Remediation of Radioactive Contamination in Soils Using Soil Washing Method: A Systematic Literature Review of Artificial and Real Contaminated Samples (2010-2025)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55981/urania.2026.15550Keywords:
Soil washing, removal efficiency, radioactive contamination, remediation, PRISMA 2020 systematic reviewAbstract
Soil contamination by radionuclides such as cesium (Cs) and uranium (U) poses significant environmental and health risks due to their long half-lives, approximately 30 years for Cs-137 and up to 4.5 billion years for U-238, enabling long-term persistence in soils. Soil washing is considered a promising remediation method due to its efficiency and rapid application. Although soil washing has been studied using both artificial and real contamianted soils, it remains unclear how well laboratory-prepared contamination represents contamination behavior in real soil. This uncertainty limits the use of laboratory removal efficiencies to predict soil-washing performance at real contaminated sites. This study aims to compare the efficiency of soil washing between artificial and real contaminated soils for Cs and U removal. A systematic literature review based on PRISMA 2020 guidelines was conducted on studies published from 2010 to 2025, with data analyzed using a thematic approach focusing on sample type, radionuclide characteristics, washing agents, and operational parameters. Of 54 records initially identified from ScienDirect (n=36) and Google Scholar (n=18), 15 articles met all inclusion criteria. The findings indicate that removal efficiency varies widely depending on soil type, radionuclide characteristics, initial concentration, pH, temperature, contact time, washing cycles, and washing agents. For cesium, artificial soils (n = 8 observations) yielded a mean removal of ~63%, whereas real soils (n = 6) yielded a lower mean of ~57%. For uranium, the only artificial soil study (n =1) showed a mean removal of ~75%, whereas real soils exhibited a mean removal of ~98%. Cesium is more difficult to remove due to strong adsorption to clay minerals, while uranium is more readily mobilized under acidic conditions. A key limitation of this review is that it was restricted to English-language and freely accessible full-text articles; therefore, the findings should be interpreted within the scope of the available open-access literature. This review highlights the need for direct comparison between artificial and real contaminated soils under the same experimental conditions, followed by field-scale validation before laboratory soil-washing results are generalized to real contaminated sites.
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