Effective washing removal of radioactive cesium from soils using adsorbents: a proposed adsorbent-coexistence method

Abstract

Conventional washing methods release little radioactive cesium fixed in soils. Adding a Cs+ adsorbent to a suspension of Cs-contaminated soil rapidly removes the Cs+ released to the solution, causing more Cs+ release from the soil. We investigated this method by adding a sheet embedded with mordenite powder to a suspension of 133Cs+-retaining wet/dry montmorillonite and water/0.1 mol L−1 KNO3. Adding the sheet increased Cs+ release in all cases, with the highest increase for wet montmorillonite in water. The advantages of this method are the easy removal of the sheet from the suspension and the low Cs concentration in the final solution.