Encouraging minerals to capture troubling radionuclides
Friday, May 8, 2015 - 07:00
in Earth & Climate
Associated with contamination in certain spots around the world, pentavalent neptunium does not always behave the same as its stand-in when moving through the soil, according to scientists at University of Notre Dame and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The less studied pentavalent neptunium and the well studied hexavalent uranium are incorporated at dramatically different levels in calcite and other carbonate minerals. Assimilation in minerals can limit the radionuclides migration.