Advanced Modeling of Contaminant Fate and Transport in Soil and Groundwater from F-Canyon and the Central Laboratory Facility

Conference · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2019

OSTI ID:23005496

Adkison, Christopher ^[1]; Wohlwend, Jennifer; Dyer, James ^[2]

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1. The University of Texas at San Antonio (United States)
2. Savannah River National Laboratory (United States)

F-Canyon (221-F) was constructed in the early 1950's and, together with FB Line, began operations in 1954 as the main processing facilities in FArea of SRS. The primary operations conducted in F-Canyon and FB Line included the separation and recovery of Pu-239 and U-238 from irradiated materials and the stabilization of plutonium residues. The F/H Laboratory Complex consists of buildings 772-F, 772-1F, and 772-4F which began operations in 1954, 1987, and 1993, respectively. The primary mission of the F/H Laboratory Complex for the last 45 years has been to support the chemical separations processing activities at Building 221-F and H-Canyon. The objective of this study is to determine the radionuclide and hazardous material holdup in F-Canyon and its support facilities, and to evaluate In-Situ Disposal (ISD) alternatives for deactivation and decommissioning (D and D) of these facilities to ensure groundwater protection and environmental compliance with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Services (SCDHES) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). GoldSim is a dynamic probabilistic simulation software that allows modeling of chemical mass transport through engineered and environmental systems For this study, it will model the potential future release of radiological contamination through the vadose zone, Upper Three Runs (UTR) Aquifer and the Upper Three Runs Creek. Using a GoldSim model developed for building 235-F D and D, contaminant inventories as well as building geometry were updated to create the basis of the new F-Canyon model. The inventories from F-Canyon, FB Line, and the 800 Series Tanks (Tanks 804, 808, and 809) as well as F/H labs (including buildings 772-F, 772-1F, and 772- 4F) were used to make a total of four sources. The concentrations of total uranium and beta-gamma are within compliance for the study, while radium and alpha concentrations exceed their MCL's around 30,000 years and total effective water dose exceeds its MCL around 1,200 years. This suggests that some level of action will be needed to meet SCDHES and USEPA requirements. This evaluation was conducted only for the no-action alternative. Consideration and modeling of other alternatives will be required in the future to determine the best ISD alternative for D and D of F-Canyon and F/H labs with regard to groundwater protection, worker safety, and financial cost.

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 23005496
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--21-WM-P2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
AQUIFERS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DEACTIVATION
DECOMMISSIONING
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
GROUND WATER
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
IRRADIATION
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
PLUTONIUM
PLUTONIUM 239
PROBABILISTIC ESTIMATION
RADIUM
SOILS
SURFACE CONTAMINATION
URANIUM
URANIUM 238