Radionuclide transport, fate, and ecological impacts in the environment: A critical review

The various sources from the natural world and the human world like uranium and thorium series decay, ⁴⁰K, radon gas, nuclear power operations, uranium mining, industries, medicine, nuclear weapon tests, and accidental spills, contribute to the formation of radionuclides in the environment. Radionuclides have drawn concern regarding the persistence, redistribution, and potential ecological impacts of these contaminants because of their increasing presence in the environment. It is thus essential to forecast the behavior of these contaminants, determine the vulnerability of the ecosystems and develop effective methods for managing these contaminants in the environment based on our knowledge of the movement and behavior of radionuclides. The environmental fate of a substance is determined by the physicochemical processes of adsorption-desorption, speciation, complex formation, oxidation-reduction reactions, and radioactive decay; radionuclide transport occurs by means of atmospheric transport, hydrological transport, sediment transport, and soil transport processes. Radionuclide transport and availability are also affected by environmental conditions, including pH, organic content, mineral composition, and climatic factors. Radionuclides can influence microorganism populations, plant life, aquatic life, and wild animal life, with possible repercussions on biodiversity and interspecies interactions. Chronic exposure scenarios at low doses, which continue to pose challenges due to complex ecosystem responses and the long-term effects that remain uncertain, are given priority. Knowledge gaps regarding ecosystem resilience, species sensitivity, pathways of radionuclide transfers, and effects of climate change on contaminant dynamics remain prevalent despite advances in monitoring and radioecological modeling. Solving these problems necessitates more extensive monitoring systems, coupled with transport-fate modeling and adaptive management approaches.