OBJECTIVES To assess the distribution and risk factors of depleted uranium uptake in military personnel who had taken part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. METHODS Sector field inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (SF-ICP-MS) was used to determine the uranium concentration and (238)U/(235)U isotopic ratio in spot urine samples. The authors collected urine samples from four groups iden...

During the Persian Gulf War, soldiers were injured with depleted uranium (DU) fragments. To assess the potential health risks associated with chronic exposure to DU, Sprague Dawley rats were surgically implanted with DU pellets at 3 dose levels (low, medium and high). Biologically inert tantalum (Ta) pellets were used as controls. At 1 day and 6, 12, and 18 months after implantation, the rats w...

The empirical parameters of mixing enthalpy (ΔHmix), entropy (ΔSmix), atomic radius difference (δ), valence electron concentration (VEC), etc., are used in this study to design a depleted uranium high-entropy alloy (HEA). X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning microscopy (SEM), and transmission (TEM) were assess the phase composition. Compression hardness tests conducted select constituents with out...

Apatite contains only traces of uranium, yet as apatite is a minor constituent in most rocks and the major constituent of a few very large deposits, it accounts, paradoxically, for both dispersal and concentration of uranium in nature. Uranium typically makes up 0.001 to 0.01 percent of primary igneous apatite and 0.005 to 0.02 percent of sedimentary marine apatite. Marine reworked apatite beco...

Kidney tissue sections were obtained at autopsy from seven persons with a history of low level occupational exposure to uranium and histologically compared in a blind study with similar sections obtained from six reference cases. The pathologist was unable to identify the uranium workers or any uranium-specific nephropathy. This suggests that the chronic low level of kidney uranium concentratio...

Although stimulation of dissimilatory metal reduction to promote the reductive precipitation of uranium has been shown to successfully remove uranium from some aquifer sediments, the organisms in the family Geobacteraceae that have been found to be associated with metal reduction in previous studies are not known to grow at the high salinities found in some uranium-contaminated groundwaters. St...

It is known that uranium industry in the former Soviet Union was a centralized state management. Information flows related to the issues of uranium mining was strictly controlled and is in a vertical subordination of the structures of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building of the USSR. After the USSR collapse, the information about uranium mining and processing were not available in Kyrgyzstan...

the removal of uranium and any other heavy metals from wastewater might be achieved via several chemical or physical treatment techniques. biosorption process has been considered as a potential alternative way to remove contaminants from industrial effluents. moreover the surface of biosorbent was characterized by sem. the biosorption characteristics of uranium (vi) on pretreated a. niger were ...