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Muon Radiography as a Novel Tool to Characterize Tailing Storage Facilities

Tailings and Mine Waste Conference (2023 : Vancouver, B.C.); University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering

We report on the potential of the muon density radiography technique for the in-situ characterization and digital mapping of the distribution of unit weights within tailingsstorage facilities (TSF). Muon radiography or muography is a well-established technique for measuring the bulk density of dense objects across large scales. As with other more conventional nuclear inspection methods, muography is robust, direct, and quantitative. However, in place of the radio-nuclide sources or X-ray tubes used in conventional medical or industrial X-ray applications, muon radiography utilizes the naturally occurring flux of so-called secondary cosmic ray particles (aka muons) originating in the earth’s atmosphere. This background radiation source is not only free and intrinsically safe, but also well-characterized and continuously available everywhere on earth. Muon particles are also highly penetrating and maintain excellent directionality even in the subsurface. This allows muographers to analyze and map the interior of large, dense structures and provide in-situ volumetric density data in a minimally invasive way without the disadvantages of using a dangerous nuclear logging source. In this paper we will show results from high fidelity, fully 3D, nuclear transport calculations to simulate the response and sensitivity of muon radiography sensors placed at different locations, including pre-existing slim boreholes, within an upstream tailings dam. We will compare typical trade-offs between measurement precision, spatial resolution, and measurement time, as a function of different installation set ups, and focus on the practical and urgent issue of quantifying groundwater content and characterizing the location of phreatic surfaces over a dense 3D data grid within a tailings dam. We believe that muography can provide a unique and powerful tool for geophysical characterization of actively managing geotechnical risk in tailing storage facilities, provided that practical installation choices in either existing or ad-hoc boreholes can be made.

Text

2024-02-15

Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/87435

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/