Rifle Colorado
A Novel Sensor for Insitu Measurement of Uranium Flux
Funding Agency: Department of Energy, Environmental Remediation Sciences Program (ERSP)
Research Team
Primary Investigator: Kirk Hatfield (University of Florida)
Investigators/Collaborators:
Aaron Peacock (Microbial Insights)
Stephen Cabaniss (University of New Mexico)
James Ranville (Colorado School of Mines)
Michael Annable (University of Florida)
Mark Newman (University of Florida)
Valerie Stucker (Colorado School of Mines)
Jaehyun Cho (University of Florida)
Harald Klammler (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil)
Project Summary
The goal of this project is to develop a novel sensor that incorporates field-tested concepts of the passive flux meter to provide direct in situ measures of uranium and groundwater fluxes. Measurable uranium fluxes are essentially the product of concentration and groundwater flux or specific discharge. The sensor uses sorbents and tracers to measure uranium flux and specific discharge directly; however, sensor principles and design should apply to fluxes of other radionuclides. Flux measurements will assist DOE in obtaining field-scale quantification of subsurface processes affecting uranium transport (e.g., advection) and transformation (e.g., uranium attenuation) and further advance conceptual and computational models for field scale simulations. Project efforts will expand our current understanding of how field-scale spatial variations in uranium fluxes and those for salient electron donor/acceptors, and groundwater are coupled to spatial variations in measured microbial biomass/community composition, effective field-scale uranium mass balances, attenuation, and stability.
Abstracts and Presentations
-- Abstract for Annual ERSP meeting, April 2009. View Abstract as PDF.
-- Project Update, January 2009. View Presentation as PDF.