RT Journal Article
T1 Natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in Northern Sweden
A1 Thomas, R.
A1 Mantero, J.
A1 Ruiz Cánovas, Carlos
A1 Holm, E.
A1 García-Tenorio, R.
A1 Forssell-Aronsson, Eva
A1 Isaksson, Mats
AB Northern Sweden has been the object of intense metal mining in the last decades producingseveral water-filled open-pits, or pit lakes. Most of these pit lakes have been limed to maintaina good water quality and to prevent generation of acidic water that could leach theexposed 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 sedimentsamples 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 measuredby a water probe, ICP-MS and XRF, and alpha and gamma spectrometry, respectively.Furthermore, a multivariate statistical analysis (PCA) was performed on the watersamples and sediments. In general, the quality of the surface water was good, but somelakes had low pH values (2.5–5.7), and high concentrations of Fe (up to 200 mg/L) and othermetals (e.g. Zn, Cu). When relating the metal concentrations in sediments in pit lakes withthe concentration found in natural lakes, some sites had relatively high levels of Cu, As, Crand Pb. The activity concentration of 210Po, and U and Th isotopes in water and sedimentsamples were at environmental levels, as was the ambient dose equivalent rate at thesesites (range 0.08–0.14 μSv/h).
PB Public Library of Science (PLoS)
SN 1932-6203 (electrónico)
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/21946
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/21946
LA eng
NO Thomas, R., Mantero, J., Cánovas, C. R., Holm, E., García-Tenorio, R., Forssell-Aronsson, E., & Isaksson, M. (2022). Natural radioactivity and element characterization in pit lakes in Northern Sweden. In A. W. Rate (Ed.), PLOS ONE (Vol. 17, Issue 3, p. e0266002). Public Library of Science (PLoS). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266002
NO Financial support was granted by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM2014-3485).The authors acknowledge the support from the X-Ray Laboratory staff (XRF measurements)placed at CITIUS facilities at University of Seville. Furthermore, we are grateful to the AppliedNuclear Physics Group, University of Seville, for its continuous technical support during the differentstages of this project. We also thank Boliden AB and LKAB for giving access to several of themining sites and for providing details on the closed mines. One of the authors (JM) acknowledgesthe support to this work through a PPUS contract (Plan Propio de la Universidad de Sevilla).
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 30 may 2026