Geochemical Behavior of Uranium and Radon in Groundwater of Jurassic Granite Area, Icheon, Middle Korea
1
Geologic Environment Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon 34132, Korea
2
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Andong National University, Andong 36729, Korea
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Water 2019, 11(6), 1278; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11061278
Received: 5 May 2019 / Revised: 30 May 2019 / Accepted: 17 June 2019 / Published: 19 June 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radioactive Isotopes in Hydrosphere)
Uranium concentrations (a total of 82 samples) in groundwater in Icheon, middle Korea, showed a wide range from 0.02 to 1640 μg/L with a mean of 56.77 μg/L, a median of 3.03 μg/L, and a standard deviation of 228.63 μg/L. Most groundwater samples had quite low concentrations: 32.9% were below 1 μg/L, while 15.9% exceeded 30 μg/L, the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Radon concentrations also ranged widely from 1.48 to 865.8 Bq/L. Although the standard deviation of radon was large (151.8 Bq/L), the mean was 211.29 Bq/L and the median was 176.86 Bq/L. Overall, 64.6% of the samples exceeded the alternative maximum contaminant level (AMCL) of the US EPA (148 Bq/L). According to statistical analyses, there was no close correlations between uranium and radon, but there were correlations between uranium and redox potential (Eh) (−0.54), dissolved oxygen (DO) (−0.50), HCO3− (0.45), Sr (0.65), and SiO2 (−0.44). Radon showed independent behavior with respect to most components in groundwater. Uranium concentrations in groundwater increased with increasing water–rock interactions. Anomalously high uranium and radon concentrations in groundwater are preferentially localized in granite areas and spatial distributions are remarkably heterogeneous.
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Keywords:
uranium; groundwater; radon; statistical analyses; water–rock interactions
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MDPI and ACS Style
Cho, B.W.; Choo, C.O. Geochemical Behavior of Uranium and Radon in Groundwater of Jurassic Granite Area, Icheon, Middle Korea. Water 2019, 11, 1278. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11061278
AMA Style
Cho BW, Choo CO. Geochemical Behavior of Uranium and Radon in Groundwater of Jurassic Granite Area, Icheon, Middle Korea. Water. 2019; 11(6):1278. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11061278
Chicago/Turabian StyleCho, Byong W.; Choo, Chang O. 2019. "Geochemical Behavior of Uranium and Radon in Groundwater of Jurassic Granite Area, Icheon, Middle Korea" Water 11, no. 6: 1278. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11061278
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