GEOLOGISTS LEARNING URANIUM CONTAINMENT FROM NATURE

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@ICX.NET>]

GEOLOGISTS LEARNING URANIUM CONTAINMENT FROM NATURE



BLACKSBURG, Virginia, March 13, 2001 (ENS) - One of the richest

uranium deposits in the U.S. lies beneath Coles Hill in rural Virginia -

forming a perfect natural laboratory for studying radioactive waste

containment. 



"You would expect ground water in this type of natural system to

have carried the uranium away from the site into the surrounding

environment, but we don't see that," said Virginia Tech Ph.D. student

Jim Jerden. "We think we can learn something from this site that can

be applied to existing contaminated sites and nuclear waste

repositories." 



As geologists, Jerden and his advisor, A. K. Sinha, professor of

geological sciences, are looking at the natural system that contains

the Coles Hill uranium deposit as a unique geologic analog for uranium

contaminated sites and nuclear waste repositories. 



"Nature may present a model for the scientifically sound management

of nuclear wastes and contaminated sites," said Jerden. "We have

discovered that the abundance of phosphorous and its interaction

with uranium is likely the cause for the lack of migration." 



Jerden presented some of his research from Coles Hill this morning at

the 36th annual meeting of the Northeastern Section of the

Geological Society of America (GSA) in Burlington, Vermont. 



Scientists from the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology

Laboratory have already been experimenting with phosphorous and

uranium in the laboratory. 



"The goal of these experiments was to develop new cost effective

technologies that can be applied for remediation of uranium

contaminated sites," explained Jerden. "So they were very interested

when we told them we were researching a natural system in which

uranium and phosphorus are combining to naturally limit uranium

transport." 

- -- 

.....................................................

Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director

Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee

                       -----                       

A schedule of meetings on DOE issues is posted on our Web site

http://www.local-oversight.org/meetings.html - E-mail loc@icx.net

.....................................................

************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.



------------------------------