In October 1995 the first international conference on Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology (UMH I) was held at Freiberg. Due to the large scientific interest in this topic a second conference (UMH II) took place in September 1998. Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology III (UMH III) happend in September 2002.
Uranium is an element to be found ubiquitous in rock, soil, and water. Uranium concentrations in natural ground water can be more than 100 µg/l without impact from mining, nuclear industry, and fertilizers. Considering the WHO recommendation for drinking water of 9 µg/l (has been as low as 2 µg/l before) due to the chemical toxicity of uranium the element uranium has become an important issue in environmental research. Besides natural enrichment of uranium in aquifers uranium mining and milling activities, further uranium processing to nuclear fuel, emissions form burning coal and oil, and the application of uranium containing phosphate fertilizers may enrich the natural uranium concentrations in soil and water by far. Thus scientists and engineers working on the topic of uranium in soil and water, the mining business, environmental protection and ecotoxicity, and risk assessment from all over the world are invited to attend the forth consecutive conference Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology (UMH IV) in order to get an international forum for discussing uranium related problems.
The conference addresses scientists and engineers working in the mining and rehabilitation business. The focus of the conference is on uranium mining and milling sites, mining sites with considerable amount of uranium and radionuclides as by-products e.g. phosphate production, abandoned mines, clean up measures, natural attenuation, monitoring measures, modeling techniques, and risk assessment studies. Finally political decision makers may attend the conference as well. The contributions will be published in a Conference Proceedings and will be available at the conference
Conference topics will be:
- Sensors for in-situ monitoring of uranium and related elements
- Analytical speciation techniques for uranium and related elements
- Chemical toxicity of uranium
- Microbiology of uranium
- Thermodynamic and kinitical modeling
- Active and passive water treatment techniques
- Active and passive soil treatment techniques
- Phytoremediation
- In-situ leaching of uranium ores
- Risk assessment studies (e.g. long term aspects of waste rock piles and tailings)
- Case studies: active and abandoned Uranium mines
- Case studies: elevated uranium in groundwater without uranium mining impact
- Case studies: mining activities with uranium as side product / problem
