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  4. Effect of Aging on the Stability of Microbially Reduced Uranium in Natural Sediment
 
research article

Effect of Aging on the Stability of Microbially Reduced Uranium in Natural Sediment

Loreggian, Luca  
•
Novotny, Agnes  
•
Bretagne, Sophie Louise  
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2019
Environmental Science & Technology

Reductive immobilization of uranium has been explored as a remediation strategy for the U-contaminated subsurface. Via the in situ biostimulation of microbial processes, hexavalent U is reduced to less soluble tetravalent species, which are immobilized within the sediment. Although the mineral uraninite (UO2) was initially considered the dominant product of biological reduction, non-crystalline U(IV) species (NCU(IV)) are found to be abundant in the environment despite their greater susceptibility to oxidation and remobilization. However, it has been recently proposed that, through aging, NCU(IV) might transform into UO2, which would potentially enhance the stability of the reduced U pool. In this study, we performed column experiments to produce NCU(IV) species in natural sediment mimicking the environmental conditions during bioremediation. Bioreduced sediment retrieved from the columns and harboring NCU(IV) was incubated in static microcosms under anoxic conditions to allow the systematic monitoring of U coordination by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) over 12 months. XAS revealed that, under the investigated conditions, the speciation of U(IV) does not change over time. Thus, because NCU(IV) is the dominant species in the sediment, bioreduced U(IV) species remain vulnerable to oxidation and remobilization in the aqueous phase even after a 12-month aging period.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1021/acs.est.8b07023
Author(s)
Loreggian, Luca  
Novotny, Agnes  
Bretagne, Sophie Louise  
Bartova, Barbora  
Wang, Yuheng
Bernier-Latmani, Rizlan  
Date Issued

2019

Published in
Environmental Science & Technology
Volume

54

Start page

613

End page

620

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
EML  
Available on Infoscience
February 16, 2020
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/165567
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