Soil polluted by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident was collected and reduced in volume. We explored whether clay particles adsorbed radioactive cesium. Soil was sampled in a highly contaminated zone 16 km northwest of the power plant; soil particles 0.15–200 [Formula: see text]m in diameter were obtained by sieving and centrifugation, and specific activity was analyzed using a high-powered Ge detector. Vermiculite contents were quantified by X-ray diffraction. For soil particles[Formula: see text]m in diameter, the specific activity was constant, at about 381 kBq/kg, which is close to the 350 kBq/kg reported previously. For particles 10–200 [Formula: see text]m in diameter, the specific activity decreased by approximately the square root of the surface/entire volume ratio. The vermiculite content was identical for all soil particles [Formula: see text]2.5 [Formula: see text]m in diameter, but decreased in particles 2.5–200 [Formula: see text]m in diameter. Thus, the specific activity and vermiculite content were approximately proportionate. Vermiculite adhered to soil particles [Formula: see text]10 [Formula: see text]m in diameter, and radioactive cesium was uniformly distributed within the vermiculite.
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Ishii et al. (2020) studied this question.
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