Decommissioning of a nuclear power plant: determination of site-specific sorption coefficients for Co-60 and Cs-137

Assessment of radiological risks in strategies for decommissioning of nuclear installations have to consider not only technical concepts such as cutting and decontamination techniques but, even more important, requirements for input of reliable information on the hydrological situation and retardation capabilities of relevant radionuclides specific to the respective decommissioning operation. In this paper we describe appropriate methods for obtaining site-specific sorption data and present results achieved from a case study performed as a commercial contractual work preliminary to the planned decommissioning of a nuclear power plant. A detailed mineralogical study of the sediment used in our sorption experiment highlights the necessity of a thorough sample homogenization and characterization. Batch experiments using radiotracer techniques for the determination of site-specific sorption coefficients show significant retardation for Co-60 and Cs-137 after only 2 h of equilibration between the preconditioned groundwater and sediment. Sorption is more effective in the groundwater of a deeper aquifer containing a higher amount of colloidal clay (illite) particles < 0.63 micron. The Co-60 radiotracer is more completely sorbed than the Cs-137 radiotracer. Equilibration of radionuclide distribution is slow, particularly for Co-60. Presence of EDTA reduces sorption of Co-60 efficiently while Cs-137 sorption remains unaffected.