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Book Description
This report presents the results of FY 1996 technical studies conducted by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as part of the Hydrology and Radionuclide Migration Program (HRMP). The HRMP is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) to address the environmental consequences of nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). A priority for the LLNL program is to better characterize the complex near-field environment in order to assess and predict the movement of radionuclides in groundwater. Other participating organizations include the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Desert Research Institute (DRI) of the University of Nevada, and Bechtel-Nevada. Our FY96 report includes a description of a field program to sample surface and groundwaters along a regional flow path including known recharge and discharge centers off the NTS. This work extends the sampling program described in our FY95 report to secure U.S. Air Force and U.S. Department of Energy lands including the Nellis Air Force Bombing and Gunnery Range and the Tonopah Test Range. We compile fluid data collected from or adjacent to saturated nuclear test cavities (''hot'' wells) including fluids collected from the CHESHIRE (U-20n) and ALMENDRO (U-19V) event cavities. This compilation also includes revised data originally published in our FY95 report which was in error. We report on a collaboration with LANL to investigate the occurrence of gamma emitting radionuclides detected during drilling in the bottom of the subsidence crater produced by the 1962 HYRAX (U-3bh) event. This work provided a unique opportunity to investigate the transport of volatile radionuclides in the unsaturated zone. Finally, through our participation in the Underground Test Area Operable Unit, we provide initial results of a collaborative study with LANL to investigate the colloidal transport of radionuclides downgradient from a saturated nuclear test cavity. LLNL-HRMP technical studies emphasize measurement of the occurrence, distribution, release, and transport of radionuclides away from underground nuclear test centers. We rely heavily on LLNL's expertise in science based stockpile stewardship, nuclear weapons testing, radiochemical diagnostics, nuclear test phenomenology, mass spectrometry, aqueous geochemistry and field and laboratory studies of radionuclide migration to these ends. In the face of steep reductions in the HRMP budget, LLNL will continue to collaborate with other program participants in near-field radiochemical and regional isotope hydrology studies.
