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Reduction of Radiostrontium Mobility in Acid Soils by Carbonate Treatment¹

ABSTRACT

Development of chemical treatments to immobilize ⁹⁰Sr in soil to prevent its leaching from radioactive waste disposed in shallow land burial sites is highly desirable. Six in situ carbonate-precipitating treatments, varying the amounts of carbonate, alkaline earth cation (Ca or Ba as chlorides), and order of addition were examined for their ability to immobilize radiostrontium in laboratory soil columns. The Na₂CO₃-followed by CaCl₂-treatment was most consistently successful at reducing the teachability of radiostrontium by 0.05M CaCl₂ from three low organic matter-acid soils, immobilizing as much as 53% of added radiostrontium. For the high organic matter-slightly acid soil, Na₂CO₃ alone, without supplemental Ca or Ba, resulted in the best immobilization (39%); dissolution of soil organic matter and the alkalinity-induced aggregate dispersion probably interfered with CaCO₃ and/or BaCO₃ precipitation. Success of the treatments is based primarily on their ability to generate, in situ, Ca(Sr,Mg)CO₃ or Ba(Ca,Mg,Sr)CO₃ precipitates that exchange radiostrontium very slowly with eluting Ca ions. Allied tests with ¹³⁷Cs, which is commonly codisposed with ⁹⁰Sr, indicated that the treatments described did not interfere with the natural tendency of the selected soils to fix ¹³⁷Cs strongly.

Key Words: Strontium-90 immobilization • radioactive waste disposal • Cesium-137 fixation • carbonate precipitation

¹ Supported by the Office of Defense Waste and By-Product Management, U.S. Dep. of Energy under contract W-7405-eng-26 with Union Carbide Corp. Environmental Sciences Publication no. 2194.

² Research Associates, Environ. Sci. Div., Oak Ridge Natl. Lab., Oak Ridge, TN 37830.

Received for publication February 3, 1983.