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Title: Aging Effects on Cesium-137 (137Cs) Sorption and Transport in Association with Clay Colloids

Journal Article · · Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
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Migration of radionuclides via colloid-facilitated transport is a crucial component of nuclear repository performance models. 137Cs sorption to bentonite colloids follows multi-site behavior, with sorption to weak sites being a rapid process and sorption to strong sites having slow kinetics. Experiments in this study targeted desorption of 137Cs from strong sites on the colloids by placing the 137Cs-bearing colloids in contact with a strongly-sorbing zeolite material that competes with the colloids for 137Cs sorption. Batch and column experiments were conducted to examine the effects of aging (i.e., increased contact time between 137Cs and colloids) on colloid-facilitated transport of 137Cs through crushed analcime columns. A larger proportion of 137Cs-bearing colloids eluted through a series of columns when the colloids were aged for 1200 days prior to injection in comparison to unaged colloids. Aging the colloids increased the partitioning of 137Cs to the colloids by nearly 20% after 1200 hours. Slow desorption (0.27 hr-1) from the strong sites resulted in an increase of the Cs fraction bound to the strong sites from 0.365 to 0.87 by the second column injection, ending in increased colloid-facilitated transport of Cs through strongly-sorbing zeolites from 0 in the second unaged column to 10% in the second aged column.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1595652
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1775880
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-19-24975; TRN: US2100877
Journal Information:
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 566; ISSN 0021-9797
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 9 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
colloid-facilitated transport
Cs-137
radionuclide transport
engineered barriers
bentonite backfill
ternary system