Abstract
Peña Blanca, located 50 km to the north of Chihuahua's city, hosts about 70% of the natural U deposits in Mexico, which contains the uranophane mineral. Uranium could be present in the environmental matrices of rock and soil; it could be redistributed naturally or anthropogenically in the environment. The adverse health effects of uranium are mainly ascribed to its chemistry, causing damage to the kidneys. The main goal of this work is to model the transport of U minerals by leaching at Peña Blanca-Laguna del Cuervo area using sediment columns. XDR, SEM, Alpha Spectrometry, and X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure techniques were applied to identify favored processes. It was possible to correctly reproduce the granulometric sequence of the topography from the Peña Blanca's deposits to the alluvial fans in Laguna del Cuervo. The mineralogical composition of the sediments corresponds to the erosion of felsic volcanic rocks. Activity concentrations of the effluent solutions and the fine fractions of the sediments could be explained from the properties of the grain and its distribution. Through X-Ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES) study of silt and (fine silt + clay) sediment fractions, the U(VI) oxidation state was verified, referable to the adsorption of uranyl ions.
Published Version
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