Assessing microbial impact on trapping of radioactive contaminants from groundwaters by minerals

The European Union supports several directives to protect groundwater from hazardous contaminants, including radionuclides. This project aims to increase understanding of uranium retention pathways in calcite mediated by iron sulphides and microorganisms in a deep crystalline rock-groundwater system. This will be achieved by implementing a comprehensive experimental approach involving various isotope proxies in minerals and secondary, deep groundwaters, integration with microbiological studies, spectroscopic techniques, and hydrogeochemical modelling. The results will help to decipher microbial signatures in modern and ancient redox processes and microbial impact on the mobility of trace elements in groundwaters in the vicinity of the future granitic type nuclear repositories.