Abstract: Environmental pollution with radioactive materials poses a serious threat to public health. Among radioisotopes, cesium is one of the most dangerous elements which can be found in waste disposals of nuclear plants and similar facilities. Pure sodium and calcium alginic salts were investigated as adsorbents for removal of cesium ions from aqueous solution. It was found that both polysaccharides form complexes with the metal ions. Batch equilibrium experiments were carried out to study the effect of contact time, initial concentration of the metal and pH of the media on the adsorption of cesium by alginate compounds. The equilibrium time was found to be 60 min for adsorption of cesium with various initial metal concentrations. Kinetic studies showed that reactions between alginates and cesium are corresponding to the pseudo-second order model. Langmuir model was found best fit within the whole range of pH values studied. The maximum adsorption capacity of calcium alginate and sodium alginate was found to be 63.69 and 80.64 mg g-1, respectively at pH 6.0. From these results it is clear that sodium alginate possesses more pronounced cesium binding capacity than calcium alginate.