Impacts of Mineralogy and Competing Microbial Respiration Pathways on the Fate of Uranium in Contaminated Groundwater

This is a field-oriented project designed to elucidate the microbiological and geochemical factors controlling U(VI) reduction/immobilization in subsurface environments at the NABIR FRC. Efforts focused on acidic sediments, (1) to characterize the dominant minerals likely to limit U speciation, (2) to directly quantify microbial respiration processes controlling U subsurface chemistry, and (3) to identify and enumerate the responsible organisms. Results indicate that the activities and growth of bacteria are limited in this acidic subsurface. The relevant geochemical parameters have now been characterized, and respiration rates quantified