Effective Cleanup of Groundwater Contaminated with Radionuclides Using Permeable Reactive Barriers - Permeable Reactive Barrier: Sustainable Groundwater Remediation - page 151

9
Effective Cleanup of Groundwater
Contaminated with Radionuclides Using
Permeable R eactive Barriers
Franz-Georg Simon and Tamás Meggyes
CONTENTS
9.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 151
9.2 Groundwater Remediation Using Permeable Reactive Barriers ......... 153
9.2.1 Removal of Metals from Groundwater ....................................... 157
9.2.1.1 Uranium ........................................................................... 158
9.2.2 Remediation by Biomineralization .............................................. 165
9.3 Construction Methods of PRBs ................................................................ 166
9.4 Electrochemical Remediation .................................................................. 167
9.4.1 Electrochemical Processes ............................................................ 168
9.4.2 Removal of Radionuclides ............................................................ 169
9.5 Outlook ........................................................................................................ 170
References ............................................................................................................. 171
9.1 Introduction
The mining of natural resources always causes environmental impacts such
as land use, large quantities of waste, destruction of habitat, impairment
of groundwater regime, and quite possibly contamination of soil, water, or
air (Dudka and Adriano 1997). The environmental impact of mining can-
not be estimated easily. The concept of total material requirement (TMR) is
an attempt to quantify the environmental impact of materials. TMR is the
sum of domestic and imported primary natural resources and their hid-
den flows (Adriaanse et al. 1997). Hidden flows are often not considered in
environmental analyses because they are attributed with no cost. However,
overburden from mining, earth moving for construction, and soil erosion
are major sources of ecological damage. From the mining of minerals to
the final products, a number of process steps take place (exploration, mine
site development, extraction, milling, washing, concentration, smelting,
refining, fabrication), each step being connected to other input flows such
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