WS01-45 ORAL

THE BEHAVIOUR OF 134CS, 60CO AND 90SR RADIONUCLIDES IN THE MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL SEDIMENT

N. H. M. Kamel and A, S. Ibrahim (Radiation Protection Department, Nuclear Research Center, Atomic, Energy Authority, P. O. Box 13759, Cairo - Egypt, NarimanKame@Hot.com)

The work presented in this study is primary concerned with physical and chemical characteristics studies and acid/base titration measurements carried out on the marine sediment. This work is based on batch technique. The results of the titration curves can be used in the capacity calculations. The chemical analyses of the natural sediments and marine water as well as the soluble salts from the solid phase were determined using both spectrophotometry and liquid ion chromotography techniques. The capacity of the soil were calculated under different pH conditions. The sorption capacity of solids towards 134Cs, 60Co and 90Sr were determined and investigated using different methods under various ion concentrations. The mechanism of sorption were investigated by means of selective extraction tests using: (I) 1 M MgCl2 (pH 7)in distilled water, (II) 1 M ammonium oxalate (pH 3-5), (III) 0.04 M NH2OH.HCl in 25 % acetic acid (pH 3-4), (IV) H2O2 in 5 % HNO3 (pH 2-3) and (V) digestion with; nitric followed by hydrofloric and followed by perchloric acids (pH 2).It was found that two main mechanisms were controlling the uptake of radionuclides onto the solids; pH independent components, identified as cation exchange and pH dependent process interpreted as surface complexation.