Why Uranium Is Removed From The Oceans By Diffusion Across The Sediment Water Interface Of Organic Rich Sediments

Uranium is a naturally occuring chemical element that can be mined from ore in many parts of the Southwestern United States where

other on the other side of the earth. These bulges tend to rotate around the

Water column phosphorus concentrations have also been shown to increase under anoxic conditions (Webb, K.L. and D'Elia, C.F. 1980). This is because some of the iron oxyhydroxides that

Uranium can be found in a lot of places in small quantities such as rocks, soil, and water. However, its harder to find uranium in amounts that are worth the trouble.

Bradbury’s (1967) dissertation research was the first comprehensive study of Zuni Salt Lake maar. Based on a radiocarbon age of 22.9 ± 1.4 ka 14C yr BP (Haynes et al., 1967) on aquatic, calcareous algae from Zuni Salt Lake lacustrine deposits 15 m above the present lake level, he concluded that the Zuni Salt Lake maar formed during the late Pleistocene. This single date provided a maximum age for the Zuni Salt Lake maar but has long been viewed as suspect because of probable hardwater carbon-reservoir effects. Subsequent argon dating of Zuni Salt Lake volcanic rocks resulted in low-resolution plateau ages of 114 ± 38 ka and 86 ± 31 ka (McIntosh and Cather, 1994).

One of Uranium’s largest environmental impacts is the quality and quantity of surface water near Uranium mines. Once Uranium is extracted from mills, a significant amount of Uranium products are released into rivers and lakes. This significantly increases the concentration of Uranium in surface water. Radon, a product produced from the decaying of Uranium, if consumed by the animals, can create serious lung and stomach issues. Inhaling radon has a similar effect. Uranium, once the material dissolves into the soil, can also significantly influence the soil quality in a given area. Soil, after this process, can’t provide moisture for plant growth and many underground living organisms die. Considering the Olympic Dam Mine is next to a large river, these issues are occurring more and more near the

The first way to mine uranium is open pit mining or also known as strip mining. Open pit mining is the removal of the top soil and the rocky soil to get to the ore. This kind of mining can only happen if the uranium is near the surface (less than 400 feet normally). Underground mining is the second way you can mine Uranium. Underground Mining is used to get higher amounts of uranium that are too deep to get from an open pit mine. In underground mining the ore is drilled, then blasted to make debris which is then transported to the surface

Intertidal (mud) flats are shielded intertidal and shallow sub tidal areas (Quinn, 2014), with significant ecosystems that provide a diversity of highly productive, environmental habitats that are essential sources of food for fish during times of high tide, and for birds in low tide. The sediment composition of intertidal flats depends on the “interactions between the physical, chemical and biological processes” (Widdows, et al., 2004), but the sediment if mainly fine particles and mostly muds. The sediment itself can also either have vegetation growth or be a completely bare flat region. (Quinn, 2014).

Review Questions (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17)

Oparina/Miller hypothesis theorized was because of absence of free oxygen, chemicals, and so on could shape inorganic mixes for emerged on this planet.

In the course of the past year or so, the world has under gone immense natural disasters. Including but not limited to: hurricanes, tsunamis, wildfires, blizzards, and more. These unfortunate events all have a source of which they occurred. At the same time, the world’s oceans have under gone less noticeable but apparent changes as well. These changes include temperature variations, heightened acidification, intensified salinity, and more. However, a specific issue is the effect of Indiana’s activities impacting ocean life through nutrient and sediment pollution. There is a multifarious number of reasons that could affect ocean life, even in Indiana, which one will discuss throughout this report. One will describe sediment runoff, the

I think to an extend it is environmental racism. We need Uranium to protect the United States which includes to protect the Native people. We have to look at the big picture as what is going to help the country. Also, it creates more miners jobs. The use of Uranium is not only use for nuclear weapons, but also to produce energy. In the other hand, the Native people from New Mexico are taking a big hit because since it is a big Uranium mining site and the water is not being dispose properly and the water is seeping into the local aquifers (Earthworks, 2011). I think the government should look an alternative ways to dispose the 12 million gallons a day or other alternative ways to substitute the use of Uranium.

Figure 2. This image illustrates where major reserves of uranium are found on earth. <http://www.globalresearch.ca/articlePictures/uranium_reserves.jpg>.

MOX fuel is comprised of UO2 and PuO2. The UO2 is acquired either from naturally occurring uranium oxide, or recovered from the spent fuel of a traditional nuclear reactor. Plutonium metal is produced by the U-238 during operation of the nuclear reactor [1]. The Pu must then be converted to PuO2. The first step in producing PuO2 is to dissolve the recovered Pu in HNO3-HF to get Pu(NO3)4. Once the Pu(NO3)4 is generated, a few different methods can be used to acquire PuO2. The most commercially used method involves the precipitation of plutonium oxalate. The Pu(NO3)4 is conditioned with hydrogen peroxide to produce Pu(lV). Next, an excess of oxalic acid is added to reduce the solubility. The oxalate is then left to decompose to oxide which can then be filtered and dried

In static sedimentation tests, a distinct sedimentation interface between the supernatant and sludge was observed for all samples with different irradiation doses, whereas the expected rapid improvement of the irradiated sedimentation rate was not observed (Fig. 1). These trends agreed with the results of Meeroff et al (2004). According to the sedimentation curves, there are two periods during static sedimentation process: (1) the initial hindered settling period, in which the interface between the supernatant and sludge decreases at a constant velocity (u0) relying on the sludge concentration; (2) the succedent sludge compression period, in which the settling velocity of the interface gradually declines (Wu et al., 2009; Iritani et al., 2015). For the untreated sludge, u0 is 10.36 mm·h−1 and SV720 is 37.1%, as shown in Fig. 2. For irradiated sludge, the sedimentation velocity was slightly increased to 11.55 mm·h-1 at doses up to 15 kGy. SV was continuously decreased with the increasing dose and a 19.4% reduction rate was achieved at 15 kGy. According to the Stokes Law, the observed changes in u0 and SV were probably due to particle size decrease and sludge density increase after irradiation (Yu et al., 2010). In addition, a portion of solid matter was dissolved by irradiation, which could promote SV decrease. The improved settleability demonstrated that