Elution Effect of Distilled and seawater on the Contaminated Shore Sediment

Abstract

In marine environment radionuclides exist not only at the surface layers but also at the very deep water floor such as sea water, as human activities are intimately connected with coastal areas. Nuclides and their daughter products in the marine environment has increased greatly in recent years, studies centers largely around two important environmental questions: the aspects of cycling of water masses and particular materials in sea water and potential impact on man and the environmental of the disposal of radionuclides wastes. Removing radionuclides from water requires the knowledge of the processes by which radionuclides are absorbed and desorbed from the surface of sea water sediments. This work is concerned with the absorption and desorption of ¹³⁴Cs and ⁸⁹Sr from collected shore sediments samples. Physical properties along with chemical analysis of the north east Libya Mediterranean shore sediments (NELMSS) and sea water have been studied. The samples of this area were separated into its size fractions (natural sediments, sand, silt and clay). These sediment fractions were allowed to be in equilibrium with ⁸⁹Sr and ¹³⁴Cs solutions, and studies were carried out on the contaminated sediment samples. It was found that the capacity of the different size fractions of NELMSS to sorb ⁸⁹Sr and ¹³⁴Cs in the order clay >natural sediments > silt > sand.