complete.
RESUMO
In the framework of the "Oklo-Natural Analogue Phase II" Project, uraninite from the Bangombe natural reactor and samples from its host rock were analyzed to determine their uranium isotopic composition by thermal ionisation mass spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and alpha spectrometry. There were several objectives for this work: (i) to validate the 235U/238U isotopic ratios obtained by these techniques; (ii) to test the use of the 235U/238U ratio of uraninite as a tracer of migration/retention processes of uranium from the source term to the far field; (iii) to evaluate the most recent migration/retention processes of uranium in the system by U-series disequilibrium.