Vadose zone monitoring at the radioactive waste management sites at the Nevada national security site - 15294
- National Security Technologies, LLC (United States)
Two lysimeter facilities continuously monitor the vadose zone at the radioactive waste disposal sites at the Nevada National Security Site. The time-series data collected at these facilities support the performance assessments of the radioactive waste disposal sites, the closure cover designs, and the long-term monitoring decisions for these sites. The Weighing Lysimeter Facility at the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site (RWMS) consists of a bare-soil weighing lysimeter and a vegetated weighing lysimeter. The upper surfaces of both weighing lysimeters are exposed to precipitation. The Drainage Lysimeter Facility at the Area 3 RWMS includes bare-soil lysimeters that receive precipitation or precipitation supplemented with irrigation equal to double precipitation and vegetated lysimeters that have the same upper boundary conditions as the bare-soil lysimeters. Lysimeter sensors are connected to data-loggers that are accessed remotely for data acquisition. Lysimeter water balance measurements show the arid climate and native vegetation at the NNSS provide a natural sustainable system to effectively prevent transport of contaminants from the RWMSs through the vadose zone to groundwater. Transport by infiltration and percolation of present day precipitation at the RWMSs is prevented. The native desert vegetation is adapted to extract moisture from very dry soils and maintains negative matric potentials at the base of the root zone effectively buffering the deep vadose zone from episodic precipitation events at the surface. The very negative matric potential at the base of the root zone effectively intercepts all infiltration from precipitation and draws moisture upward from the vadose zone below the root zone. This system is sustainable because it does not rely on engineered features and mimics the stable landscapes and no groundwater recharge of the current condition surrounding the RWMSs. The system depends on establishing native vegetation in the covers above the waste cells and a stable climate. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22822809
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-19-WM-15294; TRN: US19V0799067724
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2015: Annual Waste Management Symposium, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 15-19 Mar 2015; Other Information: Country of input: France; 9 refs.; Available online at: http://archive.wmsym.org/2015/index.html
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Nevada Test Site 2009 Waste Management Monitoring Report Area 3 and Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Sites
Nevada Test Site 2007 Waste Management Monitoring Report Area 3 and Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Sites
Related Subjects
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
CLIMATES
CLOSURES
DATA ACQUISITION
DESERTS
DRAINAGE
GROUND WATER
GROUNDWATER RECHARGE
IRRIGATION
LYSIMETERS
MOISTURE
MONITORING
NATIONAL SECURITY
NEVADA
PLANTS
PRECIPITATION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
ROOTS
SOILS