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The history of uranium mining with particular emphasis on the 21st century
FUKA, Stanislav
Uranium is a chemical element with the brand U discovered in 1789 by German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth. Initially it was not particularly interesting for mankind, it was used mainly for colouring the glass. A major turning point came after the Second World War, when uranus began to be used for nuclear weapons and later for nuclear industry. At that time Czechoslovakia was the great world power in the production of uranium. The aim of my bachelor´s work is a description of the uranium research characteristics and development of uranium mining in the 20st and the 21st century in the Czech Republic and in the world. An intergovernmental contract between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union about an uranium supply was signed in 1945. Jáchymov was the key place for the Soviet Union, there was only a research carried out in other places of Czechoslovakia. There were exported 98 500 tons of the separated uranium ore and the concentrate to the USSR. The uranium industry employed 40 000 people in the fifties of the last century and it should be mentioned that a considerable part consisted of inmates and prisoners. At the turn of the fifties and sixties, the supply for military purposes is filled up and the uranium begins to be used mainly for nuclear energy. The mining is reduced after 1989 mainly due to an overproduction of uranium. The uranium mines are gradually closed and the places of extraction and chemical finishing departments of the ore are recultivated. The only mine, which is still in operation, is in Dolní Rožínka in the Bohemian-moravian highlands. A significant problem nowadays after the extraction seems to be the location of Stráž pod Ralskem, where the uranium is mined by the method of chemical infusion (In Situ Leach), and the chemical finishing department of the ore, mainly a MAPE Mydlovary. The price of remedial work estimated at 40 billion Czech crowns in Stráž pod Ralskem and will last approximately for the next 20 years. Redevelopment in the 5 MAPE Mydlovary is estimated in the tens of billions of Czech crowns and it will take about another ten years. Bachelor´s thesis is divided into two parts. In the theoretical part, there are described the sources and methods of uranium mining, the concepts of radioactivity, uranit. After that there is described the current state of environmental burdens in the MAPE Mydlovary in Českobudějovicko. In the practical part I deal with the issue of the impact of uranium mining on man and the environment, the development in uranium mining in developing countries and the perspective of the extraction and a comparison of the uranium reserves in the Czech Republic and in the world. A section of the practical part follows up the development of the price of uranium in world market.
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