Fixation of radioactive materials released from reactor cooling water by sandy soil

Environmental effect of radioactive materials should be evaluated if an unexpected leakage of reactor cooling water occurs. Migration of ionic radioactive materials in the ground has been widely studied regarding the waste disposal, however, that of non-ionic materials such as radioactive cobalt in reactor cooling water has not been so much studied. In this paper. the fixation of radioactive materials from the reactor cooling water by soil has been investigated by means of a column bedded with sandy soil. It is shown that migrating behavior of the non-ionic cobalt is largely different from that of ionic cobalt. The empirical formula for penetrating ratio of the non-ionic cobalt through sandy soil is derived from the experiment. On the basis of the data obtained from both experiment and accidental release of the reactor cooling water, a method is discussed to evaluate the migration of radioactive cobalt in sandy soil. (auth.)