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This view, however, is based almost exclusively on solubility data obtained at low temperature and their theoretical extrapolation to elevated temperature. The occurrence of hydrothermal deposits with high concentrations of Th challenges the Th immobility paradigm and strongly suggests that Th may be mobilized by some aqueous fluids. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that Th, indeed, is highly mobile at temperatures between 175 and 250\u2009\u00b0C in sulfate-bearing aqueous fluids due to the formation of the highly stable Th(SO<jats:sub>4<\/jats:sub>)<jats:sub>2<\/jats:sub> aqueous complex. The results of this study indicate that current models grossly underestimate the mobility of Th in hydrothermal fluids, and thus the behavior of Th in ore-forming systems and the nuclear fuel cycle needs to be re-evaluated.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-019-53571-x","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,11,19]],"date-time":"2019-11-19T11:04:13Z","timestamp":1574161453000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":45,"title":["Challenging the thorium-immobility paradigm"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8765-4677","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Haylea","family":"Nisbet","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Artas A.","family":"Migdisov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anthony E.","family":"Williams-Jones","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hongwu","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vincent J.","family":"van Hinsberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Robert","family":"Roback","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,11,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"53571_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2066","DOI":"10.3390\/en8032066","volume":"8","author":"T Ault","year":"2015","unstructured":"Ault, T., Krahn, S. & Croff, A. 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