Uranium mobility in subsurface aqueous systems: the influence of redox conditions

Uranium is a redox-sensitive element and can be immobilized by reduction from soluble U(VI) to insoluble U(IV). By performing flow-through experiments, uranium mobility was observed under different redox conditions. Inflow solutions with different electron acceptors, nitrate and sulphate, and a control inflow solution were used to obtain different sedimentary redox conditions. Uranium was about one order more mobile when nitrate was used than when sulphate or the control was used. The difference in uranium mobility is attributed to the reduction of uranium. Even though uranium mobility is heavily dependent on the redox state of uranium, sedimentary concentrations of organic matter argue that organic matter is the most important complexing agent and that this determines the retardation of uranium.