Radium-226 measurements below uranium-mill-tailings piles
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; TRN: 82-015711
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Health Physics Society annual meeting, Las Vegas, NV, USA, 27 Jun 1982; Other Information: Portions of document are illegible
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Counting system and resultant data from field determinations of radium-226 at twelve uranium mill tailings sites
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
FEED MATERIALS PLANTS
MILL TAILINGS
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIUM 226
CONTAMINATION
COUNTING TECHNIQUES
DRILL CORES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
ROCKS
SOILS
ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DATA
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
HEAVY NUCLEI
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
MONITORING
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIUM ISOTOPES
SOLID WASTES
TAILINGS
WASTES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
053000* - Nuclear Fuels- Environmental Aspects
510301 - Environment
Terrestrial- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- Soil- (-1987)
052000 - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Management