Assessment of the current state of radionuclides and metals content in the surface and groundwater at the region of Eleshnitsa former Uranium mine

This article presents a complete chemical analysis as well as an analysis for some radionuclides of most monitoring points around the former uranium mine, mill site and still existent tailings pond at Eleshnitsa in the Razlog region of Southwestern Bulgaria. After a comparison with the regulatory norms, the data are used in a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) followed by cluster analysis. These statistical techniques allow geographical grouping of monitoring points with comparable characteristics. The PCA clearly shows a typical tailing pond signature in some of the observation points downstream from the tailing pond dam. Key words: radionuclides, metals, surface and groundwater, Eleshnitsa (author)