https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04491-3
Regular Article
Zeolites identification for wastewater radionuclides removal in the decommissioning of a former Italian nuclear power plant
1
Department of Physics “E. Pancini”, University of Naples Federico II, Via Cinthia 21, 80126, Naples, Italy
2
SOGIN S.P.A., former Latina nuclear power plant, Via Macchia Grande 6, 04100, Latina, Borgo Sabotino, Italy
3
SOGIN S.P.A., Headquarter, Via Torino 6, 00184, Rome, Italy
4
Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, Viale Lincoln 5, 81100, Caserta, Italy
5
Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.zza V. Tecchio 80, 80125, Naples, Italy
Received:
16
May
2023
Accepted:
18
September
2023
Published online:
11
October
2023
Radionuclides are widely known to produce serious problem when released and dispersed in the environment because they can contaminate humans through food chains, affecting metabolic process and causing health diseases to the population. A large amount of radionuclides is produced as waste during the process of nuclear facility operation, maintenance, and decommissioning. Wastewater contains many radioactivemetal ions. During the last three decades, after Chernobyl accident and then that of Fukushima, several techniques have been developed for the removal of radionuclides from the environment and from wastewater aiming of inertization. One of the most recent techniques, and in continuous progress, is the radionuclides removal by adsorption using natural and/or synthesized materials having high retention capacity and being resistant to radiation. The most used type of material, cheap and easy-to-find, is zeolite due to its high ion exchange capacity, adsorption efficiency and abundance. This work concerns a preliminary study on zeolites identification for the removal of radionuclides in wastewater samples from the fuel storage of the former nuclear power plant of Latina, Italy. The activity concentration of the radionuclides in the samples was investigated by γ- and α-spectrometry. The wastewater samples contain the radionuclides 137Cs, 60Co and 241Am, and the best solution for their removal was discovered to be the zeolite A. The obtained results can be enlarged to all former Italian nuclear facilities.
Domenico Caputo and Mariagabriella Pugliese have contributed equally as co-last authors
© The Author(s) 2023
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
