Radionuclide - Soil Organic Matter Interactions

Interactions between soil organic matter, i.e. humic and fulvic acids, and radionuclides of primary interest to shallow land burial of low activity solid waste have been reviewed and to some extent studied experimentally. The radionuclides considered in the present study comprise cesium, strontium, cobalt, nickel, europium, as well as the actinide elements. The study leads to the conclusion that a basic knowledge of the simple possible reactions, e.g. complex formation, exchange reactions, sorption phenomena, is of extreme importance, in order possibly to predict migration behaviour of radionuclides under shallow land burial conditions