Ecological and radiation safety of Central Asia

Abstract

Previous calculations showed that in the Kyrgyz Republic 7.2% of the total population are exposed to the “radiation risk”, in the Republic of Kazakhstan - about 3%, in the Republic of Tajikistan - 1.7% and in the Republic of Uzbekistan - 0.3%. The number of radiation-contaminated territories in the Republics of Central Asia is equal: the Kyrgyz Republic contains about 132 million m3 of waste, the Republic of Tajikistan contains about 180 million m3 of waste, the Republic of Uzbekistan contains 640 million m3 of waste, and the Republic of Kazakhstan contains approximately 10,000 million m3 of waste. Total: in the four Republics of Central Asia, the total amount of radioactive waste is 10952 million m3. Taking as a basis the limited liability company “Vismut GmbH” from Germany, which carried out the reclamation of uranium tailings with a volume of 160 million m3 of tailings at a cost of about 8 billion euros for about 37 years. Using a thermodynamic approach, it is shown that the costs of reclamation of uranium tailings for the four Central Asian Republics will be 548 billion euros, and the duration will be about 40 years.