Application of PERALS™ alpha spectrometry and gamma spectrometry for analysis and investigation of environmental spills at ISL uranium mining projects

Radiation protection and environmental monitoring in mining requires effective and reliable radionuclide analysis at all stages of the mine project—prior to mining, during operation and through to remediation and decommissioning.The approach presented in this paper was specially developed for the monitoring of radioactive waste resulting from spills during mining and mineral processing operations and uses a combination of high resolution gamma spectrometry, and PERALS™ alpha spectrometry to identify and reliably quantify the activity of the major members of the U-238 decay chain at activities down to 10 mBq g−1 by direct radionuclide counting and by assessment of the activity of their decay products. This approach has reduced sample preparation and analysis time while providing effective analysis and quantification of naturally occurring radionuclides in environmental samples. It has been successfully applied to several in situ leach (ISL) mining-related projects involving investigations of process material spill impacts and also to routine environmental monitoring.