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Enhanced irreversible fixation of cesium by wetting and drying cycles in soil

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Abstract

The retention of radioactive cesium (Cs) in soil is significantly related to the types of clay minerals, while the weathering process affects the irreversible adsorption sites in clay minerals. In this study, the effect of weathering (exposure duration of Cs and repeated wetting and drying cycles) on fractionation of Cs in soils was investigated using fractionation analysis by the sequential extraction. The residual fraction of Cs increased slowly with exposure time but increased rapidly by repeated wetting and drying cycles. XRD analysis shows that a 1.43 nm of interlayer size for vermiculite is shortened to 1.00 nm, i.e., similar to that of illite. The change implies the potential that the structure of expandable clay minerals is transformed to the non-expandable structure by weathering process after Cs retention. Based on the result, the residual fraction of Cs, most stable form of Cs in the soil, reached relatively rapidly to a maximum. However, the process is much slower kinetically in the field because the bench-scale weathering process used in this study is more aggressive. This study implies that Cs fractionations in the soil are converted into a more stable fraction by weathering processes in the soil. Therefore, Cs removal should be conducted as soon as possible after accidental release of Cs in an environmental side.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by GAIA Project funded by KEITI (Grant No. 2015000550008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering and Soil Environment Research Center, Chonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do, 54896, Republic of Korea

    Sang-Min Park & Kitae Baek

  2. Systems Biotechnology Research Center, KIST Gangneung Institute of Natural Products, 679 Saimdang-ro, Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, 25451, Republic of Korea

    Jung-Seok Yang

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Daniel C. W. Tsang

  4. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Daniel S. Alessi

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  1. Sang-Min Park
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  2. Jung-Seok Yang
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  3. Daniel C. W. Tsang
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  4. Daniel S. Alessi
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  5. Kitae Baek
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Correspondence to Kitae Baek.

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Park, SM., Yang, JS., Tsang, D.C.W. et al. Enhanced irreversible fixation of cesium by wetting and drying cycles in soil. Environ Geochem Health 41, 149–157 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-018-0174-0

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