Environment uranium

The uranium environment in each of the well separated cations of 66a, 68,69,72a, and 73 is distorted/ar-octahedral (66a),distorted trigonal bipyramidal (O-U-O, 157°) (68), ° five-coordinate with angles at U ranging from 73° (01 -U-02) to 133° (centroid of cot-U-N) (69a), pentagonal bipyramidal (5N atoms 0.33 A out of the mean plane) (72a), or distorted tetrahedral (73) ° each of Cp or cot is regarded as occupying a single coordination site. 

Figure 6 The uranium environment in camotite (Reproduced from M. Ross, H. T. Evans and D. E. Appleman, Am. Mineral., 1964, 49, 1603, with permission from the Mineralogical Society of America)...

Dodge CJ, Francis AJ. 1997. Biotransformation of binary and ternary citric acid complexes of iron and uranium. Environ Sci Technol 31(ll) 3062-3067. 

Again, if the cyclopentadienyl rings are considered to occupy only one coordination site, the uranium environment is tetrahedral 4-coordinate in these compounds (403). 

McDiarmid, M.A., Albertini, R.J., Tucker, J.D., et al, 2011a. Measures of geno-toxicity in Gulf war I veterans exposed to depleted uranium. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 52, 569-581. 

Sur cia.1 Deposits. Uraniferous surficial deposits maybe broadly defined as uraniferous sediments, usually of Tertiary to recent age which have not been subjected to deep burial and may or may not have been calcified to some degree. The uranium deposits associated with calcrete, which occur in Australia, Namibia, and Somaha in semiarid areas where water movement is chiefly subterranean, are included in this type. Additional environments for uranium deposition include peat and bog, karst caverns, as well as pedogenic and stmctural fills (15). 

Dissolved Minerals. The most significant source of minerals for sustainable recovery may be ocean waters which contain nearly all the known elements in some degree of solution. Production of dissolved minerals from seawater is limited to fresh water, magnesium, magnesium compounds (qv), salt, bromine, and heavy water, ie, deuterium oxide. Considerable development of techniques for recovery of copper, gold, and uranium by solution or bacterial methods has been carried out in several countries for appHcation onshore. These methods are expected to be fully transferable to the marine environment (5). The potential for extraction of dissolved materials from naturally enriched sources, such as hydrothermal vents, may be high. 

The corrosion behavior of plutonium metal has been summarized (60,61). a-Plutonium oxidizes very slowly in dry air, typically <10 mm/yr. The rate is accelerated by water vapor. Thus, a bright metal surface tarnishes rapidly in normal environments and a powdery surface soon forms. Eventually green PUO2 [12059-95-9] covers the surface. Plutonium is similar to uranium with respect to corrosion characteristics. The stabilization of 5-Pu confers substantial corrosion resistance to Pu in the same way that stabilization of y-U yields a more corrosion-resistant metal. The reaction of Pu metal with Hquid water produces both oxides and oxide-hydrides (62). The reaction with water vapor above 100°C also produces oxides and hydride (63). 

Oxo Ion Salts. Salts of 0x0 anions, such as nitrate, sulfate, perchlorate, iodate, hydroxide, carbonate, phosphate, oxalate, etc, are important for the separation and reprocessing of uranium, hydroxide, carbonate, and phosphate ions are important for the chemical behavior of uranium ia the environment (150—153). 

The known uranium(VI) carbonate soHds have empirical formulas, 1102(003), M2U02(C03)2, and M4U02(C03)3. The soHd of composition 1102(003) is a well-known mineral, mtherfordine, and its stmcture has been determined from crystals of both the natural mineral and synthetic samples. Rutherfordine is a layered soHd in which the local coordination environment of the uranyl ion consists of a hexagonal bipyramidal arrangement of oxygen atoms with the uranyl units perpendicular to the orthorhombic plane. Each uranium atom forms six equatorial bonds with the oxygen atoms of four carbonate ligands, two in a bidentate manner and two in a monodentate manner. 

Fluorides. Uranium fluorides play an important role in the nuclear fuel cycle as well as in the production of uranium metal. The dark purple UF [13775-06-9] has been prepared by two different methods neither of which neither have been improved. The first involves a direct reaction of UF [10049-14-6] and uranium metal under elevated temperatures, while the second consists of the reduction of UF [10049-14-6] by UH [13598-56-6]. The local coordination environment of uranium in the trifluoride is pentacapped trigonal prismatic with an 11-coordinate uranium atom. The trifluoride is... 

Metal compounds, particularly compounds of the heavy metals, have a history of importance as antimicrobial agents. Because of regulations regarding economic poisons in the environment they are no longer widely used in this appHcation. Mercury, lead, cadmium, uranium, and other metals have been imphcated in cases of poisoning that resulted in government response. The metals whose compounds have been of primary interest as antimicrobials are mercury, silver, and copper. 

This removal may also include diffusion of soluble U(VI) from seawater into the sediment via pore water. Uranium-organic matter complexes are also prevalent in the marine environment. Organically bound uranium was found to make up to 20% of the dissolved U concentration in the open ocean." ° Uranium may also be enriched in estuarine colloids and in suspended organic matter within the surface ocean. " Scott" and Maeda and Windom" have suggested the possibility that humic acids can efficiently scavenge uranium in low salinity regions of some estuaries. Finally, sedimentary organic matter can also efficiently complex or adsorb uranium and other radionuclides. 

Global uranium flux calculations have typically been based on the following two assumptions (a) riverine-end member concentrations of dissolved uranium are relatively constant, and (b) no significant input or removal of uranium occurs in coastal environments. Other sources of uranium to the ocean may include mantle emanations, diffusion through pore waters of deep-sea sediments, leaching of river-borne sediments by seawater," and remobilization through reduction of a Fe-Mn carrier phase. However, there is still considerable debate... 

If uranium is internally cycled in coastal environments or if the riverine delivery of U shows some variability, residence time estimates (regardless of their precision) cannot be sensitive indicators of oceanic uranium reactivity. Based on very precise measurements of dissolved uranium in the open ocean, Chen et alJ concluded that uranium may be somewhat more reactive in marine environments than previously inferred. Furthermore, recent studies in high-energy coastal environments " indicate that uranium may be actively cycled and repartitioned (non-conservative) from one phase to the next. 

EXAFS is a nondestructive, element-specific spectroscopic technique with application to all elements from lithium to uranium. It is employed as a direct probe of the atomic environment of an X-ray absorbing element and provides chemical bonding information. Although EXAFS is primarily used to determine the local structure of bulk solids (e.g., crystalline and amorphous materials), solid surfaces, and interfaces, its use is not limited to the solid state. As a structural tool, EXAFS complements the familiar X-ray diffraction technique, which is applicable only to crystalline solids. EXAFS provides an atomic-scale perspective about the X-ray absorbing element in terms of the numbers, types, and interatomic distances of neighboring atoms. 

The Environment Management hidusti y Association of Australia (EMIAA), 275 The Poison Center, 314, 318 The Poison Control Center, 312, 316 The Uranium Institute (UI), 266 Thermphos International B.V., 196 THF, 127... 

For many years the corrosion of uranium has been of major interest in atomic energy programmes. The environments of importance are mainly those which could come into contact with the metal at high temperatures during the malfunction of reactors, viz. water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, air and steam. In all instances the corrosion is favoured by large free energy and heat terms for the formation of uranium oxides. The major use of the metal in reactors cooled by carbon dioxide has resulted in considerable emphasis on the behaviour in this gas and to a lesser extent in carbon monoxide and air. 

The behaviour of irradiated uranium has been studied mainly with respect to the release of fission products during oxidation at high temperatures The fission products most readily released to the gas phase are krypton, xenon, iodine, tellurium and ruthenium. The release can approach 80-100%. For ruthenium it is dependent upon the environment and only significant in the presence of oxygen to form volatile oxides of ruthenium. 

The behaviour of uranium has been well characterised for a variety of environments of importance in the nuclear industry. The corrosion is governed by the constitution and physical character of the solid reaction products which in turn are determined mainly by the oxygen potential of the environment, the temperature and the presence of water. The mechanisms of attack are known in broad outline. A major area in need of more detailed study is the influence of irradiation both prior to and during oxidation. 

Isotopes are also used to determine properties of the environment. Just as carbon-14 is used to date organic materials, geologists can determine the age of very old substances such as rocks by measuring the abundance in rocks of radioisotopes with longer half-lives. Uranium-238 (t1/2 = 4.5 Ga, 1 Ga = 10y years) and potassium-40 (t,/2 = 1.26 Ga) are used to date very old rocks. For example, potassium-40 decays by electron capture to form argon-40. The rock is placed under vacuum and crushed, and a mass spectrometer is used to measure the amount of argon gas that escapes. This technique was used to determine the age of rocks collected on the surface of the Moon they were found to be 3.5-4.0 billion years old, about the same age as the Earth. 

Millard, A.R. and Hedges, R.E.M. 1995 The role of the environment in uranium uptake by buried bone. Journal of Archaeological Science 22 239-250. 

Anderson RT et al. (2003) Stimulating the in site activity of Geobacter species to remove uranium from the groundwater of a uranium-contaminated aquifer. Appl Environ Microbiol 69 5884-5891. 

Ganesh R, KG Robinson, GD Feed, GS Sayler (1997) Reduction of hexavalent uranium from organic complexes by sulfate- and iron-reducing bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 63 4385-4391. 

Istok JD, JM Senko, LR Krumholz, D Watson, MA Bogle, A Peacock, Y-J Chang, DC White (2004) In situ bioremediation of technetium and uranium in a nitrate-contaminated aquifer. Environ Sci Technol 38 468-475. 

Ortiz-Bernad I, RT Anderson, HA Vrionis, DR Lovley (2004a) Resistance of solid-phase U(VI) to microbial reduction during in situ bioremediation of uranium-contaminated groundwater. Appl Environ Microbiol 70 7558-7560. 

Renshaw JC, LJC Butchins, FR Livens, I May, JR Lloyd (2005) Bioreduction of uranium environmental implications of a pentavalent intermediate. Environ Sci Technol 39 5657-5660. 

Wan J, TK Tokunaga, E Brodie, Z Wang, Z Zheng, D Herman, TC Hazen, MK Firestone, SR Sutton (2005) Reoxidation of bioreduced uranium under reducing conditions. Environ Sci Technol 39 6162-6169. Weiner JH, DP Macisaac, RE Bishop, PT Bilous (1988) Purification and properties of Escherichia coli dimethyl sulfoxide reductase, an iron-sulfur molybdoenzyme with broad substrate specificity J Bacterial 170 1505-1510. 

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