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Title: Research, development, demonstration, testing, and evaluation characterization technology project: FY90 year-end report on subsurface detection methods

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5380763· OSTI ID:5380763

Most of the site cleanup projects to be conducted at US Department of Energy (DOE) facilities will include subsurface investigations using geophysical sensors. When performed at an early state of a site characterization effort, they will help define site boundaries and waste distributions, provide guidance for the optimization of subsurface sampling plans, reduce the cost of site exploration tasks, and enhance the safety of personnel involved in sampling and excavation activities. In FY 89, researchers of Pacific Northwest Laboratory constructed a digital data acquisition system (DAS) to be used in geophysical surveys of hazardous waste burial sites. The DAS is essentially a specialized microcomputer that has been ruggedized to permit operation on a moving off-road vehicle. It was designed primarily to record and display ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data, but it is capable of simultaneously or separately recording data produced by other types of geophysical sensors. Our work in FY 90 focused primarily on improving certain hardware components of the DAS and on writing the software needed to process and display the recorded data on a personal computer (PC)-based data processing system. A secondary aspect of our work during the past year was constructed and testing a breadboard version of a time-domain metal detector. Metal detectors are commonly used in site characterization surveys to detect and map metallic wastes such as 55-gal drums, storage tanks, pipes, and cables. However, currently available instruments tend to be unstable, difficult to use, and generally unsuitable for quantitative site characterization measurements.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
5380763
Report Number(s):
PNL-8028; ON: DE92011510
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English