Environment and Security: Transforming risks into cooperation - Central Asia - Ferghana / Osh / Khujand area

Environment and Security / 31

Ferghana / Osh / Khujand

disastrous for the country 26 .) Although perceptions may not reflect reality the actions taken in response to those perceptions will have real consequences . To continue with uranium mining, tailing dams at Mailuu- Suu (Kyrgyzstan), Shekaftar and Sumsar (Kyrgyzstan) 27 , at the Charkesar mine (in Uzbekistan), and in the complex in around Khujand (Chkalovsk, Adrasman and Taboshar) in Tajikistan’s Sogd province have traditionally been the focus of concern. Many tailing dumps, as well as mud storage areas, were built directly on the flood plains of rivers. In some cases protection dams were washed away and radionuclides and heavy metals entered the rivers and The Taboshar uranium mining site stands on the southern edge of the Kuramin Mountains, close to the Uzbek-Tajik border. Having worked from 1949 to 1965, it is now a huge assembly of non-operational uranium ore extraction and production facilities and tailings spread over 400 hectares. The town of Taboshar, with its 12,000 inhabitants, is only a few kilometres away. The site consists of the non-rehabilitated open mine, disman- tled production buildings and three tailings sites storing 10 m tonnes of low grade processed uranium ore. Tailings are exposed to wind and water erosion and easily accessible to people and grazing animals. A school and a few farms stand in the middle of the former mining area. The average radiation background around and on the top tailings is 10 times the normal background value (90 µR/h to 120 µR/h). There are many signs of scavenging for metal and removal of tailing materials for construction purposes. Gardens and farm- ing land are located close to the radioactive tailing pile, and a local irrigation canal literally crosses the foothills of the tailing site prior to being used by farmers and local people downstream. Lack of awareness and poverty drives people to use this contaminated area. Moreover easy access and grazing of domestic (sheep, cows) and wild (rodents) animals may introduce radioactive pollutants and heavy metals into the food chain and affect humans and the environment. Radioactive particles from badly managed abandoned sites are exposed to the air and can be transported by the strong winds prevalent in this area to densely popu- lated areas. Water erosion by heavy rainfall and leaching ENVSEC CASE STUDY Radioactive waste in Taboshar, Tajikistan

reservoirs. (For example there are signs of high radioactivity levels in reeds in the Kairakkum reservoir 28 .) Landslides may push the contents of dumps into rivers. In Adrasman and Chkalovsk open tailing dumps are exposed to wind and water erosion, and to floods and landslides. Field visits to tailing ponds by local and international experts organized by ENVSEC have confirmed the low level of protection with respect to continuous as well as accidental pollution. The Kyrgyz government has done a great deal to draw the international community’s attention to the problems of Mailuu Suu and has managed to obtain World Bank funding to carry out feasibility studies and mitigation work on-site.

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of materials to groundwater carries radioactive pol- lutants into irrigation systems and rivers.

Source: ENVSEC field visits – Uranium Mining and Processing Track