Field demonstration of technologies for delineating uranium contaminated soils

Conference · Mon Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:10190868

Tidwell, V C ^[1]; Cunnane, J C ^[2]; Schwing, J ^[3]; Lee, S Y ^[4]; Perry, D L ^[5]; Morris, D E ^[6]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
3. Fernald Environmental Restoration Management Co., Springdale, OH (United States)
4. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
5. Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (United States)
6. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)

An Integrated Demonstration Program, hosted by the Fernald Environmental Restoration Management Corporation (FERMCO), has been established for investigating technologies applicable to the characterization and remediation of soils contaminated with uranium. An important part of this effort is the evaluation of field screening tools capable of acquiring high resolution information on the distribution of uranium contamination in surface soils in a cost-and-time efficient manner. Consistent with this need, four field screening technologies have been demonstrated at two hazardous waste sites at the FERMCO. The four technologies tested are wide-area gamma spectroscopy, beta scintillation counting, laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (LA-ICP-AES), and long-range alpha detection (LRAD). One of the important findings of this demonstration was just how difficult it is to compare data collected by means of multiple independent measurement techniques. Difficulties are attributed to differences in measurement scale, differences in the basic physics upon which the various measurement schemes are predicated, and differences in the general performance of detector instrumentation. It follows that optimal deployment of these techniques requires the development of an approach for accounting for the intrinsic differences noted above. As such, emphasis is given in this paper to the development of a methodology for integrating these techniques for use in site characterization programs as well as the development of a framework for interpreting the collected data. The methodology described here also has general application to other field-based screening technologies and soil sampling programs.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 10190868
• Report Number(s): SAND--93-1244C; CONF-931095--31; ON: DE94001829; BR: GB0103012
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

054000
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540230
540250
CONTAMINATION
DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS
FEED MATERIALS PRODUCTION CENTER
HEALTH AND SAFETY
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS MONITORING AND TRANSPORT
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
REMEDIAL ACTION
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
SITE RESOURCE AND USE STUDIES
SOILS
URANIUM