Pit lakes from Southern Sweden: natural radioactivity and elementary characterization

Abstract

Natural radioactivity in the environment is a field gaining more attention in last decades. This work is focused on the study of natural radioactivity complemented with elementary characterization at former non‑uraniferous mining areas in Sweden. This aim is addressed through the study of mining lakes, called pit lakes, which are water bodies generated after opencast mining. Environmental matrices (water, sediments and rocks) from 32 Swedish pit lakes, commonly used for recreational purposes were radiometrically characterized via alpha (238U, 234U, 232Th, 230Th, 210Po isotopes) and gamma spectrometry (238U and 232Th series radionuclides). Additionally, ambient dose rate equivalent in the immediate surrounding of each pit lake was quantified. Physico‑chemical parameters (pH, specific conductivity, dissolved oxygen, oxidation–reduction potential) and elemental composition (major and trace elements by ICP‑MS) were analysed in water samples and elementary composition of sediments/rocks was measured by XRF and SEM–EDX in some specific cases. A non‑negligible number of pit lakes (26%) with enhanced U levels in water was found. At some sites, rocks contained up to 4% of U in areas with high degree of interaction with local population. Concerning the elementary perspective, another popular site (due to its turquoise water) was found to have elevated dissolved heavy metal levels. Results obtained in this work prove that measurement of natural radioactivity is another component that should be included in routine analysis of characterization in mining areas, especially if restauration of post‑mining sites is intended for human recreational.