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Uranium carbonate complexes demonstrate drastic decrease in stability at elevated temperatures
Uranium carbonate complexes demonstrate drastic decrease in stability at elevated temperatures
- Source :
- Communications Chemistry, Vol 4, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Nature Portfolio, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Quantitative understanding of uranium transport by high temperature fluids is crucial for confident assessment of its migration in a number of natural and artificially induced contexts, such as hydrothermal uranium ore deposits and nuclear waste stored in geological repositories. An additional recent and atypical context would be the seawater inundated fuel of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Given its wide applicability, understanding uranium transport will be useful regardless of whether nuclear power finds increased or decreased adoption in the future. The amount of uranium that can be carried by geofluids is enhanced by the formation of complexes with inorganic ligands. Carbonate has long been touted as a critical transporting ligand for uranium in both ore deposit and waste repository contexts. However, this paradigm has only been supported by experiments conducted at ambient conditions. We have experimentally evaluated the ability of carbonate-bearing fluids to dissolve (and therefore transport) uranium at high temperature, and discovered that in fact, at temperatures above 100 °C, carbonate becomes almost completely irrelevant as a transporting ligand. This demands a re-evaluation of a number of hydrothermal uranium transport models, as carbonate can no longer be considered key to the formation of uranium ore deposits or as an enabler of uranium transport from nuclear waste repositories at elevated temperatures. Carbonate species may play a role in uranium transport in natural systems and nuclear waste repositories at high temperatures. Here uranyl carbonate species are shown to decrease in stability under hydrothermal conditions, suggesting that these species may not mediate transport after all.
- Subjects :
- inorganic chemicals
chemistry.chemical_element
Context (language use)
complex mixtures
Biochemistry
Hydrothermal circulation
law.invention
chemistry.chemical_compound
law
Nuclear power plant
Materials Chemistry
Environmental Chemistry
QD1-999
business.industry
technology, industry, and agriculture
Radioactive waste
General Chemistry
Uranium
Nuclear power
Uranium ore
Chemistry
chemistry
Environmental chemistry
Environmental science
Carbonate
business
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 23993669
- Volume :
- 4
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Communications Chemistry
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....5f290694878067287425f35e5fef479c