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Remediation of soil/concrete contaminated with uranium and radium by biological method

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Abstract

Biological method was studied for remediation of soil/concrete contaminated with uranium and radium. Optimum experiment conditions for mixing ratios of penatron and soil, and the pH of soil was obtained through several bioremediations with soil contaminated with uranium and radium. It was found that an optimum mixing ratio of penatron for bioremediation of uranium soil was 1 %. Also, the optimum pH condition for bioremediation of soil contaminated with uranium and radium was 7.5. The removal efficiencies of uranium and radium from higher concentration of soil were rather reduced in comparison with those from lower concentration of soil. Meanwhile, the removal of uranium and radium in concrete by bioremediation is possible but the removal rate from concrete was slower than that from soil. The removal efficiencies of uranium and radium from soil under injection of 1 % penatron at pH 7.5 for 120 days were 81.2 and 81.6 %, respectively, and the removal efficiencies of uranium and radium from concrete under the same condition were 63.0 and 45.2 %, respectively. Beyond 30 days, removal rates of uranium and radium from soil and concrete by bioremediation was very slow.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Nuclear Research & Development Program of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) Grant funded by the South Korean Government (MEST).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 1045 Daedeokdaero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-353, Republic of Korea

    Gye-Nam Kim, Seung-Su Kim, Hye-Min Park, Won-Suk Kim, Uk-Ryang Park & Jei-Kwon Moon

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  1. Gye-Nam Kim
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  2. Seung-Su Kim
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  3. Hye-Min Park
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  4. Won-Suk Kim
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  6. Jei-Kwon Moon
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Correspondence to Gye-Nam Kim.

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Kim, GN., Kim, SS., Park, HM. et al. Remediation of soil/concrete contaminated with uranium and radium by biological method. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 297, 71–78 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-012-2321-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-012-2321-x

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