Development of complex electrokinetic decontamination method for soil contaminated with uranium

Abstract

520L complex electrokinetic soil decontamination equipment was manufactured to clean up uranium contaminated soils from Korean nuclear facilities. To remove uranium at more than 95% from the radioactive soil through soil washing and electrokinetic technology, decontamination experiments were carried out. To reduce the generation of large quantities of metal oxides in cathode, a pH controller is used to control the pH of the electrolyte waste solution between 0.5 and 1 for the formation of UO2+. More than 80% metal oxides were removed through pre-washing, an electrolyte waste solution was circulated by a pump, and a metal oxide separator filtered the metal oxide particles. 80–85% of the uranium was removed from the soil by soil washing as part of the pre-treatment. When the initial uranium concentration of the soil was 21.7Bq/g, the required electrokinetic decontamination time was 25 days. When the initial concentration of 238U in the soil was higher, a longer decontamination time was needed, but the removal rate of 238U from the soil was higher.