Natural and anthropogenic radionuclides in water and wastewater: Sources, treatments and recoveries

Water-energy nexus in the context of changing climate amplifies the importance of comprehending the transport, fate and recovery of radioisotope. While countries have been more interested for zero/low greenhouse gas emission technologies, energy production from nuclear power plant (NPP) can be a prominent solution. Moreover, radioisotopes are also used for other benefits such as in medical science, industrial activities and many more. These radionuclides are blended accidently or intentionally with water or wastewater because of inefficacious management of the nuclear waste; and therefore, it is an imperative task to manage nuclear waste so that the harmful consequences of the waste on environment, ecology and human health can be dispelled. Due to generation of significant amount of waste throughout its utilization, a noticeable number of physical, chemical and biological processes has been introduced as remediation processes although mechanisms of optimum removal process are still under investigation. Removal mechanisms and influencing factors for radionuclide removal are elucidated in this review so that, further, operation and process development can be promoted. Again, resource recovery, opportunities and challenges are also discussed for elevating the removal rates and minimizing the knowledge gaps existing in development and applications of novel decontamination processes.