Soil characterization methods for unsaturated low-level waste sites

Technical Report · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:10135910

Wierenga, P J; Young, M H ^[1]; Gee, G W; Kincaid, C T ^[2]; Hills, R G ^[3]; Nicholson, T J; Cady, R E ^[4]

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1. Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States). Dept. of Soil and Water Science
2. Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
3. New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces, NM (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
4. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)

To support a license application for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLW), applicants must characterize the unsaturated zone and demonstrate that waste will not migrate from the facility boundary. This document provides a strategy for developing this characterization plan. It describes principles of contaminant flow and transport, site characterization and monitoring strategies, and data management. It also discusses methods and practices that are currently used to monitor properties and conditions in the soil profile, how these properties influence water and waste migration, and why they are important to the license application. The methods part of the document is divided into sections on laboratory and field-based properties, then further subdivided into the description of methods for determining 18 physical, flow, and transport properties. Because of the availability of detailed procedures in many texts and journal articles, the reader is often directed for details to the available literature. References are made to experiments performed at the Las Cruces Trench site, New Mexico, that support LLW site characterization activities. A major contribution from the Las Cruces study is the experience gained in handling data sets for site characterization and the subsequent use of these data sets in modeling studies.

• Research Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Div. of Engineering; Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 10135910
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CR-5988; PNL-8480; ON: TI93008562
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: Jan 1993
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
LICENSING
SOILS
HYDROLOGY
RADIATION MONITORING
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
FLUID FLOW
RADIATION TRANSPORT
052002
540230
WASTE DISPOSAL AND STORAGE
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS MONITORING AND TRANSPORT