Radium-226 measurements below uranium-mill-tailings piles

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:5361520

Brewer, L W; Rarrick, H L; Minnema, D M

A total of 2773 Ra-226 in-soil measurements have been made in and beneath 12 uranium mill tailings piles. Four conditions were found beneath the piles: (1) rock, with essentially no contamination; (2) very dry soil with contamination of 1000 pCi/g above the interface to 15 pCi/g at 7.5 feet below the interface; (3) near-saturated to saturated soils with contamination similar to condition 2; and (4) saturated soils underlaid by cobbles and water where the water contained very fine particles of Ra-226 in suspension. A number of exceptions to the above conditions were found during this study. Vertical-profile holes of the tailings, using 2.5-foot core-barrel samplers, exhibited activities from > 2000 pCi/g to approximately 15 pCi/g. This paper describes the counting system used to determine Ra-226 and the resulting data.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5361520
• Report Number(s): SAND-82-0288C; CONF-820655-3; ON: DE82016807
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052000 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Management
053000* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Environmental Aspects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
510301 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- Soil-- (-1987)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CONTAMINATION
COUNTING TECHNIQUES
DATA
DRILL CORES
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FEED MATERIALS PLANTS
HEAVY NUCLEI
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MILL TAILINGS
MONITORING
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIUM 226
RADIUM ISOTOPES
ROCKS
SOILS
SOLID WASTES
TAILINGS
WASTES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES