The International Atomic Energy Agency's Additional Protocol has engendered the monitoring of past and present uranium mining and milling operations by the IAEA. This activity requires tools, instruments, and expertise unfamiliar to Agency safeguards inspectors, but methods and instruments for effecting such monitoring are currently being employed by geologists, geophysicists, mining engineers, environmental officials, and archaeologists. Remote sensing in the form of photography, radar imagery, and gamma ray spectroscopy complements field data by disclosing prior mine-related activities or the magnitude of present ones, including: surveying pit volumes, mapping the spatial distribution of mine tailings over time, identifying soil and mineral disparities, and revealing biophysical data.
Revised: May 16, 2006 |
Published: December 1, 2004
Citation
Curtis M.M. 2004.Monitoring of Uranium Mining and Milling Operations. In Proceedings of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management 45th Annual Meeting, July 2004, Orlando FL, paper no. 366. Northbrook, Illinois:Institute of Nuclear Materials Management.PNNL-SA-41971.