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The influence of cyanide complexation on the speciation and solubility of radionuclides in a geological repository

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Prussian Blue, FeIII 4[FeII(CN)6]3, and structurally related transition metal compounds are used as cesium ion exchangers in decontamination procedures of liquid radioactive waste. The used ion exchangers are conditioned as a cementitious waste form for interim storage and finally will become part of the radioactive waste in geological repositories. The problem discussed here is the long-term behaviour of the ion exchangers FeIII 4[FeII(CN)6]3 and Ni2[Fe(CN)6] in planned geological repositories. The worst-case scenario is the instantaneous and complete dissolution and decomposition of the ion exchangers in the cementitious environment and the release of free cyanide. All radionuclides belonging to the class of “hard acceptors”, e. g. Cs, Sr, Ra, U, Np, Pu, Am and Cm, are not affected by cyanide complexation under these conditions. Radionuclides belonging to the class of “soft acceptors” and “borderline” metals, e.g. Co, Ni, Tc, Cd, Pb, Pd and Ag, are affected to various degrees by cyanide complexation. Strong complexation and extensive cyanide leaching is found for Ni, Co, Pd, Ag.

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Acknowledgements

I thank my colleagues Urs Berner, Bernhard Schwyn and Tres Thoenen for their careful reviews and valuable comments on this paper. Partial financial support by the Swiss National Co-operative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (Nagra) is gratefully acknowledged. Most of the diagrams in this paper were calculated with Medusa, a software package created by Ignasi Puigdomènech for calculating equilibrium diagrams (http://w1.156.telia.com/~u15651596/). Many thanks to him for making this software available to the general public.

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  1. Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232, Villigen PSI, Switzerland

    Wolfgang Hummel

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  1. Wolfgang Hummel
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Correspondence to Wolfgang Hummel.

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Hummel, W. The influence of cyanide complexation on the speciation and solubility of radionuclides in a geological repository. Env Geol 45, 633–646 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-003-0928-5

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