The radioactive wastes of the mining industry

Specialists consider that the situation with the radioactive wastes of the mining industry can not be viewed as favorable. There are nо radiation security services capable of monitoring the wastes. Radioactive wastes can be found among other wastes or under water. This problem was first faced in the Soviet Union in 1990s, when radioactive wastes started to appear at the oil wells. Specialists noticed the fact that oil pipelines started to "light". In some cases such tubes were used for household purposes (for example, for construction of water supply systems).

Ministry of ecology and biological resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan together with the Ministry of health саге and Nuclear energy Agency often raised the question of the importance of liquidation of the difficult situation with the production leftovers remaining after the end of work, done by mining companies. However, this issue remains unsolved. The majority of the mining industry wastes are not monitored. Under the influence of atmospheric precipitation radioactive substances migrate into the ground and into the underground waters. Sometimes. people use the mining industry wastes to construct roads and houses. The influence of radioactive leftoversof the mining industry on the environment has not been researched. The current situation existing at the places of mining industry wastes accumulation is potentially dangerous for the health of the people.

Currently in the Republic there are morethan 200 plants using about 80000 sources of ionizing radiation (total activity of more than 250 thousand curie). Out of the total number about 20000 sources (activity of 80 thousand curie) must be written off and buried.

In Kazakhstan there is no special storage place for the capsule sources. The temporary storage place for capsule sources works at the Semipalatinsk testing range. The Republic lacks the state system of monitoring and control of the capsule sources. As а result the unregistered sources are used, there are cases of losses of the capsule sources. For example, on November 11, 1995 а neutron source disappeared from the water measuring device located at the Joint-stock company "Nodfos" in Jambyl region and the source still has not been found.

7. How to Make Man Environment-Conscious?

Ecological problems are now much in the limelight in the mass media. Man, the Homo sapiens, has taxed the potential of the biosphere to the limit – in fact, it can no longer cater to his consumerist drive. It makes no sense to engage in recrimination. The old poignant question - Who is to blame? – has lost its sting. Another one is to be done? An emotionally charged question, sure! All kinds of suggestions come thick and fast: purification technologies, environmental monitoring, consumption within reasonable bounds, and what not!.. Yet such remedies are for the most part costly, laborious and impracticable. Is there a way out? The idea of universal ecological education, of making all and everyone feel responsible for the state of the environment has now gained wide currency. This has been the subject of many panel discussions.

The need of ecological education is quite obvious. But scientists are yet to develop a conceptual premise for that what in particular is to be taught and how. Environmentalists define some of the postulates which could underlie ecoeducation today.

Russia is joining the global movement for “substandable development”. The idea implies a goal-oriented “designing” of the future. Man should harmonize socioeconomic and ecological processes also with an eye to the generations to come, their interests. For this purpose we must reappraise many values – say, even change our customary life styles. Also, such important factors as the world economy and demographic policy will have to be modified. One of the essential conditions for a transition of society to “substandable development” amounts to changing the substance and goals of education as a social institution. Ecological education should come first. We can define the strategic objective of ecoeducation only if we know the root causes of the present crisis. These causes should be sought in man’s subjective relationships with the ambient world – just an object designed to cater to his wants as “the king of nature”. Regrettably, our contemporaries are being less and less concerned with problems of making the world better, their “supreme values” are picking more of the material dross. A harmoniously developed individual is one who has a broad mind and is free of certain inhibitions and preconceived notions. This implies a degree of independence in his thoughts, words and deeds. Such an individual builds his relationships with the natural and social environment as an objective whole, but not on the basis of the man/world antithesis. Instilling such mentality is the purpose of ecological education.

Society cannot do without a guiding idea. With many conventional values being on the way out, it should adopt ecology as a pivotal fulcrum, that is, adopt a new, ecological philosophy. A philosophy based on a sound, reasonable approach to the surrounding world, society and one’s own self. In this context we can name three fundamental aspects, and these are the laws of nature, the laws of societal development and, last, the physical and psychic development of man, the Homo sapiens. Clear, we cannot meddle with these laws...

Now, we know that the substance of any field of knowledge and what is taught at school do not concur. The school offers just a minimum of this or that discipline essential for one’s intellectual moulding. Ecology is still young as a science – it is merely a hundred years old, and the range of its specific subjects has not been defined yet. But adopting the idea of ecological philosophy, we could identify the main areas of specialized education: classical (biological) ecology, social ecology and the ecology of man. A school or college graduate should have an idea about the world he lives in, his place in it, and about man/society/nature relationships. Ecological education should rely, first and foremost, on general scientific principles. First, this is an understanding of the fundamental stages in the evolution of the global system, say, bearing on the “Cosmos/Earth” and the “biosphere/noosphere” relationship. Such an approach may help form a global outlook in pupils.