Long-term cover design for low-level radioactive and hazardous waste sites as applied to the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site solar evaporation ponds
- Parsons Engineering Science, Inc., Denver, CO (United States)
The US Department of Energy (DOE) operated five lined solar evaporation ponds (SEPs) at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) in Jefferson County, Colorado from 1953 until 1986. The SEPs were used primarily to store and evaporate low-level radioactive and hazardous process wastes. Operation of the SEPs has resulted in contamination of the surrounding soils, and may also provide a source of groundwater contamination. The DOE proposes to close the SEPs by consolidating the contaminated material beneath an engineered cover. The primary objective of the closure of such hazardous and radioactive sites is to limit the exposure of the general public to the contaminants for time periods ranging from 100 to 10,000 years. The goal of the SEPs engineered cover is to isolate hazardous and low-level radioactive soils for a minimum of 1,000 years. Since there is currently no existing regulatory design guidance for a 1,000-year engineered cover, the proposed design of the SEPs engineered cover is based on research and testing that has been conducted for many years at various DOE facilities in the US. This paper discusses the main design theories of the proposed engineered cover for the closure of the SEPs, and how the research and test results of these other programs have been used to arrive at the final cover configuration, the material selections, the component layering, layer thicknesses, and the balance and interaction between components to establish an overall effective cover system.
- OSTI ID:
- 395283
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9505206-; TRN: 96:029042
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 50. Purdue industrial waste conference, W. Lafayette, IN (United States), 8-10 May 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 50. industrial waste conference; Wukasch, R.F. [ed.]; PB: 861 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Conceptual engineered cover design for the solar evaporation ponds at the Rocky Flats Plant
Rocky Flats Solar Evaporation Ponds RCRA hybrid-closure case study