Speciation of actinides after plant uptake


Speciation of actinides after plant uptake

Geipel, G.; Viehweger, K.

Besides natural the occurring actinides uranium and thorium the most impact of higher actinides in biological systems is connected to the release of transuranium elements in nuclear accidents as Chernobyl and Fukushima and from scenarios which are seen in the discussion of radioactive waste storage.
In radioactive waste storage sites in the deep underground, however, the first organism which may have contact to actinides are microorganism. In later transport to the earth surface these radionuclides may also access the food chain via several ways of uptake. One of these ways may occur by uptake of actinides by plants.
Nevertheless, the uptake depends on the bioavailability of these elements and therefore also on the speciation or binding form before and after uptake.

It can be stated already here, that some of these radionuclides are much less studied than others. This may be caused by the difficult handling of the radioelements, as they are α-emitting radionuclides and therefore special equipment in the laboratories is necessary as well as regulations of radiation protection have to be considered.

An introduction in the uptake of radionuclides by plants has been given by M. Greger. Besides the description of common uptake mechanisms only few information about actinides is given.
An overview about soil to plant transfer is given by D. Robertson et al. The factors vary very strong depending on plant species, soil and experimental conditions, but compared to Sr isotopes the values for actinides are smaller.

Keywords: Actinides; Speciation; Plants

  • Book chapter
    C. Walther, D.K. Gupta: Radionuclide Contamination and Remediation through Plants, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2014, 978-3-319-07665-2, 197-214

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Publ.-Id: 20101