On the use of a multi-site ion-exchange model to predictively simulate the adsorption behaviour of strontium and caesium onto French agricultural soils

International audienceIn case of nuclear accident, 90Sr and 134,137Cs are major radionuclides to account. In previous works (Appl. Geochem. 87, 167; ibid 93, 167), a database of ion-exchange parameters allowing the description of the Sr2+ and Cs+ adsorption on purified illite and smectite was developed for a multi-site ion-exchange (MSIE) model. In this study, the adsorption behaviours of Sr2+ and Cs+ were obtained with <150 μm fractions of French soil samples: a cambisol fluvic, a calcosol, and a cambisol typic. The <2 μm fractions of the soil samples were analysed by X-ray diffraction to estimate their clay minerals proportions that were then approximated to an illite/smectite mixture, in consistency with the CEC of the