MS details

The schedule is available at https://www.conftool.com/iucr2020/

XAS and crystallography applied for geomaterials and environmental problems

Comments

The contamination of natural resources, such as water and soil, caused by waste and disposal practices is one of the major issues that needs to be addressed to maintain the long-term sustainability of our environment. The design of strategies for the immobilization and removal of toxic materials is thus a priority, for which a better understanding of the speciation of toxic elements is necessary. Nuclear waste is a particularly important issue for many developed countries. One of the main challenges in this area is the understanding of the chemistry of long half-life radionuclides, such as U, Np, Pu, Am and Tc that are present in potentially stable nuclear waste forms. This knowledge is essential if we are to better manage and engineer safe disposal. A central challenge is the need to understand how the containers, engineered components and host rocks will modify under the cumulative radiation dose they receive from contained and escaping wastes. X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) have been widely used for the study of toxic waste in a wide range of environmental media. The high sensitivity of the spectroscopy method allows the study of samples where a highly toxic chemical species is present at very low concentration. In complementary fashion, XRD is a powerful probe for mineral structure determination particularly sensitive to heavy elements, as it is the case with most toxic species. The aim of this micro-symposium is to show the capabilities of these techniques for the development of new strategies for the management of toxic waste, highlighting their complementarity and application in the field of environmental science. To be shared by Inorganic and Mineral structures

Chair persons

Name	Family	Institution	City	Country	Region
Fred	Mosselmans	Diamond light source	Didcot	UK	ECA
Annalisa	Martucci	University of Ferrara	Ferrara	Italy	ECA

Invited speakers

Name	Family	Institution	City	Country	Title
Giuseppe	Cruciani	University of Ferrara	Ferrara	Italy	Immobilization and removal of hazardous elements by geomaterials: the harder and the softer solutions