Abstract

Uranium is a common and problematic groundwater contaminant at Department of Energy legacy sites. At the former uranium ore processing plant at Rifle, Colorado, sediments rich in decayed plant biomass contain large concentrations of uranium that are slowly being released back to the aquifer. To simulate the reaction that occurs in organic rich sediments of the Rifle aquifer, biomass was incubated in U (VI) bearing groundwater. Carbon X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was then used to measure if uranium was bound to the biomass. When uranium binds to biomass the peaks in the C XAS spectra will change shape. Uranium LIII-edge XAS was used to determine the oxidation state of uranium. It was observed that the uranium added to the biomass was reduced to uranium (IV), however no change was seen in the C XAS bands. This supports that biomass does reduce uranium, however uranium was possibly bound to too low of a percentage of the total carbon in the biomass for it to be seen in the C XAS results.

Disciplines

Biogeochemistry | Environmental Chemistry | Environmental Monitoring | Geochemistry

Mentor

John Bargar

Lab site

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC)

Funding Acknowledgement

This material is based upon work supported by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0952013. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation or the National Science Foundation. This project has also been made possible with support of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. The STAR program is administered by the Cal Poly Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education (CESaME) on behalf of the California State University (CSU).

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URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/star/180

 

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