Abstract
Large volumes of uranium wastes are generated by nuclear- fuel pro-duction, nuclear power plants, and by facilities producing nuclear weapons. Uranium is present in various chemical forms such as elemental, oxide, sulfide, ionic, inorganic complex, organic complex, and co-precipitated with iron-, manganese- oxides, and carbonate. The mineralogical association and the oxidation states of uranium affect solubility, stability, bioavailability, and environmental mobility. Microorganisms affect the speciation of various chemical forms of uranium present in wastes and contaminated soils. The speciation of uranium affected by microbial action such as bioreduction, biosorption, biotransformation of uranium complexed with naturally occurring organic ligands, and solubility are reviewed.
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Acknowledgments
This research was in part supported by BK-21 plus pro-gram through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (R31–30005) and by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, under contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886.
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Francis, A.J. (2015). Microbes affect the speciation of various uranium compounds in wastes and soils. In: Merkel, B., Arab, A. (eds) Uranium - Past and Future Challenges. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11059-2_39
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11059-2_39
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