Is soil natural organic matter a sink or source for mobile radioiodine (I) at the Savannah River Site?

Xu, C.*; Zhang, S.*; Ho, Y.-F.*; Miller, E. J.*; Roberts, K. A.*; Li, H.-P.*; Schwehr, K. A.*; Otosaka, Shigeyoshi  ; Kaplan, D. I.*; Brinkmeyer, R.*; Yeager, C. M.*; Santschi, P. H.*

In order to understand the effect of soil organic matter (SOM) on the mobility of iodine in the vicinity of the F-area seepage basin at the U.S. Department Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS), relationships between radioiodine/iodine concentration and properties of SOM (e.g., degree of humification, aromaticity, and molecular weight) were examined. Analyses were carried out for four sequential extracts of SOM (freshwater, alkaline, glycerol, and citric-alkaline solutions). Iodine in SOM was selectively bound to a small-size aromatic subunit (less than 10 kDa), and majority of water soluble I was associated with a low molecular weight amphiphilic organic carrier (13.5-15 kDa). From these results, it was suggested that (1) SOM behaved as a sink as well as a source for iodine at the SRS, and (2) the function of SOM varies with groundwater chemistry.