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Microbial Ecological Function in Migration of Radionuclides in Groundwater

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Behavior of Radionuclides in the Environment I

Abstract

This chapter shows findings obtained from a microbial ecological study carried out on groundwater contaminated with radionuclides and nitrate in the area of Lake Karachai in southern Ural. This study was conducted to answer the questions raised from previous studies at the same site on the difference in migration patterns between strontium-90 and nitrate, a co-contaminant regarded as an indicator of the motion of radionuclides. The results suggest that denitrification occurred in some part of the given groundwater, and this caused a decrease in nitrate concentration at that site. Furthermore, microbial denitrification activity leads to a decrease in redox potential. Thus, microbial denitrifying activity may affect the behavior of radionuclide in differentiation of their chemical species in valent status.

Ecological understanding of microbes, in addition to the information of microbial direct function in adsorbing and absorbing radionuclides, and modifying the chemical species of radionuclides through direct reaction with elements, may give us a further and more accurate picture of the role of existing microbes in contaminated groundwater. This may allow a greater move forward in understanding the migration of radionuclides in groundwater.

Chapters 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8 also discuss this study site. Therefore, a concise general description is included in this chapter.

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Acknowledgments

Sincere thanks are due to Drs. Hidemi Ishibashi, Koichi Sakakibara, Kazuhiro Aoki, and Sakae Fukunaga for kindly reading the early draft and providing useful suggestions. Sincere thanks are also due to Jeffrey Shaffer, Associate Profesor at Shizuoka University, for his valuable suggestions on English expression. Thanks are also due to Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority for its permission to reuse a figure from its published report.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, Department of Geosciences, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan

    Kenji Kato, Kazuyo Nagaosa, Takeshi Kinoshita & Chie Kastsuyama

  2. Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan

    Chie Kastsuyama

  3. Research Center of Biotechnology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, Moscow, Russia

    Tamara N. Nazina

  4. Laboratory for Advanced Nuclear Energy, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

    Toshihiko Ohnuki

  5. Radiochemistry Division, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    Stepan N. Kalmykov

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  1. Kenji Kato
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  2. Kazuyo Nagaosa
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Correspondence to Kenji Kato .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, Department of Geosciences, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan

    Kenji Kato

  2. Institute of Environmental Radioactivity, Fukushima University, Fukushima, Japan

    Alexei Konoplev

  3. Radiochemistry Division, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    Stepan N. Kalmykov

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Kato, K. et al. (2020). Microbial Ecological Function in Migration of Radionuclides in Groundwater. In: Kato, K., Konoplev, A., Kalmykov, S. (eds) Behavior of Radionuclides in the Environment I. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0679-6_1

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