• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.719-729
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• 2008

In this study, the speciation, adsorption, and transport of uranium in groundwater environments were simulated using geochemical models. The retarded transport of uranium by adsortption was effectively simulated using 3-D groundwater flow and reactive transport models. The results showed that most uranium was adsorbed(up to 99.5%) in a neutral pH(5.5$pCO_2(10^{-3.6}atm)$ condition. Under the higher $pCO_2(10^{-2.5}atm)$ condition, however, the pH range where most uranium was absorbed was narrow from 6 to 7. Under very low $pCO_2(10^{-4.5}atm)$ condition, uranium was mostly absorbed in the relatively wide pH range between 5.5 and 8.5. In the model including anion complexes, the uranium adsorption decreased by fluoride complex below the pH of 6. The results of this study showed that uranium transport is strongly affected by hydrochemical conditions such as pH, $pCO_2$, and the kinds and concentrations of anions($Cl^-$, ${SO_4}^{2-}$, $F^-$). Therefore, geochemical models should be used as an important tool to predict the environmental impacts of uranium and other hazardous compounds in many site investigations.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
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• 2002.06a
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• pp.81-100
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• 2002

While most of regulatory communities in abroad recognize ' 'natural attenuation " to include degradation, dispersion, dilution, sorption (including precipitation and transformation), and volatilization as governing Processes, regulators prefer "degradation" because this mechanism destroys the contaminant of concern. Unfortunately, true degradation only applies to organic contaminants and short- lived radionuclides, and leaves most metals and long-lived radionuclides. The natural attenuation Processes may reduce the potential risk Posed by site contaminants in three ways: (i)contaminants could be converted to a less toxic form througy destructive processes such as biodegradation or abiotic transformations; (ii) potential exposure levels may be reduced by lowering concentrations (dilution and dispersion); and (iii) contaminant mobility and bioavailability may be reduced by sorption to geomedia. In this review, authors will focus will focul on "sorption" among the natural attenuation processes of hazardous inorganic contaminants including radionuclides. Note though that sorption and transformation processes of inorganic contaminants in the natural setting could be influenced by biotic activities but our discussion would limit only to geochemical reactions involved in the natural attenuation. All of the geochemical reactions have been studied in-depth by numerous researchers for many years to understand "retardation" process of contaminants in the geomedia. The most common approach for estimating retardation is the determination of distrubution coefficiendts ($K_{d}$) of contaminants using parametric or mechanistic models. As typocally used in fate and contaminant transport calculations such as predictive models of the natural attenuation, the $K_{d}$ is defined as the ratio of the contaminant concentration in the surrounding aqueous solution when the system is at equilibrium. Unfortunately, generic or default $K_{d}$ values can result in significant error when used to predict contaminant migration rate and to select a site remediation alternative. Thus, to input the best $K_{d}$ value in the contaminant transport model, it is essential that important geochemical processes affecting the transport should be identified and understood. Precipitation/dissolution and adsorption/desorption are considered the most important geochemical processes affecting the interaction of inorganic and radionuclide contaminants with geomedia at the near and far field, respectively. Most of contaminants to be discussed in this presentation are relatively immobile, i.e., have very high $K_{d}$ values under natural geochemical environments. Unfortunately, the obvious containment in a source area may not be good enough to qualify as monitored natural attenuation site unless owner demonstrate the efficacy if institutional controls that were put in place to protect potential receptors. In this view, natural attenuation as a remedial alternative for some of sites contaminated by hazardous-inorganic components is regulatory and public acceptance issues rather than scientific issue.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 1998

The geochemical experiments were carried out to investigate a removal effect of heavy metals in abdndoned metallic mine wastes, and to conceive a treatment techniques of them. In order to prevent contamination, experiment appature was made of acrylic acid resin and polyethylene which resist to acid and alkali. Experiment models are devided into four groups based on the system environments, distribution patterns and a kind of filling materials. The first group is background model(model I ) which is filled with waste only and opened to air. The second one is four layer group which is subdivided into two models, opened and closed systems, and the third mix group which is subdivided into three models based on mixing ratio of filling materials and system environment like a layered group. The forth is composed of two layer model, lower one composed of waste and upper one limestone chips. Solution drained from Model Ishows a high contents of heavy metals on the all terms of experiments. Among the models, however, the closed mix model V and Ⅶ show the most effective removal of heavy metals liberated from wastes. Models having different mixing ratios of filling materials on closed systems does not affect in heavy metal removal effect. But, the distribution patterns of filling materials affect very much on removal effect of heavy metals. The closed models with same constitution ratios and distribution patterns of filling materials show more and less effective removal to the open models.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.103-110
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• 2018

This study introduces the supervised committee fuzzy model as a hybrid fuzzy model to predict compressive strength (CS) of geopolymers prepared from alumina-silica products. For this purpose, more than 50 experimental data that evaluated the effect of $Al_2O_3/SiO_2$, $Na_2O/Al_2O_3$, $Na_2O/H_2O$ and Na/[Na+K] on (CS) of geopolymers were collected from the literature. Then, three different Fuzzy Logic (FL) models (Sugeno fuzzy logic (SFL), Mamdani fuzzy logic (MFL), and Larsen fuzzy logic (LFL)) were adopted to overcome the inherent uncertainty of geochemical parameters and to predict CS. After validating the model, it was found that the SFL model is superior to MFL and LFL models, but each of the FL models has advantages to predict CS. Therefore, to achieve the optimal performance, the supervised committee fuzzy logic (SCFL) model was developed as a hybrid method to combine the benefits of individual FL models. The SCFL employs an artificial neural network (ANN) model to re-predict the CS of three FL model predictions. The results also show significant fitting improvement in comparison with individual FL models.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.251-268
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• 1986

Selecting a site for the safe disposal of radioactive waste requires the evaluation of a wide range of geologic, mineralogic, hydrologic, and physicochemical properties. Although highly diverse, these properties are in fact interrelated. Site requirements are also diverse because they are influenced by the nature of the radionuclides in the waste, for example, their half-lives, specific energy, and chemistry. A fundamental consideration in site selection is the mineralogy of the host rock, and one of the most ubiquitous mineral groups is clay minerals. Clays and clay minerals as in situ lithologic components and engineered barriers may playa significant role in retarding the migration of radionuclides. Their high sorptivity, longevity (stability), low permeability, and other physical factors should make them a very effective retainer of most radionuclides in nuclear wastes. There are, however, some unanswered questions. For example, how will their longevity and physicochemical properties be influenced by such factors as radionuclide concentration, radiation intensity, elevated temperatures, changes in redox condition, pH, and formation fluids for extended periods of time? Understanding of mechanisms affecting clay mineral-radionuclide interactions under prevailing geochemical conditions is important; however, the utilization of experimental geochemical information related to physicochemical properties of clays and clay-bearing materials with geohydrologic models presents a uniquely challenging problem in that many assessments have to be based on model predictions rather than on experiments. These are high-priority research investigations that need to be addressed before complete reliance for disposal area performance is made on clays and clay minerals.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.211-219
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• 1999

Surface complexation models(SCMs) have been performed to predict metal ion adsorption behavior onto the mineral surface. Application of SCMs, however, requires a self-consistent approach to determine model parameter values. In this paper, in order to determine the metal ion adsorption parameters for the triple layer model(TLM) version of the SCM, we used the zeta potential data for Zeolite and Kaolinite, and the metal ion adsorption data for Pb(II) and Cd(II). Fitting parameters determined for the modeling were as follows ; total site concentration, site density, specific surface area, surface acidity constants, etc. Zeta potential as a new approach other than the acidic-alkalimetric titration method was adopted for simulation of adsorption phenomena. Some fitting parameters were determined by the trial and error method. Modeling approach was successful in quantitatively simulating adsorption behavior under various geochemical conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.196-201
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• 2000

The influence of adsorption on cadmium toxicity to soil microorganisms in smectite-rich soils and sediments was quantified as a function of solution and sorbent characteristics. Adsorption and surface complexation experiments were conducted to infer Cd sorption mechanisms to a reference smectite and three fractions of a Veritsol soil, and to elucidate the effects of the surface complexation on Cd bioavailability and toxicity in soils and sediments. Cadmium adsorption isotherms conformed to the Langmuir adsorption model, with adsorptive capacities of the different samples dependent on their characteristics. Equilibrium geochemical modeling (MINTEQA2) was used to predict the speciation of Cd in the soil suspensions using Langmuir and Triple Layer surface complexation models. The influence of adsorption and surface complexation on cadmium toxicity to soil microorganisms was assessed indirectly through the relative change in microbial hydrolysis of fluorescein diacetate (FDA) as a function of total Cd concentration and sorbent characteristics. Adsorption decreased the toxicity of Cd to soil microorganisms. Inner-sphere complexation is more effective than outer-sphere complexation in reducing the bioavailability and toxicity of heavy metals in soils and sediments.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.427-438
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• 2023

Thermodynamic sorption modeling can enhance confidence in assessing and demonstrating the radionuclide sorption phenomena onto various mineral adsorbents. In this work, Ca-montmorillonite was successfully purified from Bentonil-WRK bentonite by performing the sequential physical and chemical treatments, and its geochemical properties were characterized using X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis, cesium-saturation method, and controlled continuous acid-base titration. Further, batch experiments were conducted to evaluate the adsorption properties of Cs(I) and Sr(II) onto the homoionic Ca-montmorillonite under ambient conditions, and the diffuse double layer model-based inverse analysis of sorption data was performed to establish the relevant surface reaction models and obtain corresponding thermodynamic constants. Two types of surface reactions were identified as responsible for the sorption of Cs(I) and Sr(II) onto Ca-montmorillonite: cation exchange at interlayer site and complexation with edge silanol functionality. The thermodynamic sorption modeling provides acceptable representations of the experimental data, and the species distributions calculated using the resulting reaction constants accounts for the predominance of cation exchange mechanism of Cs(I) and Sr(II) under the ambient aqueous conditions. The surface complexation of cationic fission products with silanol group slightly facilitates their sorption at pH > 8.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.213-236
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• 2001

The ionic composition of soil solution is related to a nutrient uptake by plant. Many models for estimating ionic composition of solution have been developed, and most of them have been used for calculating a content of mineral and ionic species in a geochemical point of view. An approximation model considering both cation and anion in soil solution was developed. Variables such as pH, Eh, EC, cations(K, Ca, Mg. Na, Fe, Mn, Al, $NH_4{^+}$), anions(Si, S, P, CY, $NO_3{^-}$, $HCO_3{^-}$ and chemical equilibria of ionic species in soil solution were input into Excel sheet. The activities of soluble ion, ionpairs and complexes of input element were estimated by Newton-Raphson method using conditional equilibrium constant calculated by Davies equation and special models. Equilibrium contents of insoluble minerals and complexes were also calculated.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.58-65
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• 2014

We studied the source mechanisms of very-long-period event recorded at seismic station WIZ near White Island Volcano, New Zealand on August 4, 2012. Since seismic data at only one station were available, we conducted moment tensor inversion using three simplified models (explosion, crack, and pipe models). To constrain the moment tensor solution of seismic event, we computed synthetic data for each model to compare with observed data. Type and orientation for the best model is a crack at a depth of 1600 m with a dip of $80^{\circ}NE$ and a strike of $N80^{\circ}W$. We interpret that a deep explosion may have opened a crack for gases to escape, and the upward gas flow triggered the surface explosions four hours later as confirmed by a webcam. The interpretation based on moment tensor inversion is consistent with previous studies of geochemical data of the volcanic island.