Effects and driving mechanisms of bioremediation on groundwater after the neutral in situ leaching of uranium.

Autor: Lian G; State Key Laboratory of Water Environment, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Nuclear and Radiation Safety Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100082, China., An Y; The Fourth Research and Design Engineering Corporation of CNNC, Shijiazhuang 050021, China., Sun J; The Fourth Research and Design Engineering Corporation of CNNC, Shijiazhuang 050021, China., Yang B; The Fourth Research and Design Engineering Corporation of CNNC, Shijiazhuang 050021, China., Shen Z; State Key Laboratory of Water Environment, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: zyshen@bnu.edu.cn.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2024 Oct 10; Vol. 946, pp. 174406. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jul 02.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174406
Abstrakt: The remediation of groundwater subject to in situ leaching (ISL) for uranium mining has raised extensive concerns in uranium mill and milling. This study conducted bioremediation through biostimulation and bioaugmentation to the groundwater in an area in northern China that was contaminated due to uranium mining using the CO2 + O2 neutral ISL (NISL) technology. It identified the dominant controlling factors and mechanisms driving bioremediation. Findings indicate that microorganisms can reduce the uranium concentration in groundwater subject to NISL uranium mining to its normal level. After 120 days of bioaugmentation, the uranium concentration in the contaminated groundwater fell to 0.36 mg/L, achieving a remediation efficiency of 91.26 %. Compared with biostimulation, bioaugmentation shortened the remediation timeframe by 30 to 60 days while maintaining roughly the same remediation efficiency. For groundwater remediation using indigenous microbial inoculants, initial uranium concentration and low temperatures (below 15 °C) emerge as the dominant factors influencing the bioremediation performance and duration. In settings with high carbonate concentrations, bioremediation involved the coupling of multiple processes including bioreduction, biotransformation, biomineralization, and biosorption, with bioreduction assuming a predominant role. Post-bioremediation, the relative abundances of reducing microbes Desulfosporosinus and Sulfurospirillum in groundwater increased significantly by 10.56 % and 6.91 %, respectively, offering a sustainable, stable biological foundation for further bioremediation of groundwater.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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