Migration Behaviour of Strontium in Czech Bentonite Clay

Abstract

The study deals with sorption and diffusion behaviour of strontium in Czech bentonite B75. The study is a part of a research on reactive transport of radioactive contaminants in barrier materials of a deep geological repository of radioactive waste in the Czech Republic. Series of sorption and diffusion experiments with Sr and non-activated Ca bentonite B75 produced in the Czech Republic were performed in two background solutions (CaCl2 and NaCl). On the basis of sorption batch experiments the kinetics of strontium sorption on bentonite was assessed and the sorption isotherms for various experimental conditions were obtained. As a result of performed diffusion experiments the parameters of diffusion (i.e. effective diffusion coefficient De and apparent diffusion coefficient Da) were determined. The observed discrepancies between sorption characteristics obtained from the sorption and diffusion experiments are discussed.

Keywords

• bentonite
• strontium
• radionuclide migration
• reactive transport
• diffusion experiments
• batch method