Enhancing uranium solubilization in soils by citrate, EDTA, and EDDS chelating amendments

A systematic study was made of the effects of three soil amendments on the solubilization of uranium from a granitic soil. The aim was to optimize solubilization so as to enhance bioavailability for the purposes of remediation. The three amendments tested were with citrate, EDTA, and EDDS as chelating agents. The effects of pH, chelator concentration, and leaching time were studied. The most important factor in uranium solubilization was found to be the pH. In the absence of chelating agents, the greatest solubilization was obtained for alkaline conditions, with values representing about 15% of the total uranium activity in the bulk soil. There were major differences in uranium solubilization between the different amendments. The citrate treatment was the most efficient at acidic pH, particularly with the greatest concentration of citrate tested (50 mmol kg(-1)) after 6 days of treatment. Under these conditions, the uranium concentration in solution was greater by a factor of 356 than in the control suspension, and represented some 63% of the uranium concentration in the bulk soil. Under alkaline conditions, the EDTA and EDDS treatments gave the greatest uranium activity concentrations in solution, but these concentrations were much lower than those with the citrate amendment, and were not very different from the control results. The uranium extraction yield with EDDS amendment was greater than with EDTA.