Uranium sorption onto single mineral phases – approaching consistency and robustness

One of the contaminants gaining special public attention is uranium. Though in almost all cases natural uranium (or depleted uranium) is of concern – and thus its chemotoxicity – radioactivity dominates most debates. But in any case the environmental fate of uranium and factors retarding or enhancing its transport are of high relevance. There are many studies addressing the sorption properties of uranium(VI) – and to a much lesser amount also of uranium(IV) – that produce a very patchy figure when it comes to a generalized view based on quasi-thermodynamic surface complexation models (SCM). This talk summarizes the current state-of-the-art with respect to and tries to homogenize the facts, also pointing out some steps to be done next.