Skip to main content

Extrapolating Kd or Rd from Breakthrough Curves of Cesium Cations Transporting Through a Soil Column

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics Volume 1 (ICEG 2018)

Part of the book series: Environmental Science and Engineering ((ENVENG))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Cesium-137 is a radioactive element that could be released within the byproducts of a nuclear power plant. Breakthrough curves obtained from a column test are commonly used to simulate the in situ transport process in case of a leakage, and to obtain key parameters such as coefficient of distribution (Kd) and retardation factor (Rd). Four existing methods, which vary by complexity, theoretical soundness and easiness to implement, were used to extract Kd and Rd values. Breakthrough curves of cesium cation migrating through saturated and unsaturated soil column from previous literature were analyzed and compared. Preliminary results suggest that in fully saturated condition, the closeness of Rd values derived by above-mentioned methods decrease as the Peclect number decreases. In unsaturated condition, however, immobile water around the dead end pores could induce different results of one-region model and two-region model.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 229.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 299.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 299.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Genuchten MTV, Wierenga PJ (1976) Mass transfer studies in sorbing porous media i. analytical solutions. Soil Sci Soc Am J 40(4):473–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Genuchten MTV, Wagenet RJ (1989) Two-site/two-region models for pesticide transport and degradation: theoretical development and analytical solutions. Soil Sci Soc Am J 53(5):1303–1310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shackelford CD (1995) Cumulative mass approach for column testing. J Geotech Eng 121(10):696–703

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li MH, Wang TH, Teng SP (2009) Experimental and numerical investigations of effect of column length on retardation factor determination: a case study of cesium transport in crushed granite. J Hazard Mater 162(1):530–535

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weerts AH, Leij FJ, Toride N, Genuchten MTV (1995) Analytical models for contaminant transport in soils and groundwater

    Google Scholar 

  • Rod KA, Um W, Flury M (2010) Transport of strontium and cesium in simulated hanford tank waste leachate through quartz sand under saturated and unsaturated flow. Environ Sci Technol 44(21):8089–8094

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inui T, Katsumi T, Takai A (2017). Effects of cations on cesium sorp- tion/desorption characteristics of soil layer for containment of radioactively polluted waste. In: 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomson Elspeth (2011) China’s nuclear energy in light of the disaster in Japan. Eurasian Geogr Econ 52(4):464–482

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds WD, Gillham RW, Cherry JA (1982) Evaluation of distribution coefficients for the prediction of strontium and cesium migration in a uniform sand. Can Geotech J 19(1):92–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bossew P, Kirchner G (2004) Modelling the vertical distribution of radionuclides in soil. part 1: the convection-dispersion equation revisited. J Environ Radioact 73(2):127–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shackelford CD (1994) Critical concepts for column testing. J Geotech Eng 122(120):1804–1828

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cao J, Bate B, Bouazza A, Deng W (under review). Measuring retardation factors of 133-cesium and 88-strontium cations using column test. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng-ASCE, 1st revision pending submission in July 2018

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeng X (2015) Similitude for centrifuge modelling of heavy metal migration in clay barrier and method for evaluating breakthrough time. (Doctoral dissertation, Zhejiang University). (in Chinese with English abstract)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bate Bate .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Chen, X., Chen, GN., Bate, B., Li, YC. (2019). Extrapolating Kd or Rd from Breakthrough Curves of Cesium Cations Transporting Through a Soil Column. In: Zhan, L., Chen, Y., Bouazza, A. (eds) Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics Volume 1. ICEG 2018. Environmental Science and Engineering(). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2221-1_66

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics