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The effect of aging on the stability of microbially-reduced uranium in natural sediments.

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 sediments. 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 a natural sediment mimicking the environmental conditions during bioremediation. Bioreduced sediments retrieved from the columns and harboring NCU(IV), were 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 sediments, bioreduced U(IV) species remain vulnerable to oxidation and remobilization in the aqueous phase even after a 12-month aging period.