Abstract: In the context of rainfall infiltration and source term release scenario, the non-Fickian dispersive migration behaviour with sorption of strontium (analogue for ⁹⁰Sr) in column experiments was investigated. Based on equilibrium advection-dispersion equation (ADE) and continuous time random walk (CTRW) framework, inverse modelling was conducted to re-evaluate the breakthrough curves (BTC). The results show that because of the molecular diffusion into/out immobile zone and mineral sorption effect on the clay surface, approximately 60% of bromine and 50% of strontium can be eluted from the columns. In addition, early breakthroughs and late tails of BTCs in varying degrees indicate the occurrence of the preferential flow. CTRW model, which considers essentially the hydraulic-chemical coupling effect, can preferably describe non-Fickian migration with 0<β<2 and Fickian migration with β>2 for strontium. Furthermore, in packed columns, non-Fickian migration phenomenon can be attributed to local flow field variation (eg, preferential flow) due to the non-uniformity of soil structure and complex sorption process. Specifically, the additional adsorption of strontium on clay minerals induces the reduction and delay of the peak concentration, and thus enhances the non-Fickian migration process.