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A Study of Strontium‐90 Movement in a Sandy Soil
Author(s) -
Couchat Ph.,
Brissaud F.,
Gayraud J. P.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1980.03615995004400010002x
Subject(s) - desorption , adsorption , hysteresis , strontium , soil science , leaching (pedology) , material balance , soil water , chemistry , mineralogy , materials science , geology , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , process engineering , engineering
Different methods were used to describe 90 Sr movement in a Montpellier sandy soil at a pore water velocity of about 0.1 cm/sec. Shaking tests showed that the adsorption and the desorption of 90 Sr on this soil material may be considered as instantaneous and that the equilibrium adsorption‐desorption relation was hysteretic. However adsorption‐desorption data obtained from material balance calculations on effluent data from soil columns did not agree with those obtained from shaking tests. This difference was confirmed by comparison of measured breakthrough curves for 90 Sr and tritiated water with those calculated using equilibrium isotherms obtained from shaking tests. Equilibrium adsorption‐desorption isotherms obtained from fitting of experimental breakthrough curves by a S/360 CSMP simulation model agreed well with the experimental data derived from the material balance method. The results show that isotherms from shaking tests overestimate the effect of 90 Sr adsorption‐desorption during transport. The hysteresis effect was less pronounced in the data obtained by the material balance method and it was shown that an approximating, linear, nonhysteretic adsorption‐desorption isotherm adequately described for practical purposes, the leaching of 90 Sr in the sandy soil.