Study on magnetic separation for decontamination of cesium contaminated soil by using superconducting magnet

• The method for the soil decontamination by the superconducting magnet is proposed.
• Magnetic separation of clay minerals was performed by HGMS.
• Soil separation ratio was evaluated by quantitative analysis using XRD.
• It is expected that HGMS can be applied to the actual soil decontamination.

The accident of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant caused the diffusion of radioactive cesium over the wide area. We examined the possibility of applying magnetic separation method using the superconducting magnet, which can process a large amount of the soil in high speed, to the soil decontamination and volume reduction of the radioactive cesium contaminated soil. Clay minerals are classified as 2:1 and 1:1 types by the difference of their layer structures, and these types of minerals are respectively paramagnetic and diamagnetic including some exception. It is known that most of the radioactive cesium is strongly adsorbed on the clay, especially on 2:1 type clay minerals. It is expected that the method which can separate only 2:1 type clay minerals selectively from the mixture clay minerals can enormously contribute to the volume reduction of the contaminated soil. In this study, the components in the clay before and after separation were evaluated to estimate the magnetic separation efficiency by using X-ray diffraction. From the results, the decontamination efficiency and the volume reduction ratio were estimated in order to examine the appropriate separation conditions for the practical decontamination of the soil.