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 Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 5361523
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-82-0288A; ON: DE82019830
- Resource Relation:
- 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
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
MILL TAILINGS
RADIOACTIVITY
RADIUM 226
RADIATION MONITORING
SOILS
ABANDONED SITES
ARIZONA
COLORADO
FEED MATERIALS PLANTS
NEW MEXICO
UTAH
WYOMING
ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FEDERAL REGION IX
FEDERAL REGION VI
FEDERAL REGION VIII
HEAVY NUCLEI
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
ISOTOPES
MONITORING
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEI
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIUM ISOTOPES
SOLID WASTES
TAILINGS
USA
WASTES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
053000* - Nuclear Fuels- Environmental Aspects
052000 - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Management
510301 - Environment
Terrestrial- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- Soil- (-1987)