Sustainable Remediation of Radionuclide Impacts on Land and Critical Materials Recovery

The project “Sustainable Remediation of Radionuclide Impacts on Land and Critical Materials Recovery (SURRI)” aims to establish a multinational shared research agenda and project pipeline for addressing the challenges radionuclides pose to land remediation and materials recovery, with a particular focus on rare earth elements (REE) and other critical elements, in order to facilitate more efficient cycling and management of water, soil and material resources.

The topic is highly relevant to facilitating the circular use of land, water and several key materials.

Investigating the mitigation of radionuclide problems has been rather a “Cinderella” subject for land and waste management research, where the focus has been on organic and inorganic chemical contamination.

However, radionuclides present widespread and difficult problems for Society at large and achieving the “Green Deal” in particular.

The research concept is based on the integration of electrochemical and microbiological interventions, which can be applied, in-situ or ex-situ, to provide new tools to unlock the remediation of radionuclide affected sites, and facilitate the recovery of material resources from radionuclide-impacted wastes, and so reduce reliance on virgin (and non-EU) sources.The project is coordinated by the TECHNICKA UNIVERZITA V LIBERCI (TUL, CZ) with the participation of the UNIVERSIDAD DE GRANADA (ES), UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LASAPIENZA (IT) and the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON (UK, Associated Partner).

The three internationally leading partners in the field will help TUL to reach five specific objectives – to advance its research excellence in radionuclide impact mitigation, to develop a shared research vision and supporting research agenda for a virtual R&I centre, to raise the research profile of TUL staff, and to develop an international network of supporters, contributors and participants in the proposed virtual centre.