Phytotechnology – is there a possibility to use it for land reclamation of areas contaminated by Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials?

Laboratory of Radiometry, Główny Instytut Górnictwa, Plac Gwarków 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland

Abstract

Presently, excavation and shipping to a distant waste disposal site is the most commonly used method for handling waste contaminated with radionuclides. Due to international recommendation waste containing enhanced concentration of natural radioactivity should be treated in the same way. In case of TENORMs, which usually occur in huge quantity, this method would be very expensive and can be disruptive to the environment in which the contamination was found as well as direct effects of this pollutant occurrence.

Biological treatment methods, such as phytoextraction or at last phytostabilisation could provide an attractive alternative to the excavation of waste. It is entirely possible that methods successful for heavy metals may be successful for the radioactive elements. Seven-years observation of the a settling pond contaminated with radium isotopes showed that even natural plant transgression into contaminated area can be an effective tool to stabilize pollutants. On the other hand, the assessment of the effectiveness of phytoextraction based on natural plants gave not so promising results.