International Conference on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, Decommissioning, Environmental Protection and Remediation: Ensuring Safety and Enabling Sustainability

Radioactivity in wastewater from the phosphate industries in Tunisia

Not scheduled

20m

M-Building (IAEA Headquarters, Vienna)

POSTER Track 5 - Practical experiences in integrating safety and sustainable development

Speaker

Dr Faten Boujelbane (CNSTN)

Description

The Tunisian phosphate industry processes large amounts of phosphate ore (8 Mton/year, 20) for a wide range of applications: the production of phosphoric acid, fertilizers and others. Water is one of the essential elements in phosphate enrichment process in Southern Tunisia. After being used, most of this wastewater is returned to the environment. This study focused on discharges from phosphate industries in Gafsa-Metlaoui basin. The phosphate industries generate several hazardous and radioactive in wastewater. Effluent samples were collected from these industries; analyses were carried out for the water from the phosphate washing units in the basin of Gafsa. The 234U/238U activity ratio were determined by alpha spectrometry in water and sludge and the results were compared with other studies in worldwide