Applicability of the Acid Extraction Method to Radioactive Caesium Contaminated Soil

Abstract

An acid extraction method, being one of volume reduction technologies on soils contaminated with radioactive caesium, was carried out in this paper to obtain its fundamental knowledge and to clarify its applicability to clay soil.
Soil samples collected at nine months after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant accident were extracted from acids under various conditions. Results showed that extraction efficiency for radioactive caesium ranged from 24 to 71% for nitric acid and was higher in sandy soil than in soil with high silt and clay ratio. Furthermore, about 50% of extraction efficiency was found in typical gray lowland soil of paddy field in Fukushima.