Bacteria and Pseudomonadota, such as Geobacter and Burkholderia fungorum (strain Rifle), can reduce and fix uranium in soil and groundwater. These bacteria change soluble U(VI) into the highly insoluble complex-forming U(IV) ion, hence stopping chemical leaching.
It has been suggested that it is possible to form a reactive barrier by adding something to the soil which will cause the uranium to become fixed. One method of doing this is to use a mineral (apatite) while a second method is to add a food substance such as acetate to the soil. This will enable bacteria to reduce the uranium(VI) to uranium(IV), which is much less soluble. In peat-like soils, the uranium will tend to bind to the humic acids; this tends to fix the uranium in the soil.