Orateur
M.
Mingjian HE
(IPNO)
Description
The application of nuclear technology in industry, research and medicine leads to the
production of radionuclides that are likely to result in soil pollution especially with
actinides, in the vicinity of uranium mining sites, radwaste disposal facilities, or
after accidental spreading. The presence of organic molecules in the environment
may favour the mobility of the radioelements up to the food chain. For evident
safety reasons, the migration behaviour of these radiotoxic species must be
predicted. Among organics that exhibit a strong affinity for hard cations like
lanthanides and actinides ions, siderophores, compounds excreted by
microorganisms, as well as polyaminocarboxylic acids can affect the chemical
behaviour of actinides. According to the principle of Hard and Soft Acids and Basis,
these chelating agents that possess hard donor atoms bind strongly to felement
ions. Some have already been used in the frame of advanced separation technologies for
reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
The proposed work is focused on the interaction of selected actinide and lanthanide
ions, on one hand with a group of siderophores: the hydroxamates (RC(=O)NHOH),
and on the other hand, with simple polyaminopolycarboxylic acids that can be
regarded as a simplistic model of organic matter.
