Sorption kinetics and impact of temperature, ionic strength and colloid concentration on the adsorption of plutonium-239 by inorganic colloids
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Ningping Lu
Abstract
Plutonium (Pu) is one of the primary actinides of concern for long-term disposal and storage of nuclear waste. Strong sorption of Pu onto colloids of iron oxide, clay, and silica could result in colloid-facilitated transport of this actinide in groundwater systems. However, fundamental data on Pu sorption to colloids is sparse, resulting in large uncertainties in long-term predictions of colloid-facilitated Pu transport. This sparseness of data and the potential to significantly reduce uncertainties in predictive models served as a motivation for this study. The authors investigated the sorption and desorption behaviors of 239Pu(V) on three types of inorganic colloids (hematite, montmorillonite and silica), with adsorption being measured as a function of temperature, ionic strength and colloid concentration for each colloid. Natural ground water collected from Well-13 near Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and synthetic ground water (SYN.J-13) were used in the experiments. The results indicated that the adsorption of 239Pu(V) onto hematite colloids was faster and had a higher partition coefficient (Kp, ml g-1) than onto montmorillonite or silica colloids in both J-13 and SYN.J-13 waters. Temperature did not significantly influence the adsorption of 239Pu(V) onto hematite and silica colloids, but the adsorption of 239Pu(V) onto montmorillonite colloids increased significantly with increasing temperature. While ionic strength did not significantly influence the adsorption of 239Pu(V) onto hematite colloids, an increase in ionic strength decreased the adsorption of 239Pu onto montmorillonite and silica colloids. Adsorption of 239Pu(V) per unit mass of colloid was much higher at low colloid concentrations than at high colloid concentrations. Desorption of 239Pu from 239Pu-loaded colloids was considerably slower than the adsorption process.
© 2003 Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH
Articles in the same Issue
- The centennial of the 1903 Nobel Prize for physics
- Measurement and calculation of radioactivities of spallation products by high-energy heavy ions
- Evaluation of ovotransferrin-matrix metal-affinity metalloprotein chromatography for Pu(IV) separations
- Role of ligand basicity and stereochemistry in the extraction of plutonium(IV) isoxazolonates
- Sorption kinetics and impact of temperature, ionic strength and colloid concentration on the adsorption of plutonium-239 by inorganic colloids
- Sorption of Np(V) by synthetic hydroxyapatite
- Extraction of the uranyl ion with 3-phenyl-4-benzoyl-5-isoxazolone (HPBI) and neutral donors from dilute nitric acid medium
- Quinoline-8-ol modified cellulose as solid phase extractant (SPE) for preconcentrative separation and determination of thorium(IV)
- Humic colloid mediated transport of tetravalent actinides and technetium
- Thermodynamic model for the solubility of ThO2(am) in the aqueous Na+-H+-OH--NO3--H2O-EDTA system
- Electrochemical dissolution of simulated "white inclusions". Kinetics and material balance for Mo, Re, Ru metals and their alloys during electrochemical dissolution in nitric acid
- Study of hafnium complexes by time differential perturbed angular correlation technique
- Np(V) cation–cation interactions. A new contribution from EXAFS spectroscopy?
Articles in the same Issue
- The centennial of the 1903 Nobel Prize for physics
- Measurement and calculation of radioactivities of spallation products by high-energy heavy ions
- Evaluation of ovotransferrin-matrix metal-affinity metalloprotein chromatography for Pu(IV) separations
- Role of ligand basicity and stereochemistry in the extraction of plutonium(IV) isoxazolonates
- Sorption kinetics and impact of temperature, ionic strength and colloid concentration on the adsorption of plutonium-239 by inorganic colloids
- Sorption of Np(V) by synthetic hydroxyapatite
- Extraction of the uranyl ion with 3-phenyl-4-benzoyl-5-isoxazolone (HPBI) and neutral donors from dilute nitric acid medium
- Quinoline-8-ol modified cellulose as solid phase extractant (SPE) for preconcentrative separation and determination of thorium(IV)
- Humic colloid mediated transport of tetravalent actinides and technetium
- Thermodynamic model for the solubility of ThO2(am) in the aqueous Na+-H+-OH--NO3--H2O-EDTA system
- Electrochemical dissolution of simulated "white inclusions". Kinetics and material balance for Mo, Re, Ru metals and their alloys during electrochemical dissolution in nitric acid
- Study of hafnium complexes by time differential perturbed angular correlation technique
- Np(V) cation–cation interactions. A new contribution from EXAFS spectroscopy?
