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Adsorption of radioactive cobalt(II) in the groundwater-soil systems surrounding the effluent pipeline of a proposed NPP in China

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Abstract

Radioactive cobalt release poses concerns since the attention to radiation safety. In this work, soil and groundwater sampled from the surroundings of the long-distance pipeline of a proposed nuclear power plant were used to assess radiation safety by studying Co(II) adsorption. The Freundlich and Langmuir models fitted the experimental data well. The results indicated that Co adsorption was an entropy-driven, spontaneous, endothermic and chemical process. The adsorption mechanism was mainly the inner-sphere complexation, and CoSO4(aq) contributed to the partially reversible occurrence. This study provided fundamental information about the environmental behaviours and adsorption mechanism of radioactive Co(II) surrounding the effluent pipeline.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Foundation of China General Nuclear Power Corporation [Grant No. 45000-71021220], Pinnacle project of key technology of seawater cooling tower in nuclear power plant of CGNPC and National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Nos. 41773095 and 21906187].

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  1. Jie Yang and Qiaoya Lin have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Power Safety Monitoring Technology and Equipment, China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd, Shenzhen, 518172, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Yang, Yuan Chen, Yong Li, Hanyu Wu & Mingliang Kang

  2. China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, 518124, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Yang, Yuan Chen & Yong Li

  3. Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Qiaoya Lin, Lewen Sun, Hanyu Wu & Mingliang Kang

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Yang, J., Lin, Q., Chen, Y. et al. Adsorption of radioactive cobalt(II) in the groundwater-soil systems surrounding the effluent pipeline of a proposed NPP in China. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 332, 1287–1302 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-08762-2

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