Cesium and Strontium Separation from Aqueous Waste and Soil
This community develops materials and methods to capture radioactive cesium and strontium ions from water, soil, and waste streams, primarily to manage contamination from nuclear accidents and power plant operations.
The work centers on adsorption, ion exchange, and solvent extraction techniques using materials such as Prussian blue analogs, zeolites, metal-organic frameworks, and layered double hydroxides. A significant portion of the research focuses on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, analyzing the behavior of radioactive cesium in soil and water and testing new scavengers for its removal. Analytical methods, particularly mass spectrometry, are frequently used to determine radionuclide concentrations in environmental samples. The applications range from treating radioactive wastewater to remediating contaminated soil and extracting cesium from brines.
The largest share of the community's output is found in caesium research, accounting for 11.0% of all caesium research, and 2,099 papers here. Plutonium research follows with a 6.9% share, and strontium research with a 4.7% share.
The community comprises 27,489 papers, published most frequently in the Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, and Applied Radiation and Isotopes.
Recent work continues to focus on selective cesium and strontium capture, including new zeolite-type metal sulfide membranes for cesium sequestration, electrochemically switched ion exchange for radiostrontium uptake, and processes for extracting cesium from salt lake brines using potassium phosphotungstate.