Leaching of 137Cs from Chernobyl fuel debris: corium and “lava”
-
Bella Yu. Zubekhina
,
Boris E. Burakov
Abstract
Samples of Chernobyl fuel debris such as corium and “lava” had been studied using repeated static leach test MCC-1 at temperature of 25 and 90 °C in distilled water and simulated seawater. A normalized 137Cs mass loss (NLCs) estimated for corium samples after 168 days in distilled and seawater was 3.2–3.5 g/m2 at 25 °C and 113–114 g/m2 at 90 °C. For “lava” samples NLCs varied from 1.4 to 13.2 g/m2 at 90 °C for 56 days (in distilled and seawater) and from 0.1 to 0.4 g/m2 at 25 °C in seawater for 140 days. Chemical durability of Chernobyl “lava” in distilled and seawater evaluated using 137Cs specific activity in leachates is higher than one for corium. Further study is proposed in order to obtain more quantitative data.
Funding source: RFBR
Award Identifier / Grant number: #18-33-01182
Award Identifier / Grant number: V.G. Khlopin Radium Institute (KRI)
Funding statement: This study was partly supported by RFBR, Funder Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002261, grant #18-33-01182 and V.G. Khlopin Radium Institute (KRI). Authors are very grateful to colleagues of KRI: Mr. V. Zirlin for treatment of highly radioactive Chernobyl samples and Mr. V. Karasev for participation in precise analysis of leachates using gamma-spectrometry.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Dependence of UO2 surface morphology on processing history within a single synthetic route
- Novel diamide ligands with a central carbonyl group and their comparative evaluation with the diglycolamide ligand: synthesis, extraction, DFT and chromatographic studies
- Synthesis of porous resorcinol-formaldehyde resins and study of their sorption characteristics toward Cs in highly mineralized alkaline media
- Leaching of 137Cs from Chernobyl fuel debris: corium and “lava”
- Retention behavior of anionic radionuclides using metal hydroxide sludge
- Synthesis, thermogravimetric analysis and enthalpy determination of lanthanide β-diketonates
- 99mTc(I) carbonyl-radiolabeled lipid based drug carriers for temozolomide delivery and bioevaluation by in vitro and in vivo
- FLUKA simulation yields in a comparison with theoretical and experimental yields relevant to 89Zr produced in the 89Y(p,n) reaction
- Rapid Communication
- 225Ac/213Bi generator based on inorganic sorbents
