THE INTERACTIONS OF LOW‐LEVEL, LIQUID RADIOACTIVE WASTES WITH SOILS: 2. DIFFERENCES IN RADIONUCLIDE DISTRIBUTION AMONG FOUR SURFACE SOILS

We reacted four soils of widely different characteristics with liquid radioactive wastes in an experiment designed to evaluate differences in the abilities of the soils to sorb or to enhance mobilization of the radionuclides. Cesium-137 was sorbed almost completely by all four soils, whereas we noted large differences in the degree of sorption among soils for plutonium, uranium, and americium-241. Fuquay soil caused significant solubilization of the plutonium and americium-241 originally contained in the insoluble fraction of the waste. Upon reacting the waste with the four soils, we noted a change in charged species. Net removal of plutonium by Fuquay did not occur, however, suggesting the presence of complexing (chelating) ligands. Changes in the degree of sorption due to changes in solubility or charge speciation affect the short- and long-term fate of waste radionuclides in soils. Understanding those changes is useful in predicting radionuclide migration as the result of waste-burial operations or accidental releases from processing facilities.