Thermodynamic sorption modeling can enhance confidence in assessing and demonstrating the radionuclide sorption phenomena onto various mineral adsorbents. In this work, Ca-montmorillonite was successfully purified from Bentonil-WRK bentonite by performing the sequential physical and chemical treatments, and its geochemical properties were characterized using X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis, cesium-saturation method, and controlled continuous acidbase titration. Further, batch experiments were conducted to evaluate the adsorption properties of Cs(I) and Sr(II) onto the homoionic Ca-montmorillonite under ambient conditions, and the diffuse double layer model-based inverse analysis of sorption data was performed to establish the relevant surface reaction models and obtain corresponding thermodynamic constants. Two types of surface reactions were identified as responsible for the sorption of Cs(I) and Sr(II) onto Ca-montmorillonite: cation exchange at interlayer site and complexation with edge silanol functionality. The thermodynamic sorption modeling provides acceptable representations of the experimental data, and the species distributions calculated using the resulting reaction constants accounts for the predominance of cation exchange mechanism of Cs(I) and Sr(II) under the ambient aqueous conditions. The surface complexation of cationic fission products with silanol group slightly facilitates their sorption at pH > 8.

After the Fukushima accident in 2011, relevant concerns regarding the contamination of the natural environment rose abruptly. For example, water contaminated by radionuclides such as Cs and Sr may directly flow into the ocean and threaten the marine ecosystem. In this respect, costeffective and efficient decontamination techniques need to be developed and verified to remediate the contaminated water. Prussian blue (PB) is known as a representative material that can adsorb Cs by ion-trapping and is widely used for medical purposes. However, there is a limitation that PB itself is non-separable and highly mobile in aqueous system, so it needs a fixture, such as bentonite, to be collected after the adsorption. Furthermore, while the performance of PB toward Cs is relatively well known, its behavior toward Sr has rarely been reported. The object of this study is to investigate the sorption characteristics of Cs and Sr onto PB-functionalized bentonite at various conditions. The adsorbent employed in the present work was prepared by mixing bentonite, FeCl3, and K4[Fe(CN)6] at room temperature for 24 hours in the aqueous solution. The concentrations of FeCl3 and K4[Fe(CN)6] were set to a range of 5-200 % compared to the cation exchange capacity of bentonite. After that, the PB-functionalized bentonite was sieved with a mesh size of 63 μm and then reacted with the Cs and Sr solution at various liquid-to-solid (L/S) ratios of 2-10 g/L for up to 500 minutes. Moreover, synthetic seawater containing additional Cs and Sr was reacted with PBfunctionalized bentonite to characterize the ion selectivity of PB. After the completion of the adsorption experiment, a part of the adsorbent was separated and desorption of Cs and Sr with 2 M of nitric acid was performed. For the quantification of aqueous Cs and Sr concentrations, ICP-MS was employed after the filtration with a pore size of 0.45 μm. The result obtained in this study revealed a high sorption affinity of Cs and Sr onto PBfunctionalized bentonite. The analysis results also presented that the sorption reactions of Cs and Sr reached their steady state within 10 minutes of reaction time. Furthermore, the ion selectivity toward Cs and Sr was verified through sorption test with synthetic seawater. According to the high sorption affinity and selectivity, the PB-functionalized bentonite synthesized through this study is expected to be widely used for remediating the Cs- and Sr-contaminated groundwater and seawater, particularly in nuclear waste-relevant industries.

The feasibility of PS-D2EHPA/TBP beads prepared by immobilizing two extractants D2EHPA and TBP in polysulfone to remove Sr(II) from aqueous solution was investigated in batch system. Batch experiments were carried out to study equilibrium isotherms, kinetics, and thermodynamics. Equilibrium data were fitted using Langmuir, Freundlich, Redlich– Peterson, and Dubinin-Radushkevich equation models at temperatures of 298 K, 313 K, and 328 K. The removal capacity of Sr(II) by PS-D2EHPA/TBP beads obtained from Langmuir model was 2.41 mg/g at 298 K. The experimental data were well represented by pseudo-second-order model. The removal process of Sr(II) by PS-D2EHPA/TBP beads prepared in this study was found to be feasible, endothermic, and spontaneous.

Zeolite was synthesized from power station waste, coal fly ash, as an alternative low-cost adsorbent and investigated for the removal of Sr(II) and Cs(I) ions from single- and binary metal aqueous solutions. In order to investigate the adsorption characteristics, the effects of various operating parameters such as initial concentration of metal ions, contact time, and pH of the solutions were studied in a batch adsorption technique. The Langmuir model better fitted the adsorption isotherm data than the Freundlich model. The pseudo second-order model was found more applicable to describe the kinetics of system. The adsorption capacities of Sr(II) and Cs(I) ions obtained from the Langmuir model were 1.7848 mmol/g and 0.7640 mmol/g, respectively. Although the adsorption capacities of individual Sr(II) and Cs(I) ions was less in the binary-system, the sum of the total adsorption capacity (2.3572 mmol/g) of both ions in the binary-system was higher than the adsorption capacity of individual ion in the single-system. Comparing the homogeneous film diffusion model with the homogeneous particle diffusion model, the adsorption was mainly controlled by the particle diffusion process.

The adsorption behaviors of strontium and cesium ions on fly ash, natural zeolites, and zeolites synthesized from fly ash were investigated. The zeolites synthesized from fly ash had greater adsorption capabilities for strontium and cesium ions than the original fly ash and natural zeolites. The maximum adsorption capacity of synthetic zeolite for strontium and cesium ions was 100 and 154 mg/g, respectively. It was found that the Freundlich isotherm model could fit the adsorption isotherm. The distribution coefficients (Kd) for strontium and cesium ions were also calculated from the adsorption isotherm data. The distribution coefficients decreased with increasing equilibrium concentration of strontium and cesium ions in solution. By studying the removal of cesium and strontium ions in the presence of calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, sulfate, nitrate, nitrite, and EDTA (in the range of 0.01 - 5 mM) it was found that these coexistence ions competed for the same adsorption sites with strontium and cesium ions.