Ecotoxicity of uranium in freshwaters: Influence of the physico-chemical status of the rivers

Abstract

As uranium speciation, and then its bioavailability, is highly variable in the range of the physico-chemistry of freshwaters, determining environmental protection criteria for generic ecosystems, i.e. without considering these processes, may lead to very low values. Based on the most recent knowledge on the variation of uranium bioavailability vs. its speciation, “conditional” protection criteria have been determined for 50 main physico-chemical domains, still including some identified conservatism, due to complexation properties of uranium.