Abstract
Underground coal mining is associated with large quantities of gangue. In the past, the majority of gangue was not utilized but was placed in the vicinity of the coalmines forming cone-shaped dumps. Some of them contained even millions of tons of rock. Nowadays, environmental precautions extort larger utilization of any kind of waste materials, for example in road construction, civil engineering or as stowing in underground abandoned workings. Examination of the composition of waste dumps, including radioactivity, is thus an important issue. The paper presents results of a radiological survey carried out in several dumps located in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in the south of Poland. Measurements of samples were carried out with the use of a gamma-ray spectrometer. Activity concentration results for the uranium and thorium decay chains are discussed.
Highlights
The Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB) is located in Silesia in Poland and the Czech Republic
The content of the 226Ra, 232Th and 40K activity concentration in the 43 samples of the Silesian coal waste dumps is graphically presented in the Figures 3A and 3B
The mean values are higher than average data for the soils in the Silesian Voivodship, which are around 30 Bq kg−1 for 226Ra and 232Th and about 400 Bq kg−1 for 40K
Summary
The Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB) is located in Silesia in Poland and the Czech Republic. Apart from coal it contains a number of other minable resources (methane, cadmium, lead, silver and zinc). Resources of coal go down to a depth to 1000 meters. This area is a home of altogether 5 million people.
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