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Potential bacterial alteration of nuclear fuel debris: a preliminary study using simulants in powder and pellet forms

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Abstract

Remnant nuclear fuel debris in the damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) has contacted the groundwater containing microorganisms for over ten years. Herein, we report the possibility of bacterial alteration of fuel debris. We investigated the physical and chemical changes of fuel debris simulants (FDS) in the powder and pellet forms via exposure to two ubiquitous bacteria, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Bacillus subtilis, which are not recognized as metal element-oxidative (e.g., iron-oxidative) bacteria under aerobic conditions. In the experiments using FDS composed of the powders of Fe(0), solid solution of CeO2 and ZrO2, and SiO2, Ce, Zr, and Si were hardly dissolved, while Fe was dissolved, a fraction of the dissolved Fe was present in the liquid phase as Fe(II) and Fe(III), and the rest was precipitated as the nano-sized particles of iron (hydr)oxides. In the experiment using P. fluorescens and FDS pellet pieces prepared by melting the Fe(0) particles and solid solution of CeO2 and ZrO2, the bacteria selectively gathered on the Fe(0) particle surface and made corrosion pits. These results suggest that bacteria in groundwater corrode the iron in fuel debris at FDNPP, change fuel debris into porous one, releasing the nano-sized iron (hydr)oxide particles into the water.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by a start-up grant from Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science, Japan Atomic Energy Agency and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (19H02647). In addition, the authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Tatsuki Kimura (Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Japan) for his assistance in the experiments.

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  1. Jiang Liu

    Present address: Advanced Science Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 2-4 Shirakata, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki, 319-1195, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 2-4 Shirakata, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki, 319-1195, Japan

    Jiang Liu, Yuma Dotsuta, Takehiro Sumita, Toru Kitagaki, Toshihiko Ohnuki & Naofumi Kozai

  2. Advanced Science Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 2-4 Shirakata, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki, 319-1195, Japan

    Yuma Dotsuta, Takehiro Sumita, Toru Kitagaki, Toshihiko Ohnuki & Naofumi Kozai

  3. Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8550, Japan

    Toshihiko Ohnuki

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Liu, J., Dotsuta, Y., Sumita, T. et al. Potential bacterial alteration of nuclear fuel debris: a preliminary study using simulants in powder and pellet forms. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 331, 2785–2794 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08324-y

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