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http://dx.doi.org/10.9719/EEG.2018.51.6.543

Uranium Levels in Groundwater of CGS (Community Groundwater System) of Korea  

Cho, Byong-Wook (Groundwater and Ecohydrology Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources)
Kim, Moon-Su (Soil and Groundwater Research Division, National Institute of Environmental Research)
Kim, Dong-Su (Soil and Groundwater Research Division, National Institute of Environmental Research)
Hwang, Jae-Hong (Geoscience Data Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources)
Publication Information
Economic and Environmental Geology / v.51, no.6, 2018 , pp. 543-551 More about this Journal
Abstract
The uranium concentrations were determined in groundwater collected from 3,820 community groundwater system (CGS) located in remote rural areas where access to the nationwide water work is not easy. The frequency distribution of uranium concentrations shows a lognormal distribution which is common in most radionuclide surveys. The measured maximum uranium concentration was $1,757.0{\mu}g/L$ with an average of $6.46{\mu}g/L$ and a median of $0.76{\mu}g/L$. When grouping the uranium concentration results of CGS into 10 geological units, the median uranium concentration was high ($0.99-2.05{\mu}g/L$) in three granite areas, and low in sedimentary rocks areas and porous volcanic rocks areas ($0.04-0.50{\mu}g/L$). Of the 3,820 samples, 3.8% are above the guideline value of $30{\mu}g/L$ (WHO, 2011). On the other hand, the exceeding rates of JGRA and PGRA CGS are 8.5% and 7.5%, respectively. Therefore, attention should be paid for the development of new CGS along with the management of the existing CGS in JGRA and PGRA areas.
Keywords
uranium; concentration; groundwater; community groundwater system;
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