It is recalled that the only non-nuclear military application in which depleted-uranium alloys out-perform present-day tungsten alloys is longrod penetration into a main battle-tank’s armor. However, this advantage is only on the order of 10% and disappearing when the uranium versus tungsten comparison is made in terms of actual lethality of complete anti-tank systems instead of laboratory-type...

Recovering uranium from seawater has been the subject of many studies for decades, and has recently seen significant progress in materials development since the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has become involved. With DOE direction, the uranium uptake for amidoxime-based polymer adsorbents has more than tripled in capacity. In an effort to better understand how these new adsorbent materials be...

Incorporation of uranium recovery into wet phosphoric acid (WPA) processes can potentially supplement a significant portion of the world's uranium production and simultaneously benefit human health and environment by reducing radiological and toxic contamination of the phosphate fertilizer products. Liquid-liquid extraction as conventional uranium recovery methods applied in industrial suffers ...

Commercially available Diphonix(®) resin (TrisKem International) was evaluated as a receiving phase for use with the diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) passive sampler for measuring uranium. This resin has a high partition coefficient for actinides and is used in the nuclear industry. Other resins used as receiving phases with DGT for measuring uranium have been prone to saturation and sig...

The fate of uranium in natural systems is of great environmental importance. X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) revealed that U(VI) was reduced to U(IV) in shallow freshwater sediment at an open pit in an inactive uranium mine. Geochemical characterization of the sediment showed that nitrate, Fe(III), and sulfate had also been reduced in the sediment. Observations of the sediment p...

The ability to perform not only elementally but also isotopically sensitive detection and analysis at standoff distances is impor-tant for remote sensing applications in diverse ares, such as nuclear nonproliferation, environmental monitoring, geophysics, and planetary science. We demonstrate isotopically sensitive real-time standoff detection of uranium by the use of femtosecond filament-induc...

Uranium exposure leads to cerebral dysfunction involving for instance biochemical, neurochemical and neurobehavioral effects. Most studies have focused on mechanisms in uranium-exposed adult animals. However, recent data on developing animals have shown that the developing brain is also sensitive to uranium. Models of uranium exposure during brain development highlight the need to improve our u...

The in situ stimulation of Fe(III) oxide reduction in the subsurface stimulates the growth of Geobacter spp. and the precipitation of U(VI) from groundwater. As with Fe(III) oxide reduction, the reduction of uranium by Geobacter spp. requires the expression of their conductive pili. The pili bind the soluble uranium and catalyse its extracellular reductive precipitation along the pili filaments...

The potential health impacts of chronic exposures to uranium, as they occur in occupational settings, are not well characterized. Most epidemiological studies have been limited by small sample sizes, and a lack of harmonization of methods used to quantify radiation doses resulting from uranium exposure. Experimental studies have shown that uranium has biological effects, but their implications ...

The Water-Sediment Regulation Scheme (WSRS) of the Yellow River is a procedure implemented annually from June to July to expel sediments deposited in Xiaolangdi and other large middle-reach reservoirs and to scour the lower reaches of the river, by controlling water and sediment discharges. Dissolved uranium isotopes were measured in river waters collected monthly as well as daily during the 20...