Uranium speciation in river sediments contaminated by phosphate ores |
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Authors: | S Meca J Giménez I Casas V Martí J de Pablo |
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Institution: | (1) CTM Centre Tecnol?gic, Avda. Bases de Manresa, 1, 08240 Manresa, Spain;(2) Departament d’Enginyeria Qu?mica, Universitat Polit?cnica de Catalunya (UPC), Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; |
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Abstract: | Large amounts of phosphate ores with high concentrations of uranium were dumped by a phosphate plant into the Flix water reservoir
in the Ebre River, Catalonia, NE Spain. These phosphate wastes have been mixed over the years with effluents from other industries
as well as with the sediments of the river, resulting in a complex mixture of solid wastes and sediments. No investigations
on uranium speciation in such sediments were made because of the complexity of the sediments composition as well as the relatively
low uranium content. However, these studies are necessary in order to predict the release of the uranium to the river waters.
Here, we studied uranium speciation in sediments from two sampling points of the Flix water reservoir and at depths from 5
to 113 cm. We used room temperature time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy and a three-step sequential extraction procedure
described by the Standards, Measurements, and Testing Programme of the European Union. We found that uranium was mainly present
in the sediment samples as meta-autunite Ca(UO2)2(PO4)2·10–12H2O], whose low solubility will result in a low release of uranium to the river waters. In addition, we found that some uranium
was linked to sediments by forming surface complexes. We therefore made the first study of uranium speciation in the sediments
of the Flix water reservoir. |
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