The adsorption of radioactive cations to clay minerals, which governs the movement of radioactive cations through the saturated zone, has been investigated.
The ion exchange capacities of Amberlite IR-120B, Green Sand and KUR Sand were measured for NH
4+, Ca
2+, Mg
2+, Na
+ and Cs
-. The results showed that the capacities of these ion exchangers were not changed with the kinds of cations examined. The distribution coefficients (
KdA for x) of each radioactive cation (
22Na,
137Cs,
54Mn,
60Co,
65Zn,
85Sr and
133Ba) to the ion exchangers saturated with Ca
2+, Mg
2+ or Na
+ were obtained for the several concentrations (
Cx) of the corresponding cations. The following empirical equation was derived from the above results.
KdA for x=
mx (
Cx)
-nx
Influence of the presence of Ca
2+, Mg
2+ and Na
+ were discussed using the values of
mx and
nx.
It can be concluded that Ca
2+ and Mg
2+ influence largely on the adsorption of radioactive cationsin the saturated zone.
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