Distribution of radionuclides and water in Bandelier Tuff beneath a former Los Alamos liquid waste disposal site after 33 years Page: 4 of 54
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DISTRIBUTION OF RADIONUCLIDES AND WATER
IN BANDELIER TUFF BENEATH A FORMER
LOS ALAMOS LIQUID WASTE DISPOSAL SITE
AFTER 33 YEARS
by
J. W. Nyhan, B. J. Drennon, W. V. Abeele, M. L. Wheeler,
W. D. Purtymun, G. Trujillo, W. J. Herrera, and J. W. BoothABSTRACT
The distribution of radionuclides and water in Bandelier Tuff beneath a
former liquid waste disposal site at Los Alamos was investigated. The waste use
history of the site was described, as well as several pertinent laboratory and field
studies of water and radionuclide migration in Bandelier Tuff. The distribution of
plutonium, 2 ' Am, and water was determined in a set of about 800 tuff samples
collected to sampling depths of 30 m beneath two absorption beds. These data were
then related to site geohydrologic data. Water and radionuclide concentrations
found after 33 years were compared with the results of similar studies previously
performed at this site, and the implications of these comparisons are discussed
relative to nuclear waste management.I. INTRODUCTION
In late 1943, a site with the primary responsi-
bility for the purification of plutonium was estab-
lished at Los Alamos. Because of urgency, limited
construction time, and the lack of information on the
resulting radioactive wastes, it was initially decided
to dispose of radioactive wastes in several ways.
Untreated liquid wastes were at first discharged into
canyons, into underground storage tanks, and into
absorption beds filled with gravel and cobble
(Abrahams 1962, Rogers 1977), such as the beds at
Area T in the DP Wea site of the Los Alamos
National Laboratory.
The interaction of radionuclides in these liquid
wastes with local soils and geologic materials was
initially studied in the laboratory. Cores of Bandelier
Tuffcollected at Los Alamos were contaminated with
waste solutions of plutonium, essentially all of which
was retained in the top few millimeters of the core
even after subsequent leaching of the sorbed pluto-
nium (Christensen et al. 1958). In 1959, a field studywas initiated to determine the distribution of pluto-
nium previously discharged into an absorption bed at
Area T (Christenson and Thomas !962). Unlike the
previous laboratory study, the 1959 field study
showed that plutonium species penetrated as far as
8.5 m into Bandelier Tuff and that this penetration
coulp take place along fissures in the tuff. High
percentages of clays, deposited randomly in the tuff
by local weathering, were speculated to have ab-
sorbed plutonium species, resulting in localized areas
of high plutonium concentrations.
In 1974, a detailed series of laboratory studies
was initiated with crushed and intact Bandelier Tuff
at Argonne National Laboratory, which showed that
waste and aqueous solutions of plutonium and
americium exhibited anomalous migration behavior
(Fried et al. 1975, 1976, 1977, and 1978). This re-
search demonstrated that plutonium appeared to ex-
ist in two forms, one of which (probably the
hydrolyzed form) migrated much more rapidly than
the "ionic" form when conducted by aqueous
percolation. Much to the surprise of the waste man-
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Nyhan, J. W.; Drennon, B. J.; Abeele, W. V.; Trujillo, G.; Herrera, W. J.; Wheeler, M. L. et al. Distribution of radionuclides and water in Bandelier Tuff beneath a former Los Alamos liquid waste disposal site after 33 years, report, July 1, 1984; New Mexico. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1113124/m1/4/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.