Remediation of Uranium Mill Tailings

Prafulla Soni is a forest ecologist with more than 50 years of dedicated research experience in the field of restoration ecology, biodiversity and environmental conservation of degraded landscapes. She has trained in watershed management and environmental impact assessment in forests. Through the years, she has been involved in planning, execution and coordination of research and consultancy projects on ecology and environment with particular reference to ecological restoration of derelict landscapes. More than 20 students have successfully completed research under her supervision on various aspects of forest ecology, including restoration technologies developed for opencast mined areas based on the ecosystem approach. These technologies incorporate the development of a stable, self-sustaining system using ecologically and socioeconomically viable plant species that assist in ecological maintenance of essential processes, restoration of biodiversity and sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems. The technology has been transferred to different mining companies, according to their site-specific requirements, through consultancy and capacity-building initiatives for senior executives and government officials. To share the field and research experiences, she was invited by the US Deptartment of the Interior to represent her country in international symposia on degraded lands and visited France, the Netherlands, the US and Australasian countries as a representative of the Forest Research Institute/Government of India. Prafulla has 140 research papers, four authored/edited books and various reports to her credit and is a life member of the Society of Indian Foresters, and the Indian Association of Soil and Water Conservationists. She is founder member, Fellow and president of the Society for Applied Forest Ecological Research (SAFER) and editor-in-chief of e-Journal Applied Forest Ecology (eJAFE).

1. Introduction 2. Ecological Strategies for Consolidation 3. Physicochemical Analysis of Soil and Tailings 4. Species Selection for Revegetation and Consolidation of Uranium Tailings 5. Plant Growth Studies 6. Radionuclide Uptake in Selected Plant Species for Consolidation 7. Case Study: Uranium Tailings in India 8. Summary