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Radioactive Waste May Pose Public Health Emergency in Vietnam Tourism Spot

27.11.11 In July of this year, while visiting the White Sand Dunes, I decided to go off-road and explore. I drive up through the dunes and headed toward the beach—the stretch that the Vietnam Embassy to the United States issued a press release about in 2004; declaring that Disney and MGM were building a new resort theme park there.

Instead of being greeted by Mickey Mouse in a conical hat or Daisy Duck in an ao dai (I guessed Mickey would have ended up on the grill, and Daisy in a nice soup anyway), I found a vast mining field hidden in a dune sea, worthy of a Frank Herbert novel.

I approached one of the enormous mining craters cautiously, and picked out one of the workers to inquire about what was going on. What he told me made me uneasy.

"Since you are a tourist, it's OK for you to have a look," winked the man. "The government is just afraid of journalists. The military patrols the area. The military makes sure journalists don't see this mining operation because of the dangerous pollution. Its very controversial. There's strong radiation and all the wells in this area have also been poisoned."

I looked on as the bulky ore-processing equipment, perched in the middle of a red-water lagoon beside the beach, appeared to be pumping waste into the sea. Several other craters up and down the beach were also apparently pumping waste into the bay. Similar operations can be found across the province and in many of Vietnam's coastal dunes areas.

Radioactive waste at 'black sand' mining operations has been an issue of increasing concern in Vietnam. The black sand is what's known as a 'tracer.' It is usually found in combination with other desirable (and undesirable) material.

Local newspapers have been critical of the mines in Binh Thuan and Binh Dinh Provinces. Mining companies have stripped vast areas of coastal forests, caused devastating erosion in agricultural and residential areas, and contaminated fresh water sources with both radiation and salt water infusion.

The Vietnamese media has pointed out that the Binh Thuan Province People's Committee fined 4 mining companies a total of US$15,000 for failing to monitor radiation levels earlier this year. However, none have reported on how much radiation is actually being released into tourist areas and the local villages.

My own inquiry into statistics from other black sand mining operations in Vietnam has raises some concerns.

The dangers of radiation exposure can be difficult to quantify because the particular substance (and thus the amount and rate of radiation omitted), the distance from the source, and the amount of time for exposure must all be taken into account.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States says that high radiation from titanium mining (one of the ores mined in the black sands) can be 450 times stronger than 'normal' soil samples.

According to 1999 data from the joint Vietnam-Japan Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM) task force, radiation dose levels at similar black sand mining sites near Hue were 3.5 µSv/hr, while dose levels of black sand at the related processing facility were 5.7 µSv/hr. For communities living beside the mining facility, this is the equivalent (at the higher level) of 23 chest x-rays (at a dose of 40 µSv per x-ray) every week. This may sound like a lot, but it actually gets worse.

Neither the Vietnam government, nor the local media have been honest and forthcoming about the materials actually being mined in tourist areas. They have mentioned titanium, the most benign of the materials mined, but they have failed to disclose to the public that Ilmenite, Zircon, Rutile, and Monazite are also being actively mined in large amounts and are all significant sources of radiation (as a matter of trivia, they also haven't mentioned that black sand in Binh Thuan also contains traces of gold, sapphire and other precious stones and precious metals).

Monazite, a mineral commonly mined in Binh Thuan's black sand, gives off radiation doses of 90 µSv/hr in its refined form. This is the equivalent of 54 chest x-rays every single day for those living near a mining facility handling the material. Sounds bad? It gets much worse.

The ores above are just the desired products. Neither the government nor the mining companies have said much about the actual waste material concentrated by the mining, ie: uranium and radioactive thorium. Both are present in high concentrations in our black sand. According to the TENORM task force, radiation doses given off by uranium and thorium waste at monazite processing plants (again, one of the materials being processed from our black sand) can produce radiation doses of 100 µSv/hr. At this dose, experts would generally advise the public (most likely living in close proximity to a leaking nuclear plant) to remain indoors and take emergency precautions.

Concentration and distance is a big factor in establishing a threat to the public. While waste contained in a secure facility away from inhabited areas may not pose a serious threat, radioactive waste merely dumped in the open and allowed to blow across inhabited areas, does.

According to Australia's Uranium Information Centre Ltd. and Earth Science Australia, "...dust control is the most important objective in radiation safety for the titanium minerals industry. The most significant potential radiation problem is inhaled thorium in mineral sands dust. This contrasts with other industries where the focus for radiation protection has been direct gamma radiation from materials in rock. Exposure to gamma radiation still needs to be controlled in the mineral sands industry, due principally to uranium and thorium in zircon. "

One of the most frightening points of living here in Vietnam's windiest region, is that neither the refined black sand, nor the highly radioactive waste products have been securely contained. We've all seen the piles of refined sand blowing across the road. Dangerously radioactive material has been allowed to blow freely across communities and tourism areas north of Mui ne and throughout the province.

Not only is this a problem for the present, but for the long-term future as well. Mining companies have expressed long-term plans to mine the area for coming decades. Further, Vietnam's Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) has given black sand mining priority over tourism development. By law, all potential black sand mining sights must be evaluated and mined before they may be developed for tourism.

All of this does not mean that Mui ne (or rather the beach resort area of Ham Tien) has itself been contaminated with significant levels of radiation. The central resort area is about a 30 minutes drive from the nearest mines. It does suggest however, that people should not visit black sand mining operations along local roads, or the beaches adjacent to these mines.

We'd like to take this opportunity to issue a call to the government to mandate independent, verifiable testing of local radiation levels by a third party—and release the results to the public immediately.