Contribution of Sorption to the Behavior
of Natural Radionuclides in the Environment

Mihaela T. Bragea

Department of Radiation Hygiene, Leonida Georgescu Institute of Public Health, Timişoara, Romania

Corresponding author: Mihaela Bragea
    Cozia Street 7
    RO-300209 Timişoara, Romania
    E-mail: mbragea@yahoo.com

CEJOEM 2005, Vol.11. No.2.: 130–134


Key words:
Waste rock, sorption, clay, radionuclide migration, dispersion


Abstract:
One of the goals of this study was to reveal the possibility of accumulation of radioelements (226Ra, 238U) within a given ecosystem and, in particular, to get to know the mechanisms involved in the transfer of these radioelements in the surroundings of abandoned mines. To study the sorption of radionuclides onto media such as rocks or minerals is, therefore, an important part of safety assessment of deep geological disposal of radioactive waste. Therefore we tried to study the extractive power of natural water in the existing depositing places. Several natural analogue laboratory models were set up to study the dependence of washed quantity of radionuclides on the amount of water washing the sample and the mass of the sample. The mechanism of releasing 226Ra and 238U from the minerals that compose the waste rock is influenced by the duration of the contact between the water and the waste rock and the composition of the water phase. The exchange water–waste rock is a complex process that depends on the environmental conditions; each case may be a particular case. This study aims to contribute to the estimation of the amount of radioelements from waste rock dumps that can reach humans.


Received: 27 December 2004
Accepted: 11 July 2005

| Back |