Laboratory and Field Studies Related to Radionuclide Migration at the Nevada Test Site October 1, 1998-September 30, 1999 PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Laboratory and Field Studies Related to Radionuclide Migration at the Nevada Test Site October 1, 1998-September 30, 1999 PDF full book. Access full book title Laboratory and Field Studies Related to Radionuclide Migration at the Nevada Test Site October 1, 1998-September 30, 1999 by . Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 30
Get Book Here
Book Description
In this report the author describes his research in FY 1999 at the Nevada Test Site regarding the movement of radionuclides in groundwater. This work is funded by the US Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office through their Defense Programs and Environmental Restorations divisions. Significant accomplishments include upgrading a spectrometer used to characterize groundwater colloids, acquisition of a probe to allow in situ measurement of groundwater parameters, and purchase of pumps for use in small-diameter access tubing. He collected water samples from a number of nuclear test sites during the past year. Samples from the chimney horizon at the Camembert site show that only volatile radionuclides are present there, as expected. Groundwater from the cavity region at the Cheshire site shows evidence of fission product leaching or desorption from melt glass or rock surfaces. Colloids present in this water were found to be remarkably stable during storage for many years. The colloid content of groundwater at the Cambric site and at UE-5n was found to be low relative to that in groundwater on Pahute Mesa. This, coupled with the apparent lack of groundwater flow in the alluvial rock at the Cambric site, suggests that radionuclide movement underground in this area is relatively minimal. He continued the yearly monitoring of the thermally hot cavity fluids at the Almendro site. He concludes this report by listing documents reviewed and presentations and publications generated by the program.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 30
Get Book Here
Book Description
In this report the author describes his research in FY 1999 at the Nevada Test Site regarding the movement of radionuclides in groundwater. This work is funded by the US Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office through their Defense Programs and Environmental Restorations divisions. Significant accomplishments include upgrading a spectrometer used to characterize groundwater colloids, acquisition of a probe to allow in situ measurement of groundwater parameters, and purchase of pumps for use in small-diameter access tubing. He collected water samples from a number of nuclear test sites during the past year. Samples from the chimney horizon at the Camembert site show that only volatile radionuclides are present there, as expected. Groundwater from the cavity region at the Cheshire site shows evidence of fission product leaching or desorption from melt glass or rock surfaces. Colloids present in this water were found to be remarkably stable during storage for many years. The colloid content of groundwater at the Cambric site and at UE-5n was found to be low relative to that in groundwater on Pahute Mesa. This, coupled with the apparent lack of groundwater flow in the alluvial rock at the Cambric site, suggests that radionuclide movement underground in this area is relatively minimal. He continued the yearly monitoring of the thermally hot cavity fluids at the Almendro site. He concludes this report by listing documents reviewed and presentations and publications generated by the program.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36
Get Book Here
Book Description
This report details the work of Chemistry Division personnel from Los Alamos National Laboratory in FY 2001 for the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office (NNSA/NV) under its Defense Programs and Environmental Restoration divisions. Los Alamos is one of a number of agencies collaborating in an effort to describe the present and future movement of radionuclides in the underground environment of the Nevada Test Site. This fiscal year we collected and analyzed water samples from a number of expended test locations at the Nevada Test Site. We give the results of these analyses and summarize the information gained over the quarter century that we have been studying several of these sites. We find that by far most of the radioactive residues from a nuclear test are contained in the melt glass in the cavity. Those radionuclides that are mobile in water can be transported if the groundwater is moving due to hydraulic or thermal gradients. The extent to which they move is a function of their chemical speciation, with neutral or anionic materials traveling freely relative to cationic materials that tend to sorb on rock surfaces. However, radionuclides sorbed on colloids may be transported if the colloids are moving. Local conditions strongly influence the distribution and movement of radionuclides, and we continue to study sites such as Almendro, which is thermally quite hot, and Nash and Bourbon, where radionuclides had not been measured for 8 years. We collected samples from three characterization wells in Frenchman Flat to obtain baseline radiochemistry data for each well, and we analyzed eight wells containing radioactivity for 237Np, using our highly sensitive ICP/MS. We have again used our field probe that allows us to measure important groundwater properties in situ. We conclude our report by noting document reviews and publications produced in support of this program.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Get Book Here
Book Description
This report details the work of Chemistry Division personnel from Los Alamos National Laboratory in FY 2000 for the US Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office under their Defense Programs and Environmental Restoration Divisions. Los Alamos is one of a number of agencies collaborating in an effort to describe the present and future movement of radionuclides in the underground environment of the Nevada Test Site. This fiscal year we collected and analyzed water samples from a number of expended test locations at the Nevada Test Site. We give the results of these analyses and summarize the information gained over the quarter century that we have been studying several of these sites. We find that by far most of the radioactive residues from a nuclear test are contained in the melt glass in the cavity. Those radionuclides that are mobile in water can be transported if the groundwater is moving due to hydraulic or thermal gradients. The extent to which they move is a function of their chemical speciation, with neutral or anionic materials traveling freely relative to cationic materials that tend to sorb on rock surfaces. However, radionuclides sorbed on colloids may be transported if the colloids are moving. Local conditions strongly influence the distribution and movement of radionuclides, and we continue to study sites such as Almendro, which is thermally quite hot, and Bilby where radionuclides do not appear to have moved a short distance from the cavity. We have begun field use of a tool that allows us to measure important groundwater properties in situ. We conclude our report by noting document reviews and publications produced in support of this program.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 5
Get Book Here
Book Description
In this report, we describe the work done in FY 1998 at Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of the Hydrologic Resources Management Program (HRMA) funded by the Nevada Operations Office of the US Department of Energy (DOE/NV). The major part of our research effort was to measure radionuclides present in water or soil samples collected from near nuclear tests. We report our measurements for materials collected in both saturated and unsaturated horizons adjacent to nuclear test cavities or collapse chimneys and from within several cavities. Soil samples collected from above the cavities formed by the Halfbeak, Jerboa, and Bobac tests contained no radioactivity, although a test similar to Bobac in the same area had been contaminated with 137Cs. Water samples from near the Shoal test contained no measurable radionuclides, whereas those from near Faultless and Aleman had concentrations similar to previous measurements. Water from the Tybo-Benham site was similar to earlier collections at that site; this year, we added 241Am to the list of radionuclides measured at this location. Two Bennett pumps in tandem were used to extract water from the piezometer tube in the cavity of the Dalhart event. This extraction is a significant achievement in that it opens the possibility of purging similar tubes at other locations on the NTS. The Cheshire post shot hole was reconfigured and pumped from two horizons for the first time since mid-1980. We are especially interested in examining water from the level of the working point to determine the hydrologic source term in a cavity filled with groundwater for over 20 years. We devoted much time this year to examining the colloid content of NTS groundwater. After developing protocols for collecting, handling, and storing groundwater samples without altering their colloid content, we analyzed water from the Tybo-Benham and from the Cheshire sites. Whereas the colloid concentration did not vary much with depth at Tybo-Benham, there were 20 times more colloids in groundwater from the Cheshire cavity than were found a few hundred meters higher. Electron micrographs show the wide variety of colloid sizes and shapes present in NTS groundwater. Our experiences with filtration of groundwater samples illustrate the difficulties of colloid size characterization using this methodology. Our report ends with a description of our consultative and educational activities and a list of recent publications.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40
Get Book Here
Book Description
This annual report describes research conducted in FY 1990 by Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Hydrology/Radionuclide Migration Project. This multi-agency project measures the underground movement of radionuclides related to nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site. This project continues the long-term experiment at the site of the Cambric nuclear test. Water pumped from a well adjacent to the explosion cavity continues to show decreasing amounts of tritium and Krypton 85 but no Cesium 139. Analyses of drillback debris shows a distinction between refractory and volatile materials in respect to both their location in the test cavity and their leachability with groundwater. We surveyed materials used during nuclear testing to evaluate any post-test hazard; we concluded that most such materials pose a minimal hazard. The Los Alamos drilling program provided an opportunity for us to sample a collapsed zone above the cavity of a test, which was fired 2 years ago. We continue our research in colloid characterization and in detection of low levels of Technetium 99 in Nevada Test Site water. During FY 1990, we drilled a new hole in the Yucca Flat area to study radionuclide migration. This report also describes Los Alamos management and planning activities in support of this project. 20 refs., 2 figs., 14 tabs.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 12
Get Book Here
Book Description
The United States government routinely tests nuclear devices at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in southern Nevada. A significant amount of radioactive material exists underground at the NTS with no containers or engineered barriers to inhibit its subsequent migration. The Department of Energy has sponsored for many years a research program on radionuclide movement in the geologic media at this location. Goals of this research program are to measure the extent of movement of radionuclides away from underground explosion sites and to determine the mechanisms by which such movement occurs. This program has acquired significance in another aspect of nuclear waste management because of the Yucca Mountain Project. Yucca Mountain at the NTS is being intensively studied as the possible site for a mined repository for high level nuclear waste. The NTS provides a unique setting for field studies concerning radionuclide migration; there is the potential for greatly increasing our knowledge of the behavior of radioactive materials in volcanogenic media. This review summarizes some of the significant findings made under this research program at the NTS and identifies reports in which the details of the research may be found. 36 refs., 4 figs.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 27
Get Book Here
Book Description
In this report we describe the work done at Los Alamos National Laboratory in FY 1995 for the Hydrologic Resources Management Program funded by the US Department of Energy/Nevada Operations office. Budgetary cuts have required us to scale back our activities, particularly field work at the Nevada Test Site. We have collaborated with a number of government agencies and universities in work related to radionuclide migration through geologic media. In cooperation with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, we have demonstrated the utility of high-sensitivity gamma logging and have successfully improved the design of a bailer routinely used for water sampling. We analyzed a suite of side-wall samples from the BASEBALL drill-back and have interpreted the distribution pattern of test-related radionuclides. Though heterogeneously distributed, they show a general separation of volatile and refractory fractions. The distribution pattern suggests that there has been little movement of radioactive material within this cavity, which is 13 years old and below the static water level. This characterization of the BASEBALL cavity/chimney complex may have important implications for radionuclide migration elsewhere at the Nevada Test Site.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 29
Get Book Here
Book Description
In this report we describe the research done by personnel of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in support of the Radionuclide Migration project during FY 1987. We are engaged in collecting data concerning the movement of radionuclides at three locations on the Nevada Test Site. We continue to monitor the elution of tritium and krypton from the RNM-2S well at the Cambric site and have described in detail the elution of 36Cl from the same well. The data from this field study provide us with the opportunity to test the validity of several models of solute transport through geologic media. We have detected tritium and fission products in a water sample from the hole UE20n #1, which was drilled this year at the Cheshire site on Pahute Mesa. We are also continuing our efforts to learn how radionuclides have moved in test areas 3 and 4 near the Aleman site. Our laboratory work this year includes (1) a characterization of the size and density of two stable plutonium(IV) colloid suspensions prepared by different techniques and (2) a study of the transmission of colloidal-size polystyrene beads through crushed-rock columns. 18 refs., 7 figs., 9 tabs.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 30
Get Book Here
Book Description
In this report we describe the work done at Los Alamos in support of the Radionuclide Migration project during fiscal year 1986. We have continued to monitor the transport of tritium and 85Kr from the Cambric explosion zone to the satellite well, which is pumped at 600 gal/min. Corresponding movement of cationic radionuclides such as 137Cs and 9°Sr has not yet been observed after 12 yr of pumping, nor have we seen evidence that these strongly sorbing ions move in conjunction with colloids. We have analyzed more data from the Cheshire study site but have not resolved the uncertainties regarding the distribution and movement of radioactive materials at this location. Our attempts to improve our analytical capability for 36Cl and 99Tc have resulted in some progress. Similarly, we have increased our understanding of radionuclide transport phenomena such as channeling in fracture flow and anion exclusion in zeolites and clays. A sample exchange with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has helped us identify critical steps in our procedures for collecting and analyzing large-volume water samples. We have surveyed potential sites on Pahute Mesa at the Nevada Test Site for future radionuclide migration studies and conclude that there are none other than Cheshire presently available, and none are likely to be created in the near future. The Laboratory has engaged recently in radionuclide migration studies sponsored by our weapons program; we reviewed this work in an appendix to the annual report.
Author: WR. Daniels
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Alluvium
Languages : en
Pages : 3
Get Book Here
Book Description
Experimental results obtained from investigation of the radionuclide distribution in the environment around the 0.75-kiloton nuclear test Cambric, fired in alluvium at the Nevada Test Site, are presented and discussed. Laboratory measurements of distribution ratios for sorption-desorption between alluvium and ground-water and leaching rates from test debris are also presented and compared with field data.
