Effective Cleanup of Groundwater Contaminated with Radionuclides Using Permeable Reactive Barriers - Permeable Reactive Barrier: Sustainable Groundwater Remediation - page 152

as energy or other resources. The hidden flows for metals related to metal
ore mining have been investigated by Halada et al. (2001). Table 9.1 lists the
data for some metals, together with the data for some other minerals and
fuels. The TMR in the United States in the 1990s was between 80 and 100
tonnes per capita; in the European Union (EU-15) approximately 50 tonnes
per capita (Bringezu 2002).
Although the TMR concept is widely accepted, there are no economic
incentives to reduce TMR because the cost associated with the hidden flows
is usually not known. However, such external costs can be calculated from
the cost of the remediation for the former German uranium mining sites.
In the western world uranium mining started in 1945 and reached a first
maximum in 1957 and a second one in 1977, see Figure 9.1. Production of ura-
nium from mining then decreased because fuel for nuclear power plants was
partly produced by reprocessing nuclear weapons material. The cumulative
global uranium production until 2004 was more than 2.5 million tonnes
with Canada and the United States contributing more than 300,000 tonnes
each and Germany more than 200,000 tonnes (OECD/NEA 2001, Taylor et al.
2006). The TMR of uranium is 11,000 kg/kg U (see Table 9.1).
After the end of uranium mining in Germany in 1990, remediation started
with a focus on controlled flooding of underground mines, water treatment,
backfilling of open pit mines, and treatment of mine tailings (Gatzweiler
et al. 2002). The total cost for the remediation project was estimated to be
6.5 billion Euro (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie [D]
2000). So far, 4.2 billion Euro has been spent, while the project is scheduled to
end sometime between 2010 and 2015. Based on a total production of 213,809
tonnes of uranium (Taylor et al. 2006) the external costs of uranium mining
TABLE 9.1
TMR of Some Metals, Minerals, and Fuels
Material TMR (t/t Material) Global Production (t) TMR (Mt/year) References
Sand and gravel 1.18 8,000,000,000 9440 (2)
Hard coal 2 3,740,000,000 8826 (2)
Phosphate 34 130,000,000 4420 (2)
Gold 1,800,000 2445 4401 (1)
Crude oil 1.22 3,485,000,000 4252 (2)
Copper 300 12,900,000 3870 (1)
Iron 5.1 571,000,000 2912 (1)
Silver 7500 160,000 1200 (1)
Uranium 11,000 45,807 504 (1)
Lead 95 2,980,000 283 (1)
Platinum 1,400,000 178 249 (1)
Aluminum 10 23,900,000 239 (2)
Sources: (1) Halada, K. et al. 2001. Journal of the Japan Institute of Metals , 65(7), 564-570.
(2) Schmidt-Bleek, F. 1998. Das MIPS-Konzept , Droemer Knaur, München.