Mobility of Source Zone Heavy Metals and Radionuclides: The Mixed Roles of Fermentative Activity on Fate and Transport of U and Cr

Predicting the potential migration of metals and radionuclides from waste pits and trenches will require understanding the effects of carbon and electron flow through these environments. Important aspects of this flow include the physiological activity of cellulolytic and non-cellulolytic fermentative microbial populations, as well as the subsequent activity of metal and radionuclide reducing bacteria. The activity of subsurface fermentative microbial populations is significantly understudied even though these organisms can affect contaminant migration by at least two mechanisms. In the first mechanism, products of the fermentation process can act as chelators for metals and radionuclides increasing their transport through underlying geological media. The second mechanism is the reduction and immobilization of metals and radionuclides since some fermentative bacteria have been shown to directly reduce metals and radionuclides, while their fermentation products can provide carbon and energy for respiratory metal reducing bacteria that can also reduce oxidized metals and radionuclides