Reactive transport of uranyl: fixation mode on silica and goethite; experiments in columns and closed reactors; simulations

Uranium contaminated areas are found in mine waste disposal sites, former military areas, etc. The present study focuses on the identification or mechanisms which may lead contaminated soils to become a sudden potential threat to surface and ground waters. Mechanisms were studied on model material at two levels. On the molecular scale, the complexation of uranyl at trace metal concentrations was investigated with amorphous silica. Complexation is shown to occur via the formation of surface complexes, characterised by different time-resolved laser-induced luminescence spectra and life times and stoichiometry. On the macro-scale the transport behaviour of uranyl in a cristobalite-goethite-carbonate-uranyl system was investigated with laboratory column and batch experiments. Uranium mobility was found to be controlled by the interaction between physical transport and a reversible, rate-controlled, fixation reaction. Sorption was shown to be an ensemble of competing solution and surface complexation reactions, leading to an apparent non-linear (Langmuir-like) adsorption isotherm. Finally the impact of a sudden change in background geochemistry was studied. Conditions leading to a dramatic mobilization of uranium from mildly contaminated systems were experimentally identified. Maximal uranyl concentration are controlled by the total extractable uranyl in the system and limited by uranyl solubility. Evolution of the background geochemical conditions is thus an important part of contaminated sites risk assessment. (author)