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Title: Electrical resistivity tomography for early vadose leak detection under single shell storage tanks

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/353388· OSTI ID:353388
 [1]
  1. Westinghouse Hanford Co., Richland, WA (United States)

This document describes planned testing with Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT). It is prepared in support of TTP RL46WT51 Rev. 1, funded by the Tank Focus Area through the Office of Technology Integration. The primary goal of the testing for fiscal year 1996 (FY96) is to develop and demonstrate the ability to place vertical electrode arrays (VEA) with the cone penetrometer technology (CPT) to depths below existing single shell tanks (SST) at the DOE Hanford Site. It is desirable to have the capability to use CPT for this application for obvious reasons. First, current methods of emplacement, drilled boreholes, are expensive with respect to the rest of the ERT operation. Cone penetrometer VEA emplacements offer the opportunity to significantly reduce installation costs. Second, use of CPT will reduce emplacement time from weeks or months to just several days depending on the number of VEAs and the depth of placement. ERT is preferable to other monitoring methods since operation costs and turn around time are less than the current baselines of either groundwater sampling networks or borehole logging techniques. ERT cost savings can be substantial and will continue into the future. ERT can also provide complete coverage under a tank or other facility which is an important supplement to existing monitoring methods. Groundwater sampling provides one data point per well and borehole logging provides data along a line in the ground. Neither provide information from beneath a facility and thus, are not able to locate release points. These electrode arrays are used to acquire subsurface electrical resistance data in a manner appropriate for tomographic inversion. The resulting tomograms can then be used to detect, monitor and track contaminated moisture plumes leaking from underground storage tanks during waste retrieval operations.

Research Organization:
Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc., Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-96RL13200
OSTI ID:
353388
Report Number(s):
WHC-SD-EN-TP-057; ON: DE99050380; BR: EW3120100; TRN: AHC29923%%221
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 12 Apr 1996
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English