Abstract

The problem of safe waste management currently has a global and intractable nature. The generation of electricity by thermal conversion of coal results in significant volumes of solid wastes. Most of these materials are disposed of in surface impoundments near coal-fired power plants. The Angren thermal power station in Uzbekistan was founded in 1958 and is working based on the nearby Angren lignite mine. The coal ash wastes (about 11 million tons since 1958) occupy an area of about 82 hectares. This study determines the geochemical and mineralogical characteristics and content of rare and trace elements. The data obtained show high concentrations of trace elements in the coal ash wastes. Elevated concentrations of As, Cd, and other metals pose a potential ecological threat. A result of research in soils and plants found that the content of the ore minerals and wastes in the form of spheres, and various globular segregations increase when approaching the sources of pollution. The study of thin sections by microprobe, made from heavy fractions, provided an opportunity to submit the form in which heavy metals are found in emissions. Heavy oils Angren soil consists mainly of different balls, consisting of iron oxides, in the same grains of hematite, and titan- magnetite. The internal structure and elemental composition of the most spheric are almost the same. Above them are covered with a glandular shell, but inside they are composed of many small balls and mineral particles (figure 1). All this makes it possible to determine the predominant role of waste of Angren TPP in the origin of geochemical anomalies and the high dispersion halos of heavy metals in the area.