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News

• ORNL ESD researchers studying mercury were prominently cited in a 3-day series of articles in the Knoxville News Sentinel, written by Frank Munger. The 12 articles in the series can be viewed at http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/2012/01/wrap-up-on-mercury-project.html. Interviewed scientists including Liyuan Liang, Scott Brooks, Steven Brown, Jeremy Smith, Teresa Matthews, Mark Peterson, John Smith, and Mike Ryon. Interviews with Gary Jacobs and Thom Mason highlighted the value of ORNL mercury research. The series of articles appeared to be a balanced overview and has been well received by those concerned about the mercury contamination issues in Oak Ridge.

• Sampling Campaign at Tim's Branch, November 2011

Conferences
• NOVEMBER 2013 - SEATAC Session: Mercury Characterization and Contaminated Site Remediation: Methods, Challenges, and Lessons Learned, and will be a full day of oral presentations and a poster session on Monday, November 18.
• RAD Waste Summit 2012, Summerlin, NV:Mercury Technology
• 2012 Newspaper article: Y12's Mercury Problem
• (ICMGP 2011) The 10th international Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant
• Mercury Challenges in the Environment: A Technical Summit 2009

Highlights

• Decreasing Aqueous Mercury Concentrations to Meet the Water Quality Criterion in Fish: Examining the Water-Fish Relationship in two Point_Source Contaminated Streams

• Sources of Mercury in a contaminated stream- implications for the timescale of recovery

• Innovative mercury treatment benefits stream, fish

• Rapid Removal of Hg(II) from Aqueous Solutions using Thiol_Functionalized Zn-doped Biomagnetite Particles

Current Progress

Laboratory Investigations

Mercury removal from point sources, such as outfalls and effluents remain a challenge. Novel treatment technologies are being developed including chemical reduction and sorption as alternative means of mercury removal from water. Optimization of treatment and capture of mercury is under way.

Report of early results are included in ORNL/TM-2010/268

• Developing and evaluating various treatment technologies to remove or reduce mercury in water, soil and sediment
• Evaluating the impact of chemical additions on mercury removal and corresponding effect on the surrounding ecology