Environmental hazards in exploratory uranium mining in India - its control measures and ground reclamation with case studies from Bodal mine, Rajnandgaon district and Jajawal mine, Sarguja district, Madhya Pradesh, India

Bodal and Jajawal mines are two underground uranium exploratory mines that pose radiation hazard besides conventional mining hazards like dust, noise, gaseous products, and roof collapse. Radiation measurements from the different working and non-working mine faces indicate that the external radiation and internal contamination hazards are within the tolerance limits, except for few instances where proper ventilation could not be maintained. The concentration of radon and its daughters in these mines ranges in terms of concentration of equilibrium equivalent radon (EER) from 0.01 to 0.51 kBq-3, external exposure levels (gamma) from 9 to 500 R/h, noise level from 100 to 117 (dBA) and 226Ra body burden from 0.9± 0.4 to 1.9± 0.3 (kBq) within the respective derived limits of air concentration, derived water concentration, mean exposure level, and maximum permissible body burden. In the light of IAEA recommendations and new mining laws, ground reclamation and reconstitution of uranium mining sites have also been briefly discussed. (author). 14 refs., 9 tabs., 1 appendix