The development of a speciation technique for uranium in the environment

It is well established that the speciation of an element may have an important effect on its environmental behaviour. A knowledge of speciation is therefore necessary if this behaviour is to be understood and reliable predictions made. This report describes the development of an analytical method to investigate the speciation of uranium in environmental materials. The method is based on HPLC coupled directly to ICP-MS. The use of a cooled spray chamber permits the use of volatile organic solvents as the mobile phase. Applying the method to plants grown on soils containing enhanced levels of uranium has shown that a component of the uranium which could be extracted from the plant material was present in association with large organic molecules with a molecular weight of 5,000 to 10,000. (author)