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Enrichment of Uranium inside Wood: a Natural Analog from a Sandstone-hosted Roll-type Uranium Ore Deposit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

Huifang X ,
Maozhong Min ,
Jia Zhen ,
Xinjian Peng ,
Jinping Wang ,
Larry Barton  and
Yifeng Wang
Huifang X
Affiliation:
epartment of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin 53706, U.S.A.,, hfxu@geology.wisc.edu
Maozhong Min
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Mineral Deposit Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, P. R., China
Jia Zhen
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Mineral Deposit Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, P. R., China
Xinjian Peng
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Mineral Deposit Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, P. R., China
Jinping Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Mineral Deposit Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, P. R., China
Larry Barton
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque New Mexico 87131, U. S. A.
Yifeng Wang
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, U. S. A.
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Abstract

Furniture contaminated with uranium will be disposed of, together with U-bearing waste, in ageological repository such as the WIPP site in New Mexico. It is important to understand the effect of the wooden furniture on the migration of uranium in order to predict long-term behavior of uranium in a geological repository environment. In this paper, we present natural uraninite-bearing carbonized wood pieces from a sandstone-hosted roll-type uranium ore deposit in NW China. Results from SEM and TEM observations show that there are nanometer sized, and micron-sized, uraninite crystals that have accumulated on cell walls of the carbonized wood. Some uranitite crystrals display oval and round shapes that may be the result of microbial-induced reduction of uranium from groundwater. The wood carbonized fragments are the most uranium-rich “phase.” In some areas, aggregates of pyrite crystals occur withthe uraninite. It is proposed that organic components from the decay of the wood cells provide nutrientsfor the anaerobic bacteria to grow. The wood pieces with the bacteria inside may serve as scavengers of uranium because of the local reducing chemical environment.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 824: Symposium CC – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXVIII , 2004 , CC8.42
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2004

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