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Investigation on Natural Radioactivity of Environmental Samples Near the Bauxite Processing Facility  

Moon, Dong-Hyeok (Overseas Mineral Resources Department, Mineral Resources Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources)
Koh, Sang-Mo (Overseas Mineral Resources Department, Mineral Resources Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources)
Chang, Byung-Uck (Radiation Research Department, Safety Research Division, Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety)
Kim, Tong-Kwon (Overseas Mineral Resources Department, Mineral Resources Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources)
Kim, Yong-Ug (Overseas Mineral Resources Department, Mineral Resources Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources)
Publication Information
Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea / v.23, no.4, 2010 , pp. 347-356 More about this Journal
Abstract
Bauxite is a main raw material for the production of alumina and aluminum hydroxide in the processing plant of KC company. It is a NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials), and its waste, red mud, is a TENORM (Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials). The purpose of the geochemical and mineralogical investigations of the bedrock and soils in and around the plant, a large NORM source, was to provide basic data for measuring the radiation dose and protecting from radioactive hazards. Soils were mixtures of minerals derived from the country rock (quartz, feldspar, mica, kaolin, gibbsite, and sepiolite) and bauxite (hematite, boehmite, and calcite) of open-air storage. Average U and Th contents of the soil samples were 4.7 ppm and 23 ppm, respectively, indicating somewhat Th anomaly. The average concentrations of radionuclides are $^{40}K$ 100~1,433 Bq/kg, $^{226}Ra$ anomaly in the red mud open-air storage. Soil external hazard indices range from 0.10 to 1.66 with an average of 0.63. Although most of the indices are below 1.0 that is a regulation value, those of 4 samples of total 41 soil samples exceed 1.0, requiring further detailed investigation.
Keywords
NORM; bauxite; environmental investigation;
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