Notable case, Sillamäe, Ida-Virumaa, Estonia
Sillamäe (radioactive tailings repository)
Sillamäe jäätmehoidla
A town on the Gulf of Finland, with a Soviet uranium processing plant. The residues, 12 million tonnes, were piled in a pond on the Baltic shore.
Contaminants
Radionuclides
Status
Contained
The repository was made safe between 1998 and 2008; the Estonian Ministry of the Environment declared the work complete on 28 October 2008. The plant, privatised in 1997 as AS Silmet, now produces niobium, tantalum and rare earths.
Story
Between 1946 and 1948 an oil-shale plant was rebuilt to extract uranium oxide. Until 1952 it processed the local graptolitic argillite, then richer ores imported from Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania. From 1970 it switched to loparite from the Kola Peninsula for tantalum and niobium, and from 1982 it also produced uranium enriched to 2–4.4%. In all, between 1950 and 1989, about 98,681 tonnes of uranium.
From 1959 the processing waste was dumped in a pond in the north-western part of the town, close to the shore. By the 1990s the pond was regarded as a serious ecological hazard because of leaching of radioactive and other harmful substances towards the sea.
Timeline
- 1948The uranium plant starts up.
- 1959The tailings pond is created.
- 1989Uranium production ends.
- 1998Work to make the pond safe begins.
- 200828 October: the work is declared complete.
Remediation
- 1998containmentWorks to make the repository safe (1998–2008).
From the literature
Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.
Plants
- Helianthus annuusSunflowerUraniumEvidence: field
Fungi
- Funneliformis mosseaeUraniumEvidence: greenhouse
- Cladosporium sphaerospermumRadionuclides (mixed)Evidence: laboratory
- Rhizophagus irregularisUraniumEvidence: laboratory
- Rhodotorula taiwanensisRadionuclides (mixed)Evidence: laboratory
- Saccharomyces cerevisiaeBaker's yeast, brewer's yeastUraniumEvidence: laboratory
Sources
- Sillamäe, Wikipedia, 2026
- Sillamäe jäätmehoidla, Wikipedia (et), 2026
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.