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1 Introduction
Uranium is a conventional albeit controversial source of energy without emission.
The 1 kg of uranium can produce an equivalent energy to 2.2 tons of coal burning.
Therefore, most of the developed countries such as the USA, Japan, France and
Russia rely on nuclear energy to fulfil their civil and military energy demands
(Wang et al. 2018). These two sectors are consuming the most of uranium along
with nuclear weapons and limited usage in medical science, agriculture and food
processing as preservatives. In order to fulfil the raw material for these uraniumconsuming sectors, various countries are involved in mining and processing of uranium ores, mainly as U 3 O 8 (as shown in Table 1). A recent report of the World
Nuclear Association (2017) reveals that the largest contributing countries are
Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia, which shares the world’s uranium supply of 39,
22 and 10%, respectively.
Being a controversial source of energy, the world is still in dilemma whether to
use it or not or how much clean it is in reality (Jin and Kim 2018). On the one side,
several countries like Japan, France and South Korea are busy in analysing the benefits of nuclear energy after the Fukushima fallout (Wang et al. 2018). On the other
hand, the fastest growing countries like India are eyeing on the potential of nuclear
power plants to fulfil the energy demand of the country (IEO 2015; Pathak 2017;
Pathak and Sharma 2018). Notably, India has been ranked 12th by producing 421
tons of uranium in the year 2017 but from its low-grade reserves that account 3% of
the global deposits (Chaki et al. 2011; World Nuclear Association 2017). To accomplish India’s 2030 mission of 21GW nuclear energy, the uranium is being imported
from Russia, Kazakhstan, France and Australia (Pathak 2017; World Nuclear
Association 2017; Pathak and Sharma 2018). Conclusively, the global demands of
uranium do not seem to be lowered down, henceforth, the mining activities will also
continue in recent future. Most of the mining activities pose serious threats to the
environment and ecological system; uranium is no exception of it. A typical civil
nuclear fuel cycle is shown in Fig. 1, which depicts mainly three types of waste
generation: (i) tailings (solid residues), (ii) spent fuels (liquid radionuclide waste)
and (iii) fission products (solid radionuclide waste). Amongst three types of wastes,
tailings are the major in volume after milling and leaching; however, the crushing
and grinding also generates the hazardous and radiotoxic fine dusts. Ever since the
late 1950s to fuel a nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, most uranium mining
(including the milling sites) have been operated and managed under a minimum
public health and safety regulation which has recently been implemented (Kikawada
et al. 2015). Not only the present activities but also the legacy of large uranium mining and milling waste deposits is a matter of concerns about the exposure risks
through the environmental pathways. The unseen and hidden effects can be seen
from many studies; some of the foremost concerns are extremely serious, viz. slope
stability, land degradation, air pollution, groundwater contamination and bioaccumulation. The fine particles of metal dust mixed with air badly damage the air quality. The wastes generated by the uranium mining, milling, leaching and tailing
R. R. Srivastava et al.
1 Introduction
Uranium is a conventional albeit controversial source of energy without emission.
The 1 kg of uranium can produce an equivalent energy to 2.2 tons of coal burning.
Therefore, most of the developed countries such as the USA, Japan, France and
Russia rely on nuclear energy to fulfil their civil and military energy demands
(Wang et al. 2018). These two sectors are consuming the most of uranium along
with nuclear weapons and limited usage in medical science, agriculture and food
processing as preservatives. In order to fulfil the raw material for these uraniumconsuming sectors, various countries are involved in mining and processing of uranium ores, mainly as U 3 O 8 (as shown in Table 1). A recent report of the World
Nuclear Association (2017) reveals that the largest contributing countries are
Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia, which shares the world’s uranium supply of 39,
22 and 10%, respectively.
Being a controversial source of energy, the world is still in dilemma whether to
use it or not or how much clean it is in reality (Jin and Kim 2018). On the one side,
several countries like Japan, France and South Korea are busy in analysing the benefits of nuclear energy after the Fukushima fallout (Wang et al. 2018). On the other
hand, the fastest growing countries like India are eyeing on the potential of nuclear
power plants to fulfil the energy demand of the country (IEO 2015; Pathak 2017;
Pathak and Sharma 2018). Notably, India has been ranked 12th by producing 421
tons of uranium in the year 2017 but from its low-grade reserves that account 3% of
the global deposits (Chaki et al. 2011; World Nuclear Association 2017). To accomplish India’s 2030 mission of 21GW nuclear energy, the uranium is being imported
from Russia, Kazakhstan, France and Australia (Pathak 2017; World Nuclear
Association 2017; Pathak and Sharma 2018). Conclusively, the global demands of
uranium do not seem to be lowered down, henceforth, the mining activities will also
continue in recent future. Most of the mining activities pose serious threats to the
environment and ecological system; uranium is no exception of it. A typical civil
nuclear fuel cycle is shown in Fig. 1, which depicts mainly three types of waste
generation: (i) tailings (solid residues), (ii) spent fuels (liquid radionuclide waste)
and (iii) fission products (solid radionuclide waste). Amongst three types of wastes,
tailings are the major in volume after milling and leaching; however, the crushing
and grinding also generates the hazardous and radiotoxic fine dusts. Ever since the
late 1950s to fuel a nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, most uranium mining
(including the milling sites) have been operated and managed under a minimum
public health and safety regulation which has recently been implemented (Kikawada
et al. 2015). Not only the present activities but also the legacy of large uranium mining and milling waste deposits is a matter of concerns about the exposure risks
through the environmental pathways. The unseen and hidden effects can be seen
from many studies; some of the foremost concerns are extremely serious, viz. slope
stability, land degradation, air pollution, groundwater contamination and bioaccumulation. The fine particles of metal dust mixed with air badly damage the air quality. The wastes generated by the uranium mining, milling, leaching and tailing
R. R. Srivastava et al.