The Königstein underground and in situ leaching mine was operated from 1967 to the end of 1991. After ten years of tests, research and pre-works the flooding was started in January 2001. Mine water will be pumped and treated at least until the first flush of contaminants has passed. The question is when active treatment will be stopped and passive treatment take over. One option is diverting the mine water without treatment into the Elbe river. Due to an average flow of about 300 m 3 /s

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... to 0.028 m 3 /s of mine water there will be only a minor impact on the river water quality. Another option is using mine voids or the downstream aquifer as reactive treatment zones. Geochemical simulation were performed by means of PHREEQC´s one dimensional reactive transport tool taking into account dilution, double porosity, surface complexation on iron hydroxides and uranium reduction due to degradation of organic matter.