Long-lived Radionuclides in the Surface Environment (LO-RISE)- Mechanistic Studies of Speciation, Environmental Transport and Transfer

GSTDTAP

项目编号	NE/L000253/2
	Long-lived Radionuclides in the Surface Environment (LO-RISE)- Mechanistic Studies of Speciation, Environmental Transport and Transfer
	[unavailable]
主持机构	University of Manchester
项目开始年	2016
	2016-08-01
项目结束日期	2017-09-30
资助机构	UK-NERC
项目类别	Research Grant
国家	英国
语种	英语
英文摘要	The impact of radioactivity on humans and the wider environment is controlled by the behaviour of the radionuclides in groundwaters, soils and sediments, and this behaviour is dictated by the quantities of radionuclides, and their chemical forms. We will study some of the radionuclides which are particularly important because they are potentially present in relatively large quantities, are environmentally mobile, and are readily taken up by living organisms. The main radionuclides we are going to study are: Carbon-14, which occurs in nature, but was produced back in the 1950s and 60s through nuclear weapons testing, and is also present in nuclear wastes; and Uranium (together with its decay product radium) which is present in nature, and also in some nuclear wastes. We will use four areas of the UK which contain elevated levels of these radionuclides as our study sites. These are South Terras (an old uranium mine in Cornwall), the Needle's Eye (a uranium mineral vein in SW Scotland), the Esk Estuary in NW England, and offshore sediments in the NE Irish Sea. At these last two sites, the sediments contain elevated levels of radioactivity from authorised Sellafield discharges, mainly in the 1970s. As well as studying how radioactivity occurs in, and moves through, the soils, waters, plants and (in the offshore sediments) animals, we want to understand the environmental and biological processes which control this movement. To do this, we will do a series of laboratory experiments, looking at the way soil/sediment conditions influence the radionuclide concentrations in solution, the form of the radionuclides in the solution, the way radionuclides are taken up into plants and animals, and the way they are distributed in plant tissues. We will use the results from our field and laboratory studies to develop and test mathematical models of radionuclide transport and transfer processes. These are important because they allow us to predict behaviour, rather than having to make measurements. These predictive models can be used in assessing environmental impacts, cleaning up contaminated land and predicting the long term impact of radioactive waste disposals.
来源学科分类	Natural Environment Research
文献类型	项目
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/86283
专题	环境与发展全球科技态势
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	[unavailable].Long-lived Radionuclides in the Surface Environment (LO-RISE)- Mechanistic Studies of Speciation, Environmental Transport and Transfer.2016.