Investigation of sorption behavior of Cs in a river-sea system boundary area after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

Takata, Hyoe*; Wakiyama, Yoshifumi*; Wada, Toshihiro*; Hirao, Shigekazu*; Aono, Tatsuo*; Nakanishi, Takahiro   ; Misono, Toshiharu   ; Shiribiki, Takehiko; Aoyama, Michio*

The radiocesium (Cs) distribution between dissolved and particulate phases was examined in river water and coastal seawater as a function of the Cs sorption behavior on suspended particles. Dissolved Cs activity concentrations in the Tomioka River (salinity 0.1) and in coastal seawater at Tomioka fishery port (salinity 30), Fukushima Prefecture, from June 2019 to October 2021 were 3.6-20 Bq/m (geometric mean 11 Bq/m) and 2.4-86 Bq/m (13 Bq/m), respectively. Although the suspended particle concentration was lower in the river (0.2-44 mg/L; geometric mean 2 mg/L) than in seawater (0.8-24 mg/L; 6.4 mg/L), the mean Cs activity on suspended particles was 11,000 Bq/kg-dry in the river versus 3,200 Bq/kg-dry in seawater. Proportions of ion-exchangeable, organically bound, and refractory fractions of Cs on suspended particles were determined by sequential extraction. The ion-exchangeable fraction accounted for 0.3-2.0% (mean 1.2%) and 0.4-1.3% (0.8%) at the river and port sites, respectively. The organically bound fraction accounted for 0.3-4.8% (1.8%) and 0.1-5.5% (2.1%) at the river and port sites, respectively. In both areas, the refractory fraction accounted for 90% of Cs. Unexpectedly, the ion-exchangeable fraction did not differ between the river and port sites, and the percentage at the river site did not vary during the sampling period. Therefore, the ion-exchangeable fraction in the river's lower reach was originally low or had decreased before the particles arrived there. The small labile Cs fraction on suspended particles indicates that the mobility of radiocesium to marine biota in this coastal region is low.