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Title: Phosphate Barriers for Immobilization of Uranium Plumes

Abstract

Uranium contamination of the subsurface has remained a persistent problem plaguing remedial design at sites across the U.S. that were involved with production, handling, storage, milling, and reprocessing of fissile uranium for both civilian and defense related purposes. Remediation efforts to date have relied upon excavation, pump-and-treat, or passive remediation barriers (PRB's) to remove or attenuate uranium mobility. Documented cases convincingly demonstrate that excavation and pump-and-treat methods are ineffective for a number of highly contaminated sites. There is growing concern that use of conventional PRB?s, such as zero-valent iron, are a temporary solution to a problem that will persist for thousands of years. Alternatives to the standard treatment methods are therefore warranted. The core objective of our research is to demonstrate that a phosphorus amendment strategy will result in a reduction of dissolved uranium to below the proposed drinking water standard. Our hypothesis is that long-chain polyphosphate compounds forestall precipitation of sparingly soluble uranyl phosphate compounds, which is key to preventing fouling of wells at the point of injection. Our other fundamental objective is to synthesize and correctly characterize the uranyl phosphate phases that form in the geochemical conditions under consideration. This report summarizes work conducted at the University ofmore » Notre Dame through November of 2003 under DOE grant DE-FG07-02ER63489, which has been funded since September, 2002. The objectives at Notre Dame are development of synthesis techniques for uranyl phosphate phases, together with detailed structural and chemical characterization of the myriad of uranyl phosphate phases that may form under geochemical conditions under consideration.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
885173
Report Number(s):
EMSP-90171-2005
R&D Project: EMSP 2005; TRN: US0603793
DOE Contract Number:  
FG02-04ER63730
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; 12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; CONTAMINATION; DRINKING WATER; EXCAVATION; FOULING; HYPOTHESIS; IRON; MILLING; PHOSPHATES; PHOSPHORUS; PLUMES; REPROCESSING; STORAGE; SYNTHESIS; URANIUM; URANYL PHOSPHATES

Citation Formats

Burns, Peter C. Phosphate Barriers for Immobilization of Uranium Plumes. United States: N. p., 2005. Web. doi:10.2172/885173.
Burns, Peter C. Phosphate Barriers for Immobilization of Uranium Plumes. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/885173
Burns, Peter C. 2005. "Phosphate Barriers for Immobilization of Uranium Plumes". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/885173. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/885173.
@article{osti_885173,
title = {Phosphate Barriers for Immobilization of Uranium Plumes},
author = {Burns, Peter C},
abstractNote = {Uranium contamination of the subsurface has remained a persistent problem plaguing remedial design at sites across the U.S. that were involved with production, handling, storage, milling, and reprocessing of fissile uranium for both civilian and defense related purposes. Remediation efforts to date have relied upon excavation, pump-and-treat, or passive remediation barriers (PRB's) to remove or attenuate uranium mobility. Documented cases convincingly demonstrate that excavation and pump-and-treat methods are ineffective for a number of highly contaminated sites. There is growing concern that use of conventional PRB?s, such as zero-valent iron, are a temporary solution to a problem that will persist for thousands of years. Alternatives to the standard treatment methods are therefore warranted. The core objective of our research is to demonstrate that a phosphorus amendment strategy will result in a reduction of dissolved uranium to below the proposed drinking water standard. Our hypothesis is that long-chain polyphosphate compounds forestall precipitation of sparingly soluble uranyl phosphate compounds, which is key to preventing fouling of wells at the point of injection. Our other fundamental objective is to synthesize and correctly characterize the uranyl phosphate phases that form in the geochemical conditions under consideration. This report summarizes work conducted at the University of Notre Dame through November of 2003 under DOE grant DE-FG07-02ER63489, which has been funded since September, 2002. The objectives at Notre Dame are development of synthesis techniques for uranyl phosphate phases, together with detailed structural and chemical characterization of the myriad of uranyl phosphate phases that may form under geochemical conditions under consideration.},
doi = {10.2172/885173},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/885173}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2005},
month = {Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2005}
}