Some hypothetical leak water scoping calculations

James Crawford, Kemakta Konsult AB, Stockholm, Sweden

From Tepcos homepage we have the following reported measurement data:

134
Cs
137
Cs Cl Ref.
Leak water 4.610
4
Bq/L 1.010
5
Bq/L 5 200 mg/L http://bit.ly/157KhyS
Tank 5/H4 water 4.410
1
Bq/L 9.210
1
Bq/L 5 200 mg/L http://bit.ly/15zZtbo
ratio (Leak/Tank) 1046 1086 1
Taking the average of
134
Cs and
137
Cs activity ratios gives roughly 1066 times higher activity in the leaked
water than the reported tank measurement.
The same Cl concentration reported in both samples implies that the elevated activity of the leak water is
not due to evaporation. It is possible that the elevated activity of water leaked from Tank 5 might be due
to radionuclides adsorbed on sediment particles. The measured Cl concentration also implies water
roughly 7 times more dilute than an average seawater.
If the activity of the leaked water (C
total
) is taken to be equal to the sum of dissolved activity (C
w
) plus that
sorbed on sediment particles (C
s
), the mass of sediment per volume of water can be estimated from an
activity balance if the partitioning coefficient (K
d
) is known for the nuclide in question. The K
d
is the ratio
of adsorbed activity divided by dissolved activity (C
s
/C
w
) at equilibrium, and typically given in units of
m
3
/kg (or g/L). In the absence of any additional information it must also be assumed that the activity
measured in the tank is representative of sediment free water and the same as the dissolved activity in the
leak water.
An adsorbent material apparently being used at the cleanup site is IONSIV R9120-B zeolite
(http://bit.ly/15mvgcx) which has a reported K
d
for Cs of ~10 000 m
3
/kg at pH 7.5 in water with salinity
(as far as I can tell) of seawater. Adsorption by cation-exchange in NaCl dominated solutions is more, or
less inversely proportional to the dissolved Na
+
concentration. The K
d
in the diluted seawater should
therefore be about 7 times greater, or roughly 70 000 m
3
/kg assuming Na
+
is dominant cation (all other
things being equal). For comparison, a natural geological adsorbent such as bentonite clay
(Na-Montmorillonite) has a K
d
not much greater than about 0.12 m
3
/kg for roughly the same water
composition (http://bit.ly/1fuJxJb).
The specific mass of sediment per volume of water, m/V (kg/m
3
) can be calculated from the activity
balance:
1
total s w
d d
w w
C C C m m
K K
C C V V
+
| |
= = + ~
|
\ .

From this formula, a C
total
/C
w
ratio of ~1066 is consistent with an m/V ratio of 0.15 g/L for the IONSIV
adsorbent. If the sediment were a natural geological material like clay (bentonite), we would probably
need in excess of 8 kg/L to get the same total activity (i.e. not a realistic amount). The elevated activity of
the leak water therefore seems like it could be due to the presence of a small amount of the zeolite
adsorbent (equivalent to a fraction of a teaspoon per L) although probably not a natural geological
material.