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Researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico performed experiments from the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository site, NV for the solubility of neptunium and plutonium.

The solubilization of hydrous plutonium hydrous oxide by iron-reducing bacteria strains is described. Plutonium removal from soils is a daunting task due to its strong absorption to soils and limited solubility. Microbial metal reduction was utilized for the solubilization and metal extraction from refractory ores. The research observations suggest the need to formulate an environmentally benign strategy for the remediation of plutonium-contaminated soils.

Here we describe the synthesis of two imido analogs of the uranyl ion, [UO.sup.2+.sub.2], in which the oxygens are replaced by divalent alkyl or aryl nitrogen groups: U([N.sup.t]Bu).sub.2][I.sub.2][(THF).sub.2] (1) and U[(NPh).sub.2][I.sub.2][(THF).sub.3] (2) (where [.sup.t]Bu is tert-butyl and THF is tetrahydrofuran). Both compounds have been fully characterized by standard analytical techniques, including x-ray crystallography, and the chemical bonding between the metal center and the nitrogen ligands was quantified by using hybrid density functional theory calculations. As expected for a uranyl analog, these complexes exhibit linear N-U-N linkages and very short U-N bonds. In addition, the theoretical calculations show strong involvement of the 5f and 6d electrons in the U-N bonding., The uranyl ([UO.sup.2+.sub.2]) species is the most common functional unit in the chemistry of U(VI) and has been known for more than 150 years (1). With the advent of nuclear [...]