Corkhill, C.L. orcid.org/0000-0002-7488-3219, Crean, D., Bailey, D.J. et al. (5 more authors) (2017) Multi-scale investigation of uranium attenuation by arsenic at an abandoned uranium mine, South Terras. npj Materials Degradation, 1. 19.
Abstract
Detailed mineralogical analysis of soils from the UK’s historical key uranium mine, South Terras, was performed to elucidate the mechanisms of uranium degradation and migration in the 86 years since abandonment. Soils were sampled from the surface (0 – 2 cm) and near-surface (25 cm) in two distinct areas of ore processing activities. Bulk soil analysis revealed the presence of high concentrations of uranium (<1690 ppm), arsenic (1830 ppm) and beryllium (~250 ppm), suggesting pedogenic weathering of the country rock and ore extraction processes to be the mechanisms of uranium ore degradation. Micro-focus XRF analysis indicated the association of uranium with arsenic, phosphate and copper; µ-XRD data confirmed the presence of the uranyl-arsenate minerals metazeunerite (Cu(UO2)2(AsO4)2·8H2O) and metatorbernite (Cu(UO2)2(PO4)2·8H2O) to be ubiquitous. Our data are consistent with the solid solution of these two uranyl-mica minerals, not previously observed at uranium-contaminated sites. Crystallites of uranyl-mica minerals were observed to coat particles of jarosite and muscovite, suggesting that the mobility of uranium from degraded ores is attenuated by co-precipitation with arsenic and phosphate, which was not previously considered at this site.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2017. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | uranium ore; mineralogy; arsenic; weathering; metazeunerite |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ROYAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING (THE) UNSPECIFIED |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Oct 2017 14:59 |
Last Modified: | 06 Nov 2018 13:07 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-017-0019-9 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41529-017-0019-9 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:121625 |