Tritium transport through a fractured till in Michigan. Technical report
The clay-rich tills that characterize much of the Great Lakes basin have traditionally been viewed as low-permeability deposits. For that reason, they have been commonly used for containment of waste material; it has been proposed that, in places, the tills may provide a suitable media for the disposal of hazardous waste. The concentration of tritium in 40 ground water samples collected from a fractured clay-rich till and underlying bedrock in southeastern Michigan was found to range from 0 to 44 TU. Bomb tritium was identified in samples at depths of 1.5 to 42 m below the water table while pre-bomb tritium was identified in samples from depths of 5.0 to 54 m. The distribution of tritium in the ground water reservoir of the upper till unit was simulated using a one-dimensional solute-transport model which assumes matrix flow. Based on the shallowest occurrence of non-tritiated water, the dispersivity value of the matrix flow system in the upper till unit was found to be less than 0.025 m. Fracture flow is invoked to explain bomb-tritium penetration to depths beyond those predicted by the model.
- Research Organization:
- Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (USA). Inst. of Water Research
- OSTI ID:
- 5283659
- Report Number(s):
- PB-90-112293/XAB; TRN: 90-026054
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Use of environmental tritium to characterize ground water flow systems in regolith and crystalline fractured-rock hydrogeologic settings
Rare earth element geochemistry of groundwaters from a thick till and clay-rich aquitard sequence, Saskatchewan, Canada
Related Subjects
GROUND WATER
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
SOILS
TRITIUM
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
HYDROLOGY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MICHIGAN
PROGRESS REPORT
WASTE DISPOSAL
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DOCUMENT TYPES
FEDERAL REGION V
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOISOTOPES
USA
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WATER
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
540230* - Environment
Terrestrial- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
540330 - Environment
Aquatic- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)