Melioration of the radiocesium contaminated land

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to immobilize radiocesium in contaminated soils by treating the surface with aqueous hexacyanoferrate, significantly reducing the exchangeable fraction of 137Cs and thus decreasing its mobility.

Contribution

It introduces a novel soil treatment technique using alkaline metal hexacyanoferrate to effectively fix radiocesium in contaminated land.

Findings

Application of K4[Fe(CN)6] reduces exchangeable 137Cs by 100-fold.

The method is effective for surface contamination in the top 1-2 cm of soil.

Significant reduction in radiocesium mobility demonstrated experimentally.

Abstract

A method is described of radiocesium fixation in soils contaminated by this radionuclide. To immobilize radiocesium, the soil surface is treated with aqueous hexacyanoferrate solution of alkaline metals. It has been experimentally shown that application of K4 [Fe(CN)6]{\bullet}3H2O at a rate of 1,3g/kg soil reduces the fraction of exchangeable 137Cs 100-fold (100 times). The method is effective for the plots where contamination is concentrated in the top 1 - 2 cm soil layer.