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A Study of Strontium-90 Movement in a Sandy Soil¹

ABSTRACT

Different methods were used to describe ⁹⁰Sr movement in a Montpellier sandy soil at a pore water velocity of about 0.1 cm/sec. Shaking tests showed that the adsorption and the desorption of ⁹⁰Sr on this soil material may be considered as instantaneous and that the equilibrium adsorption-desorption relation was hysteretic. However adsorption-desorption data obtained from material balance calculations on effluent data from soil columns did not agree with those obtained from shaking tests. This difference was confirmed by comparison of measured breakthrough curves for ⁹⁰Sr and tritiated water with those calculated using equilibrium isotherms obtained from shaking tests. Equilibrium adsorption-desorption isotherms obtained from fitting of experimental breakthrough curves by a S/360 CSMP simulation model agreed well with the experimental data derived from the material balance method. The results show that isotherms from shaking tests overestimate the effect of ⁹⁰Sr adsorption-desorption during transport. The hysteresis effect was less pronounced in the data obtained by the material balance method and it was shown that an approximating, linear, nonhysteretic adsorption-desorption isotherm adequately described for practical purposes, the leaching of ⁹⁰Sr in the sandy soil.

¹ Contribution from the Dep. of Biology, Radioagronomy Service, Atomic Energy Commission, Cadarache, 13115 Saint-Paullez-Durance, France.

² Physicist and Research Assistant, respectively, Radioagronomy Service.

³ Research Assistant, Laboratoire d'Hydraulique Mathématique, Université des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34060 Montpellier, France.

Received for publication October 9, 1978. Accepted for publication August 29, 1979.