Natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in Northern Sweden
Northern Sweden has been the object of intense metal mining in the last decades producing several water-filled open-pits, or pit lakes. Most of these pit lakes have been limed to maintain a good water quality and to prevent generation of acidic water that could leach the exposed rocks and release me...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8970354 2023-05-15T17:44:17+02:00 Natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in Northern Sweden Thomas, Rimon Mantero, Juan Cánovas, Carlos Ruiz Holm, Elis García-Tenorio, Rafael Forssell-Aronsson, Eva Isaksson, Mats 2022-03-31 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8970354/ https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266002 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8970354/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266002 © 2022 Thomas et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY PLoS One Research Article Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266002 2022-04-03T01:26:33Z Northern Sweden has been the object of intense metal mining in the last decades producing several water-filled open-pits, or pit lakes. Most of these pit lakes have been limed to maintain a good water quality and to prevent generation of acidic water that could leach the exposed rocks and release metals into water. The aim of this work was to examine the concentration of stable elements and naturally occurring radionuclides in water and sediment samples from pit lakes originating from non-uranium mining activities in Northern Sweden. Surface water and surface sediments were collected from 27 pit lakes in Northern Sweden. Water quality parameters, concentration of stable elements and radionuclides were measured by a water probe, ICP-MS and XRF, and alpha and gamma spectrometry, respectively. Furthermore, a multivariate statistical analysis (PCA) was performed on the water samples and sediments. In general, the quality of the surface water was good, but some lakes had low pH values (2.5–5.7), and high concentrations of Fe (up to 200 mg/L) and other metals (e.g. Zn, Cu). When relating the metal concentrations in sediments in pit lakes with the concentration found in natural lakes, some sites had relatively high levels of Cu, As, Cr and Pb. The activity concentration of (210)Po, and U and Th isotopes in water and sediment samples were at environmental levels, as was the ambient dose equivalent rate at these sites (range 0.08–0.14 μSv/h). Text Northern Sweden PubMed Central (PMC) PLOS ONE 17 3 e0266002 |
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Research Article Thomas, Rimon Mantero, Juan Cánovas, Carlos Ruiz Holm, Elis García-Tenorio, Rafael Forssell-Aronsson, Eva Isaksson, Mats Natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in Northern Sweden |
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Research Article |
description |
Northern Sweden has been the object of intense metal mining in the last decades producing several water-filled open-pits, or pit lakes. Most of these pit lakes have been limed to maintain a good water quality and to prevent generation of acidic water that could leach the exposed rocks and release metals into water. The aim of this work was to examine the concentration of stable elements and naturally occurring radionuclides in water and sediment samples from pit lakes originating from non-uranium mining activities in Northern Sweden. Surface water and surface sediments were collected from 27 pit lakes in Northern Sweden. Water quality parameters, concentration of stable elements and radionuclides were measured by a water probe, ICP-MS and XRF, and alpha and gamma spectrometry, respectively. Furthermore, a multivariate statistical analysis (PCA) was performed on the water samples and sediments. In general, the quality of the surface water was good, but some lakes had low pH values (2.5–5.7), and high concentrations of Fe (up to 200 mg/L) and other metals (e.g. Zn, Cu). When relating the metal concentrations in sediments in pit lakes with the concentration found in natural lakes, some sites had relatively high levels of Cu, As, Cr and Pb. The activity concentration of (210)Po, and U and Th isotopes in water and sediment samples were at environmental levels, as was the ambient dose equivalent rate at these sites (range 0.08–0.14 μSv/h). |
format |
Text |
author |
Thomas, Rimon Mantero, Juan Cánovas, Carlos Ruiz Holm, Elis García-Tenorio, Rafael Forssell-Aronsson, Eva Isaksson, Mats |
author_facet |
Thomas, Rimon Mantero, Juan Cánovas, Carlos Ruiz Holm, Elis García-Tenorio, Rafael Forssell-Aronsson, Eva Isaksson, Mats |
author_sort |
Thomas, Rimon |
title |
Natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in Northern Sweden |
title_short |
Natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in Northern Sweden |
title_full |
Natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in Northern Sweden |
title_fullStr |
Natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in Northern Sweden |
title_full_unstemmed |
Natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in Northern Sweden |
title_sort |
natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in northern sweden |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8970354/ https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266002 |
genre |
Northern Sweden |
genre_facet |
Northern Sweden |
op_source |
PLoS One |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8970354/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266002 |
op_rights |
© 2022 Thomas et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266002 |
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PLOS ONE |
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17 |
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3 |
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e0266002 |
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