Science Exploration Series: "Radioactivity in the Environment: What's the Risk?"

Location: 101 Jordan Hall of Science

Amy Hixon

Make science part of your game day schedule, and join the College of Science for exciting presentations before Notre Dame home football games.

Radioactivity in the Environment: What's the Risk?

Speaker Amy Hixon, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Uranium and thorium are naturally-occurring radioactive elements that are widely distributed among rocks and minerals.  However, most actinide elements are present in the environment as a result of nuclear weapons production and testing, nuclear fuel disposition, and nuclear fuel cycle accidents (e.g., Chermobyl, Fukushima Daiichi).  These actinide elements pose a long-term environmental concern due to their toxicity and long half-lives.  In this talk, Professor Hixon will discuss what the Environmental Radiochemistry group is doing to understand and predict actinide mobility in the environment.