A new paper from J. Serra-Ventura, M. Vidal and A. Rigol of WP2 in RadoNorm titled “Construction and validation of parametric models to predict radium sorption in soils” was published recently in the Science of the Total Environment.

The researchers from University of Barcelona studied the interaction of radium-226 in soils, a radionuclide of concern due to its long half-life and radiotoxicity, which can be found in areas affected by uranium mining and milling operations. In more detail, they quantified sorption and desorption solid-liquid distribution coefficients (K_d) of Ra-226 in a set of uncontaminated soils through laboratory batch experiments. A dataset of sorption K_d (Ra) values and associated soil properties was built from their own data and from the literature after performing an in-depth, critical review of similar Ra sorption studies of the last 40 years. For the first time, parametric prediction models were constructed that were able to explain around 80% of the K_d (Ra) data variance, only needing few input parameters. The validation of the models confirmed their viability for estimating the interaction of Ra in soils in risk assessment analyses.

This and more RadoNorm publication can be found on the website.