Acid Deactivation of Soils with Ammonium Fluoride To Remove 137Cs

Leaching of 137Cs from various contaminated clay soils with fluoride-containing mineral acid solutions was studied. It was demonstrated that the use of fluorides offers advantage over chlorides and nitrates. The decontamination mechanism was studied by infrared spectroscopy. Conditions for simultaneous removal of 137Cs and 238,239Pu with fluoride-containing nitric acid solutions were optimized.