Study on the actual particle size, activity concentration, and migration process adsorption behavior of radioactive substances in liquid effluents from nuclear power plants

• Published in: Frontiers in energy research 2024-01, Vol.12
• Main Authors: Jiang, Zhenyu, Xiong, Jun, Pan, Yuelong, Hu, Jie, Chen, Yujia, Yin, Shuhua, Yan, Yihong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adsorption effect; particle size; pressurized water reactor; radioactive effluent; γ measurement
• ISSN: 2296-598X; 2296-598X
• DOI: 10.3389/fenrg.2024.1352706

Radionuclides emitted by nuclear power plants may have effects on the environment and public health. At present, research on radioactive material effluent in the industry mainly focuses on the treatment of radioactive effluent and the particle size distribution of the primary circuit. There is little research on the particle size of radioactive material during the migration process outside the primary circuit system, as well as the flocculation precipitation and other enrichment phenomena during the collection process of effluent. Therefore, this study relies on the sampling of effluent from an in-service nuclear power plant to measure its radioactivity level by particle size range. At the same time, the mixing process of effluent is simulated in the laboratory to simulate the adsorption behavior of effluent during the migration process. It was found that in the activity concentration of detectable radioactive nuclides in the effluent samples, more than 95% of radioactive nuclides exist in the liquid with particle sizes less than 0.1μm, while particle sizes greater than 0.45 μm account for less than 5%. After the sample was filtered by the demineralizer, the radioactive activity decreased. The flocculation precipitation in the waste liquid of the waste water recovery system has a certain contribution to the enrichment of nuclides. With the extension of time, the enrichment of transition elements such as cobalt and manganese is particularly obvious, so that it is distributed in the liquid again with a large particle size. In addition, large particle size substances such as colloids in seawater have a certain adsorption effect on radionuclides, which will lead to its aggregation effect again.