Potential utilization of the absolute point cumulative semivariogram technique for the evaluation of distribution coefficient

A suggestion to radiological hazards characterization of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs: spatial distribution modelling

Spatial distribution modelling has been proposed to characterize the radiological hazards associated with concentration of natural ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K and artificial ¹³⁷Cs radionuclides in the nature. These elements have been determined for the sediment samples of the Bafa Lake with the aim of radiation hazard evaluation via a high purity germanium detector gamma spectrometry. Their activity concentrations in sediments are in the ranges of 29.87 ± 2.2-72.56 ± 11 Bq kg^{- 1} dry weight (dw), 31.57 ± 3.5-66.48 ± 8.3 Bq kg^{- 1} (dw), 332.01 ± 12-1092.37 ± 21 and 0.65 ± 0.04-3.96 ± 0.78 Bq kg^{- 1} (dw), respectively. In order to determine the radiological hazard associated with the radioactivity in the samples, the external terrestrial gamma dose rate in air, annual effective dose rate, the radium equivalent activity and the external hazard index are calculated and compared with the data from literature. Moreover, the spatial modelling distributions are obtained visually for radiological hazards characterization of these elements, which are very dangerous in terms of radiological and environmental pollution in the nature. These visual distributions give meaningful information for future researches on the migration of radionuclides in the environment.

Cs sorption to potential host rock of low-level radioactive waste repository in Taiwan: experiments and numerical fitting study

A reliable performance assessment of radioactive waste repository depends on better knowledge of interactions between nuclides and geological substances. Numerical fitting of acquired experimental results by the surface complexation model enables us to interpret sorption behavior at molecular scale and thus to build a solid basis for simulation study. A lack of consensus on a standard set of assessment criteria (such as determination of sorption site concentration, reaction formula) during numerical fitting, on the other hand, makes lower case comparison between various studies difficult. In this study we explored the sorption of cesium to argillite by conducting experiments under different pH and solid/liquid ratio (s/l) with two specific initial Cs concentrations (100mg/L, 7.5 × 10(-4)mol/L and 0.01 mg/L, 7.5 × 10(-8)mol/L). After this, numerical fitting was performed, focusing on assessment criteria and their consequences. It was found that both ion exchange and electrostatic interactions governed Cs sorption on argillite. At higher initial Cs concentration the Cs sorption showed an increasing dependence on pH as the solid/liquid ratio was lowered. In contrast at trace Cs levels, the Cs sorption was neither s/l dependent nor pH sensitive. It is therefore proposed that ion exchange mechanism dominates Cs sorption when the concentration of surface sorption site exceeds that of Cs, whereas surface complexation is attributed to Cs uptake under alkaline environments. Numerical fitting was conducted using two different strategies to determine concentration of surface sorption sites: the clay model (based on the cation exchange capacity plus surface titration results) and the iron oxide model (where the concentration of sorption sites is proportional to the surface area of argillite). It was found that the clay model led to better fitting than the iron oxide model, which is attributed to more amenable sorption sites (two specific sorption sites along with larger site density) when using clay model. Moreover, increasing s/l ratio would produce more sorption sites, which helps to suppress the impact of heterogeneous surface on Cs sorption behavior under high pH environments.

A risk analysis model for radioactive wastes

Hazardous wastes affect natural environmental systems to a significant extend, and therefore, it is necessary to control their harm through risk analysis. Herein, an effective risk methodology is proposed by considering their uncertain behaviors on stochastic, statistical and probabilistic bases. The basic element is attachment of a convenient probability distribution function (pdf) to a given waste quality measurement sequence. In this paper, (40)K contaminant measurements are adapted for risk assessment application after derivation of necessary fundamental formulations. The spatial contaminant distribution of (40)K is presented in the forms of maps and three-dimensional surfaces.