The determination of uranium levels in soil, water and plant samples around Köprübaşı (Manisa) uranium deposit and their probable effects on the environment

The Köprübaşı (Manisa) uranium deposits which is located in the Neogene river sediments is one of the most important uranium deposits in Turkey. Uranium in the region occurs in two types as mineralogically oxidized and unoxidized ores. The oxidized ones occur in the type of secondary jarosit-vailandite and manyetite-ilmenite, whereas unoxidized ones occur in pyrite and siderite. The jarosit-vailandite minerals which are rich in uranium are available in the soils and gravels placed inside the epigenetic matrix of sedimentary rocks. The beds in the region having 2852 tones reserves and % 0.05-0.40 U3O8 grade were operated until 1970s and then abandoned.Köprübaşı uranium accumulations and their surroundings are polluted with uranium naturally and because of mining operations. The plants, soils and water sources in the region are affected by this pollution. The uranium contents of the soils in the range of a few ppm and 3876 ppm; While the lake sediments contain very low, -the upper limit is about a few ppm and on the other hand, in some levels of river sediments are very high uranium. In mineralizations uranium has strong positive correlations with copper (0.94) and lead (0.81) and weak positive correlations with thallium (0.28), cadmium (0.20) and selenium (0.29), it has no correlation with thorium.Ddifferent parts of many plants samples collected around the region was analyzed for U contents. The analysis proved that the amounts of the U intaken by plant organs are related to the U contents of soils where the plants grow. Among those plant samples, no plant with hyperaccumulator characteristics was discovered. The Capsicum annium which accumulate uranium 4.44 times higher than found in its soil is an exception. On the other hand, in some samples such as Quercus robur, Olea europeae and Astragalus , the shoots accumulate more uranium than their roots. This shows that such plants are capable of transferring the uranium in their roots to their branches. Among the sample plants, it was also observed that Verbascum can accumulate more than 1000 ppm uranium which meansthat it can be used for biomonitoring. In this study, water samples collected from the region were also analyzed by using ICP-MS. It was detected that the waters around the regions which are rich in uranium included ten times uranium higher than the standards reported by WHO. Such an outcome prove evidence that the water in the region can threat the ecological life when it is used as drinking or irrigation water. Moreover the polluted water may affected negatively the water sources in lower altitudes