Radionuclides in the environment around the uranium mines in Guangxi, China

Uranium and plutonium are both poisonous radioactive elements, which are very harmful to human health and environment. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the distribution of ²³⁸U concentration and ^239+240Pu activity in the uranium mine surrounding soils. We have collected some surface soil sediments within 2 km of two uranium mines and a solid waste management center in Guangxi Province. The ²³⁸U concentration in these study areas is in the range of 1.44-83.91 mg/g, and the ²³⁸U concentration in the A uranium mine surrounding surface soils is higher than that in the B uranium mine and the solid waste management center. While the B uranium mine and the solid waster management center don't pollute the surrounding soils because the ²³⁸U concentrations in their surrounding soils are similar to the average ²³⁸U concentration in the soil. The ^239+240Pu activities in soil samples collected around the two uranium mines and the solid waste management center are close ranged from 0.06 mBq/g to 0.51 mBq/g. Moreover, the ²⁴⁰Pu/²³⁹Pu atom ratios in our study samples are ranged from 0.15 to 0.23, which indicate the Pu may come from the global fallout. In addition, we study heavy metals in our collected samples, only heavy metal Tl has weak positive correlations with ²³⁸U concentrations and ^239+240Pu activities. And there is a weak positive correlation between ²³⁸U concentrations and ^239+240Pu activities.