Determination of plutonium, americium and curium isotopes in radioactive metal wastes deriving from nuclear decommissioning

Molecular Binding of EuIII/CmIII by Stenotrophomonas bentonitica and Its Impact on the Safety of Future Geodisposal of Radioactive Waste

“…This suggested the complexation of Eu III with extracellular released complexing agents and bacterial surface functional groups, respectively. In the supernatant and the resuspended cells the 7 F 0 transition appeared at 579 nm with a slightly higher intensity than in the blank sample. This pointed to a different symmetry around the Eu III center compared to the blank spectrum and is a further argument for the interaction process of Eu III with the cells.…”

“…These results are in agreement with the Eu III removal studies (section 3.2), in which the amount of Eu adsorbed increased with the incubation time. In the resuspended cells, there was a fast rise in the intensity of the 7 F 2 transition after an incubation time of 1 h. Then no systematic changes in the spectra, as a function of the incubation time, were observed (Figure 3B).…”

“…The luminescence spectrum of Eu III aqua ion (blank) is characterized by emission bands at 585−600 nm (magnetic dipole transition 5 D 0 → 7 F 1 ) and 610−630 nm (hypersensitive transition 5 D 0 → 7 F 2 ). An increased intensity of the hypersensitive 7 F 2 transition at 617 nm moving from blank via supernatant to the resuspended cells was discovered.…”

“…In the supernatants, there was a systematic increase in the 7 F 2 transition as a function of the incubation time (Figure 3A). This could indicate an increase in the release of complexing agents from the cells at a longer incubation time.…”

“…Cm is a highly toxic radionuclide as indicated by the high α activity of some isotopes, such as 247 Cm (half-life: 1.6 × 10 7 years) and 248 Cm (half-life: 3.5 × 10 6 years) present in nuclear spent fuel. 7,8 Cm is a representative of trivalent actinides (An III ), which exhibits excellent luminescence properties that make it suitable for direct speciation studies at environmentally relevant metal concentration. 9 Similarly, europium (Eu) has been studied as an inactive analogue of An III , also providing excellent luminescence properties.…”