Desorption Techniques for Determination of Metals Mobility in Soils

Three leaching techniques for assessment of fixed and mobile metal or radionuclides in soils are demonstrated on radiocaesium speciation. A new leaching technique based on the variation of the leaching solution volume to solid phase amount is proposed. It enables parallel treatment of large numbers of samples and, therefore, is suitable for a routine analysis of contaminant mobility in soils. As a leaching solution, 1 M ammonium acetate is proposed for caesium, but any other desorption solution harmonised with existing speciation schemes can be used.