Abstract: Groundwater radioisotope dating is an important way to study occurrence conditions,transport laws and the renewable capacity of groundwater resources of aquifer systems in coal mining areas,which is crucial to prevent and treat coal mine flooding and to study the sustainable use of groundwater resources.In recent years it has become a hot issue in the international hydrogeology study.Based on elaborating groundwater radioisotope dating and classification of dating methods,the relevant groundwater dating methods have been analyzed and appraised at home and abroad.And then some problems existing in present groundwater dating are discussed.Finally,the trend of study of groundwater radioisotope dating methods and the urgent problems which should be strengthened are pointed out.