Behaviour of radionuclides during microbially-induced mining of nickel at Talvivaara, Eastern Finland.

The Talvivaara mine in Eastern Finland utilizes microbe-induced heap leaching to recover nickel and other valuable metals (Zn, Cu, Co) from a black schist ore. In addition to the target metals, the ore contains uranium at a concentration of 17 mg/kg, incorporated as uraninite (UO2). Uranium oxidizes from the U(IV) to U(VI) state during leaching and dissolves as the uranyl ion (UO2(2+)) in the acidic pregnant leach solution.

Factors affecting the sorption of cesium in a nutrient-poor boreal bog.

(135)Cs is among the most important radionuclides in the long-term safety assessments of spent nuclear fuel, due to its long half-life of 2.3 My and large inventory in spent nuclear fuel. Batch sorption experiments were conducted to evaluate the sorption behavior of radiocesium ((134)Cs) in the surface moss, peat, gyttja, and clay layers of 7-m-deep profiles taken from a nutrient-poor boreal bog.

Efficacy of thoracic epidural analgesia with or without intercostal nerve cryoanalgesia for postthoracotomy pain.

Background: We evaluated effects of thoracic epidural analgesia combined with intercostal nerve cryoanalgesia or epidural analgesia alone on acute and long-term pain after posterolateral thoracotomy.

Methods: Forty-two elective thoracotomy patients were randomly assigned to two groups, epidural combined with cryoanalgesia or epidural alone. A thoracic epidural catheter was inserted before induction of anesthesia.