Radiological Aspects of Red Mud Disaster in Hungary

Tibor Kovács*, Zoltán Sas, Viktor Jobbágy, Anita Csordás, Gábor Szeiler, János Somlai

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)
236 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

One of the most severe industrial catastrophes happened in Kolontár, Hungary, on 4 October 2010. Red mud (bauxite residue) broke through the eroded wall of the red mud reservoir pond "Number X" and flooded the surrounding area. This led to the instant death of 10 people and the injury of more than 100 people. Red mud is enriched in radium and thorium isotopes; therefore, there is a chance that this flooding will increase radionuclide concentrations of soils and also in air. In this study we have examined the site to assess the realistic radiological risks. For the risk assessment the following parameters were determined: gamma dose rate, radon concentration, radionuclide concentration of red mud and air dust concentration. It was found that the radiation dose exposure resulting from red mud contamination was <0.045 mSv y-1 (excluding radon), which can be considered negligible when compared to the average annual effective dose from natural sources (2.4 mSv y-1).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1026-1037
Number of pages12
JournalActa Geophysica
Volume61
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • effective dose
  • radiation dose
  • radiation hazard
  • red mud
  • red mud accident Hungary

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geophysics

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