Radionuclides cesium

Santschi PH, Li YH, Adler DM, et al. 1983. The relative mobility of natural (thorium, lead and polonium) and fallout (plutonium, americium, cesium) radionuclides in the coastal marine environment Results from model ecosystems (MERL) and Narragansett Bay. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 47 201-210. 

Durand JP, Milcent MC, Goudard F, et al. 1994. Chemical behavior of three radionuclides (cesium, americium and technetium) and their uptake at the cystosolic level in aquatic organisms. Biochem Mol Biol Int 33(3) 521-534. 

The accident at the Chernobyl, Ukraine, nuclear reactor on April 26, 1986, contaminated much of the northern hemisphere, especially Europe, by releasing large amounts of radiocesium-137 and other radionuclides into the environment. In the immediate vicinity of Chernobyl at least 30 people died, more than 115,000 others were evacuated, and the consumption of locally produced milk and other foods was banned because of radiocontamination. The most sensitive local ecosystems were the soil fauna and pine forest communities. Elsewhere, fallout from Chernobyl measurably contaminated freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems, including flesh and milk of domestic livestock. Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) calves in Norway showed an increasing frequency of chromosomal aberrations that seemed to correlate with cesium-137 tissue concentrations tissue concentrations, in turn, were related to cesium-137 in lichens, an efficient absorber of airborne particles containing radiocesium and the main food source of reindeer during winter. A pattern similar to that of reindeer was documented in moose (Alces) in Scandinavia. 

Aii, T., S. Kume, S. Takahashi, M. Kurihara, and T. Mitsuhashi, 1990. The effect of the radionuclides from Chernobyl on iodine-131 and cesium-137 contents in milk and pastures in south-western Japan. Japan. Soc. Zootech. Sci. 61 47-53. 

Battiston, G.A., S. Degetto, R. Gerbasi, G. Sbrignadello, R. Parigi-Bini, G. Xiccato, and M. Cinetto. 1991. Transfer of Chernobyl fallout radionuclides feed to growing rabbits cesium-137 balance. Sci. Total Environ. 105 1-12. 

Figure 2. Adsorption of radionuclides on rock minerals, (a) (Topj Photomacrograph of a polished granite surface after exposure to a solution of radio-cesium Dark areas are exposed mica crystallites, (b) (Bottom) Autoradiograph of same surface showing uptake of cesium by mica.

Carpenter R, Beasley TM, Zahnie D, et al. 1987. Cycling of fallout (plutonium, americium-241, cesium-137) and natural (uranium, thorium, lead-210) radionuclides in Washington continental slope sediments. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 51 1897-1921. 

Researchers at BNL claim that this technology may be used to extract metals such as cadmium, arsenic, lead, zinc, copper, magnesium, manganese, aluminum, barium, nickel, and chromium, as well as radionuclides such as uranium, thorium, plutonium, cobalt, cesium, and strontium. They state that the process offers the following advantages ... 

UOP molecular sieves (UOP) has developed the lonsiv family of ion exchange resins for the extraction of radionuclides from wastewater. lonsiv TIE-96 is composed of a titanium-coated zeolite (Ti-zeolite) and is used to separate plutonium, strontium, and cesium from alkaline supernatant and sludge wash solutions. The technology was developed by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) for use at the West Valley, New York, nuclear waste facility. The technology is commercially available. 

Cummings, S.L., J.H. Jenkins, T.T. Fendley, L. Banker , P.H. Bedrosian, and C.R. Porter. 1971. Cesium-137 in white-tailed deer as related to vegetation and soils of the southeastern United States. Pages 123-128 in D.J. Nelson (ed.). Radionuclides in Ecosystems. Proceedings of the Third National Symposium on Radioecology, May 10-12, 1971, Oak Ridge, TN. Vol. 1. Available from the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22151. 

The diffusion constant of Mo03 in the calcium aluminum silicate (CAS) melt may differ appreciably from that in the clay loam melt. However, Norman et al have also compared the diffusivities of cesium in CAS and in a melt of soil from the Nevada Test Site and found that the difference in diffusivities in the two matrices was smaller than the experimental uncertainties (12). They concluded that the CAS melt was a fair model of the Nevada soil with respect to the diffusion of most radionuclides of interest in fallout. 

The radionuclides commercially available and most commonly used for a number of the foregoing applications include anhmony-125 banum-133, 207 bismuth-207 bromine-82 cadmium-109, 115 m calcium-45 carbon-14 cerium-141 cesium-134, 137 chlorine-36 chromium-51 cobalt-57, 58, 60 copper-64 gadolimum-153 germanium-68 gold-195. 198 hydrogen-3 (tritium) indium-111, 114 m iodine-125, 129, 131 iron-55, 59 krypton-85 manganese-54 mercury-203 molvbdenum-99 nickel-63 phosphorus-32. 33 potassium-42 promethium-147 rubidium-86 ruthenium-103 samarium-151 scandium-46 selenium-75 silver-110 m sodium-22, strontium-85 sulfur-35 technetium-99 thallium-204 thulium-171 tin-113, 119 m, 121 m. titamum-44 ytterbium-169, and zinc-65. 

Galkin, B.Ya., Shishkin, D.N. 2001. Extraction withdrawal of cesium and strontium radionuclides from the solution of spent nuclear fuel. In Back-End of the Fuel Cycle From Research to Solutions. GLOBAL 2001, September 9-13, Paris, France. 

Distribution ratios and transport were carried out on real HAW arising from dissolution of a mixed oxide of uranium and plutonium (MOX) fuel (burnup 34,650 MW d/tU), where uranium and plutonium have been previously extracted by TBP.86 The experiments were performed in the CARMEN hot cell of CEA Fontenay aux Roses with two dialkoxy-calix[4]arene-crown-6 derivatives (diisopropoxy and dini-trophenyl-octyloxy). High cesium distribution ratios were obtained (higher than 50) by contacting the HAW solution with diisopropoxy calix[4]arene-crown-6 (0.1 M in NPHE). Moreover, the high selectivity observed with the simulated waste was confirmed for most of the elements and radionuclides (actinides or fission products Eu, Sb, Ce, Mo, Zr, and Nd). The residual concentration or activity of elements, other than cesium, was less than 1% in the stripping solution, except for iron (2%) and ruthenium (8%) the extraction of these two cations, probably under a complexed... 

After a few years of storage, the main radioactive heat emitters in HLW are 90Sr and 137Cs. In addition, extremely long-lived actinides—neptunium, plutonium, americium, and curium—should be collected for transmutation in the future. Therefore, different flowsheets can be proposed for waste processing. It is possible to extract each radionuclide in the special extraction (sorption) cycle, for example, uranium and plutonium in the PUREX process, and after that, minor actinides (MAs) by the TRUEX process,4 strontium by the SREX process,5,6 and cesium by sorption7 or extraction.8... 

There are special extractants to extract each class of radionuclides crown ethers for cesium and strontium and phosphine oxides, carbamoylmethylphosphine oxides, and diamides for actinides, etc. It is unrealistic to have a single extractant that can extract all target nuclides with nearly the same effectiveness. So, a promising technical decision is to mix extractants for different radionuclides and extract them simultaneously. 

CCD and its brominated analog (Br-COSAN) are very widely studied as potential components of extraction mixtures for radionuclide separation. These compounds were proposed for extraction more than 30 years ago,17 and already in the first publications, polyethylene glycols (PEGs) were used for simultaneous extraction of cesium and strontium. An excellent review of extraction by carborane compounds was recently published 18 so, in this paper, mainly works published after 2003 and not included in the previous review will be discussed. 

More detailed investigation of this extraction system was reported.75 Tetrahydrofuran-2,3,4,5-tetracarboxylic acid (THFTCA) properties, such as the distribution of THFTCA into the organic phase as a function of its concentration and acidity, were studied, and the separation of U022+ ion from Np(IV), Eu(III), Am(III), and Pu(IV) was optimized. This system seems promising to extract main radionuclides except cesium. 

Luther, T.A., Herbst, R.S., Peterman, D.R., Tillotson, R.D., Gam, T.G., Babain, V.A., Smirnov, I.V., Stoyanov, E.S., Antonov, N.G. Some aspects of fundamental chemistry of the Universal Extraction (UNEX) process for the simultaneous separation of major radionuclides (cesium, strontium, actinides, and lanthanides) from radioactive wastes. J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem. (2006), 267 (3), 603-613. 

Kremliakova, N. Y., Novikov, A. P, and Myasoedov, B. F., Extraction chromatographic separation of radionuclides of strontium, cesium, and barium with the use of tvex-dchl8c6, J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem. Lett., 145, 23-28, 1990. 

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