[en] Of the heavy metal-containing wastes discharged by industry to the environment, the low activity streams produced by nuclear fuel reprocessing activities represent a significant challenge due to the low concentrations and complex chemical speciation of the contaminating transuranic elements. A possible biological treatment system for such wastes uses a Citrobacter sp. which accumulates heavy metals as metal phosphate precipitates via the activity of an atypical acid-type phosphatase. Successful and sustained accumulation of the uranyl (UO₂²⁺) ion has been reported previously. In the present work La(III) and Th(IV) were used as analogues (surrogates) of the equivalent, more radiotoxic actinide oxidation states. Enzymatically-mediated removal of both surrogates and the corresponding actinide elements was demonstrated in a model flow-through system using immobilized cells within a fixed-bed cartridge bioreactor