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Study on damage degradation and radon emission from uranium tailing polymer-solidified soil under freeze-thaw cycles

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Abstract

Uranium tailing ponds are a long-term potential source of radioactive pollution. Solidification treatment of uranium tailings in ponds can effectively control the diffusion and migration of radioactive materials. This study examined uranium tailings, from the beach of a uranium tailing reservoir in China, as the research object. Sodium hydroxide and water glass were used as alkali stimulants and mixed with metakaolin and fly ash to prepare five types of solids with different proportions. The freezing and thawing (FT) temperatures were set at −20 to 20℃, and 25 FT cycles were performed. The microstructure, mass loss, compressive strength, cumulative radon concentration, and radon extraction rate of the samples before and after FT were determined. The results showed that the FT cycle had a significant impact on sample surface structure. The incorporation of fly ash effectively reduced sample mass loss and inhibited radon emission. As the number of FT cycles increased, sample mass loss gradually increased, compressive strength gradually decreased, and radon emission rate gradually increased. There was an inverse correlation between the mass change of a solidified sample and the rate of radon emission. Compressive strength and radon emission rate were also negatively correlated. Considering the three indicators of mass loss, compressive strength, and radon extraction rate with metakaolin as the solidified base material, the conclusion was that 55%MK+45%F was the optimal ratio for this purpose.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2021JJ30572), the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province, China (Grant no. 20A422), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11875164), Hunan Provincial Innovation Foundation for Postgraduate, China (Grant No. CX20210924) and the Open Fund Project of Hunan Provincial Engineering Research Center for Uranium Mineral Exploration Technology (Grant No. 2021HSKFJJ045).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resource and Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, 421001, Hengyang, China

    Fuliang Jiang, Yuying Hao, Haonan Wu, Yong Liu, Zhe Wang, Biao Tan, Chao Zhang & Ming Lan

  2. School of Safety and Management Engineering, Hunan Institute of Technology, 421002, Hengyang, China

    Fuliang Jiang

  3. Hunan Provincial Engineering Research Center for Uranium Mineral Exploration Technology, 421001, Hengyang, China

    Fuliang Jiang

  4. Hengyang City Key Laboratory of Occupational Safety and Health Technology, 421001, Hengyang, China

    Fuliang Jiang

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  1. Fuliang Jiang
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  2. Yuying Hao
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Correspondence to Fuliang Jiang.

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Jiang, F., Hao, Y., Wu, H. et al. Study on damage degradation and radon emission from uranium tailing polymer-solidified soil under freeze-thaw cycles. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 331, 1573–1583 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08219-y

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