Study on evaluation of applying flocculating agents for efficient decontamination of radioactively contaminated soil

The cases where the soil is widely contaminated by radioactive material include nuclear power plant accidents, such as Chernobyl and Fukushima, and repair of NPPs. The key nuclide involved in soil contamination is Cs, and Cs is emitted in gaseous form during an NPP accident and contaminates a wide area. The methods of recovering soil contaminated by radioactive materials include soil washing and electro-kinetic. In this paper, the authors selected the soil washing process, used flocculating agents, and measured the removal rate of the fine soil and Cs ions which are strongly combined with Cs. When the flocculating agent was put into the aqueous solution containing the fine soil and cesium, the maximum removal rate was 88%, and the minimum removal rate was about 67%.