Clay-salt slimes of the JSC “Belaruskali” as potential engineering barriers in the radioactive waste repositories: sorption of Cs(I), Sr(II), Eu(III) and Am(III)

Abstract

Results of sorption of caesium(I), strontium(II), europium(III) and americium(III) ions on the aluminosilicates separated from the clay-salt slimes (CSS) depending on the contact time, pH, initial metal concentration are presented. CSS 1A and CSS 1B sorbents appear to be sufficiently chemically and radiation stable for practical application in treatment of the radioactive wastewaters.

Sorption-Assisted Ultrafiltration Hybrid Method for Treatment of the Radioactive Aqueous Solutions

“…Furthermore, results that show the pattern of the efficiency of the removal of tracers of the radioactive metal ions vs. pH studied by the batch sorption show that, within the pH range from 2 to 12, it does not change remarkably [20,30]. The same has been observed in the presented work for the SAUF experiments for either mono-or multivalent cations (Figure 3).…”

“…Below, we discuss the results of our studies on using a purified aluminosilicate sorbent based on the clay-salt slimes (CSS), an industrial waste formed by the Joint Stock Company "Belaruskali". It was already successively tested as a low-cost, eco-friendly sorbent in the batch sorption and was found to be effective for purification aqueous solutions containing Cs(I), Sr(II), Eu(III) and Am(III) radionuclides [20,30,38]. The main physicochemical properties important for metal sorption, i.e., full mineralogical sorbent composition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, ζ-potential, the infrared vibrational spectra, X-ray diffraction pattern and micrographs of the clay particles, may be found in papers [20,38].…”

“…The sieve analysis showed that the sorbent was a fine grade material and that the main fraction had a diameter of 0.2 mm. Approximately 98% of the particles were greater than 0.05 mm [21].…”

“…It is an industrial waste generated at the JSC "Belaruskali" (Soligorsk, Belarus), and it originated from the production of artificial fertilizers. The studies conducted already by our group on the radionuclide batch sorption using the CSS allow for suggesting conditions for carrying out the process so that it will be possible to recover radionuclides important in other fields (e.g., in nuclear medicine) [20]. It has also been shown that the sorbent is stable enough under an action of the ionizing radiation [21].…”