IAEA-TECDOC-1873 IAEA-TECDOC-1873 IAEA TECDOC SERIES Uranium Production Cycle Selected Papers 2012–2015 2012–2015 Selected Papers Uranium Production Cycle IAEA-TECDOC-1873 Uranium Production Cycle Selected Papers 2012–2015 Proceedings of a Series of Technical Meetings International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna ISBN 978–92–0–103019–1 ISSN 1011–4289 @ URANIUM PRODUCTION CYCLE SELECTED PAPERS 2012–2015 The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: AFGHANISTAN GERMANY PAKISTAN ALBANIA GHANA PALAU ALGERIA GREECE PANAMA ANGOLA GRENADA PAPUA NEW GUINEA ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA GUATEMALA PARAGUAY ARGENTINA GUYANA PERU ARMENIA HAITI PHILIPPINES AUSTRALIA HOLY SEE POLAND AUSTRIA HONDURAS PORTUGAL AZERBAIJAN HUNGARY QATAR BAHAMAS ICELAND REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA BAHRAIN INDIA BANGLADESH INDONESIA ROMANIA BARBADOS IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION BELARUS IRAQ RWANDA BELGIUM IRELAND SAINT LUCIA BELIZE ISRAEL SAINT VINCENT AND BENIN ITALY THE GRENADINES BOLIVIA, PLURINATIONAL JAMAICA SAN MARINO STATE OF JAPAN SAUDI ARABIA BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JORDAN SENEGAL BOTSWANA KAZAKHSTAN SERBIA BRAZIL KENYA SEYCHELLES BRUNEI DARUSSALAM KOREA, REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE BULGARIA KUWAIT SINGAPORE BURKINA FASO KYRGYZSTAN SLOVAKIA BURUNDI LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC SLOVENIA CAMBODIA REPUBLIC SOUTH AFRICA CAMEROON LATVIA SPAIN CANADA LEBANON SRI LANKA CENTRAL AFRICAN LESOTHO SUDAN REPUBLIC LIBERIA CHAD LIBYA SWEDEN CHILE LIECHTENSTEIN SWITZERLAND CHINA LITHUANIA SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC COLOMBIA LUXEMBOURG TAJIKISTAN CONGO MADAGASCAR THAILAND COSTA RICA MALAWI TOGO CÔTE D’IVOIRE MALAYSIA TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO CROATIA MALI TUNISIA CUBA MALTA TURKEY CYPRUS MARSHALL ISLANDS TURKMENISTAN CZECH REPUBLIC MAURITANIA UGANDA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MAURITIUS UKRAINE OF THE CONGO MEXICO UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DENMARK MONACO UNITED KINGDOM OF DJIBOUTI MONGOLIA GREAT BRITAIN AND DOMINICA MONTENEGRO NORTHERN IRELAND DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MOROCCO UNITED REPUBLIC ECUADOR MOZAMBIQUE OF TANZANIA EGYPT MYANMAR UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EL SALVADOR NAMIBIA ERITREA NEPAL URUGUAY ESTONIA NETHERLANDS UZBEKISTAN ESWATINI NEW ZEALAND VANUATU ETHIOPIA NICARAGUA VENEZUELA, BOLIVARIAN FIJI NIGER REPUBLIC OF FINLAND NIGERIA VIET NAM FRANCE NORTH MACEDONIA YEMEN GABON NORWAY ZAMBIA GEORGIA OMAN ZIMBABWE The Agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957. The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’. IAEA-TECDOC-1873 URANIUM PRODUCTION CYCLE SELECTED PAPERS 2012–2015 PROCEEDINGS OF A SERIES OF TECHNICAL MEETINGS INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2019 COPYRIGHT NOTICE All IAEA scientific and technical publications are protected by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention as adopted in 1952 (Berne) and as revised in 1972 (Paris). The copyright has since been extended by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) to include electronic and virtual intellectual property. Permission to use whole or parts of texts contained in IAEA publications in printed or electronic form must be obtained and is usually subject to royalty agreements. Proposals for non-commercial reproductions and translations are welcomed and considered on a case-by-case basis. Enquiries should be addressed to the IAEA Publishing Section at: Marketing and Sales Unit, Publishing Section International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre PO Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria fax: +43 1 26007 22529 tel.: +43 1 2600 22417 email: [email protected] www.iaea.org/books For further information on this publication, please contact: Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Materials Section International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre PO Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria Email: [email protected] © IAEA, 2019 Printed by the IAEA in Austria June 2019 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Names: International Atomic Energy Agency. Title: Uranium production cycle selected papers 2012–2015 / International Atomic Energy Agency. Description: Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2019. | Series: IAEA TECDOC series, ISSN 1011–4289 ; no. 1873 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: IAEAL 19-01241 | ISBN 978–92–0–103019–1 (paperback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Uranium cycle (Biogeochemistry). | Uranium industry. | Uranium mines and mining. FOREWORD Since 2009, the expected growth of nuclear power worldwide has led to an ongoing increase in uranium demand. Notwithstanding significant price fluctuations, uranium production has increased over the past several years, and many new projects are now under consideration. Negative legacies of past uranium mining activities have the potential to impact current and proposed uranium mining projects, in particular their ‘social licence’. Much work has been done to remediate those negative effects in many mining districts, although much remains to be done. Moreover, some currently operating mines are nearing the end of their active lives and will move into rehabilitation in the next few years with a need to avoid new legacy issues. The IAEA undertakes numerous activities to support its Member States throughout the life cycle of uranium production and in the remediation of legacy sites. In the 1990s, the IAEA began working with the Uranium Mining and Remediation Exchange Group (UMREG), an informal international assemblage of uranium mining professionals that brings together practitioners from all sides of the uranium mining industry to discuss ideas and exchange experiences related to remediation and legacy site management, and operational mining projects. In 2011, the IAEA published a volume of collected papers entitled UMREG Uranium Mining and Remediation Exchange Group: Selected Papers 1995–2007. In 2012, the IAEA began a further series of nine Technical Meetings on the theme of good practice in the uranium production cycle, including an UMREG meeting hosted by the IAEA at its Headquarters in Vienna. The committee advising the IAEA for these Technical Meetings urged publication of a second volume of collected UMREG papers, and so the proceedings of the UMREG meeting were expanded to include selected papers from other Technical Meetings within the series. The present publication is intended to be a record of the work done in many Member States and presented at UMREG and other relevant Technical Meetings over the period 2012–2015. It includes all of the papers received, in the order in which the original presentation was made. For the majority of the papers, the work has been updated since the original presentation, and the title and authorship may vary slightly to reflect this. The IAEA officers responsible for this publication were P. Woods and M. Fairclough of the Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology. EDITORIAL NOTE This publication has been prepared from the original material as submitted by the contributors and has not been edited by the editorial staff of the IAEA. The views expressed remain the responsibility of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of the IAEA or its Member States. Neither the IAEA nor its Member States assume any responsibility for consequences which may arise from the use of this publication. This publication does not address questions of responsibility, legal or otherwise, for acts or omissions on the part of any person. The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA. The authors are responsible for having obtained the necessary permission for the IAEA to reproduce, translate or use material from sources already protected by copyrights. The IAEA has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third party Internet web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. CONTENTS SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 1 PAPERS PRESENTED Geology of the Kayelekera uranium deposit, Malawi .............................................................. 15 A. Wilde, J.C. Corbin, J. Mwenelupembe, D. Princep, A. Otto, E. Becker Best practice in environmental management of uranium mining ............................................ 29 P. Woods Remediation of uranium mining and milling legacies at the Mailuu Suu Site (Kyrgyzstan) — Achievements and lessons learned during implementation of the ‘disaster and hazard mitigation project’ 2005–2012 ....................................................... 39 C. Kunze, P. Schmidt, F. Wagner, U. Walter Uranium mill tailings affecting water resources in Mailuu–Suu Valley, Kyrgyzstan ............. 55 F. Wagner, S. Altfelder, T. Himmelsbach, H. Jung Extraction of uranium from monazite ore in Thailand ............................................................. 63 U. Injarean, P. Pichestapong