USE OF ISOTOPE ANALYSIS IN SOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL-PROBLEMS IN POWER ENGINEERING

During hydraulic dumping of ashes at a sludge bed of the power plant a t Melnik (north of Prague), new springs originated which wetted houses and properties at the small village of Podvlci. The sludge bed as wel l as the village lie at the southwestern margin of the alluvial plain of the Labe (Elbe) River at the foot of a slope built of Cretaceous se dimentary rocks. By analyzing the concentrations of radiocarbon and tr itium, it was possible to determine the origin of the water and the ra tio of the modem and original groundwater in the new springs in the su rroundings of the sludge bed. To substitute the present dump the opera tion of which should be stopped, establishing of a new one has been pr oposed within the alluvial plain. By means of stable isotopes and radi onuclides, the relations between the groundwater in the Quaternary sed iments and in the underlying Middle Turonian confined aquifer were stu died, because changes in the hydrogeological regime have to be expecte d due to the operation of the proposed new sludge bed.