Decontamination of urban surfaces contaminated with radioactive materials and consequent onsite recycling of the waste water.

Enhancing rapid remediation strategies is paramount for recovery after a large-scale nuclear contamination event in an urban environment. Some current strategies recommend use of readily available equipment, materials, and facilities to expedite recovery. For example, applying pressurized water to contaminated surfaces may effectively remove radioactive contamination.

Aluminosilicate Mineralogy and the Sorption of Organic Cations: Interplay between Electrostatic Barriers and Compound Structural Features.

Current predictive models of organic cation sorption assume that sorbates interact with all sites on aluminosilicate minerals in the same manner. To examine whether differences in aluminosilicate structure and the resultant changes in electrostatic potential influence the sorption of organic cations, seven smectites were chosen with different proportions of isomorphic substitutions (origin of clay charge) located in octahedral versus tetrahedral layers and with the presence or absence of aluminosilicate interlayers. Sorption coefficients for 14 benzylamine derivatives with systematic differences in compound structures were collected to understand the possible influence of aluminosilicate mineralogy.

High pressure decontamination of building materials during radiological incident recovery.

The release of radiological material from a nuclear incident has the potential to cause extensive radiological contamination requiring rapid decontamination. A promising method for rapid remediation is the use of pressure washers to decontaminate building and street surfaces. Pressure washers utilize both physical removal through surface ablation and chemical removal through desorption of bonded radionuclides.

Silicate coating to prevent leaching from radiolabeled surrogate far-field fallout in aqueous environments.

Recent characterization of radioactive particles indicate that a large percentage of the radioactivity observed during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown was insoluble Cs bound within silica microparticles. Therefore, much of the decontamination research performed prior to the Fukushima incident that used either soluble radionuclides deposited onto wet surfaces or large (∼100 μm) particles characteristic of nuclear weapons fallout do not accurately represent the characteristics of potential contamination. Thus, the common practice of extrapolating radioactive decontamination methods generically to all radioactive release events is, at best, suspect.

Predicting Organic Cation Sorption Coefficients: Accounting for Competition from Sorbed Inorganic Cations Using a Simple Probe Molecule.

With the increasing number of emerging contaminants that are cationic at environmentally relevant pH values, there is a need for robust predictive models of organic cation sorption coefficients (K). Current predictive models fail to account for the differences in the identity, abundance, and affinity of surface-associated inorganic exchange ions naturally present at negatively charged receptor sites on environmental solids. To better understand how organic cation sorption is influenced by surface-associated inorganic exchange ions, sorption coefficients of 10 organic cations (including eight pharmaceuticals and two simple probe organic amines) were determined for six homoionic forms of the aluminosilicate mineral, montmorillonite.

Sorbent materials for rapid remediation of wash water during radiological event relief.

Procedures for removing harmful radiation from interior and exterior surfaces of homes and businesses after a nuclear or radiological disaster may generate large volumes of radiologically contaminated waste water. Rather than releasing this waste water to potentially contaminate surrounding areas, it is preferable to treat it onsite. Retention barrels are a viable option because of their simplicity in preparation and availability of possible sorbent materials.

Column Chromatography To Obtain Organic Cation Sorption Isotherms.

Column chromatography was evaluated as a method to obtain organic cation sorption isotherms for environmental solids while using the peak skewness to identify the linear range of the sorption isotherm. Custom packed HPLC columns and standard batch sorption techniques were used to intercompare sorption isotherms and solid-water sorption coefficients (Kd) for four organic cations (benzylamine, 2,4-dichlorobenzylamine, phenyltrimethylammonium, oxytetracycline) with two aluminosilicate clay minerals and one soil. A comparison of Freundlich isotherm parameters revealed isotherm linearity or nonlinearity was not significantly different between column chromatography and traditional batch experiments.