Some interactive factors affecting trench-cover integrity on low-level waste sites. [Shallow land burial]
This paper describes important mechanisms by which radionuclide can be transported from low-level waste disposal sites into biological pathways, discuss interactions of abiotic and biotic processes, and recommends environmental characteristics that should be measured to design sites that minimize this transport. Past experience at shallow land burial sites for low-level radioactive wastes suggest that occurrences of waste exposure and radionuclide transport are often related to inadequate trench cover designs. Meeting performance standards at low-level waste sites can only be achieved by recognizing that physical, chemical, and biological processes operating on and in a trench cover profile are highly interactive. Failure to do so can lead to improper design criteria and subsequent remedial action procedures that can adversely affect site stability. Based upon field experiments and computer modeling, recommendations are made on site characteristics that require measurement in order to design systems that reduce surface runoff and erosion, manage soil moisture and biota in the cover profile to maximize evapotranspiration and minimize percolation, and place bounds on the intrusion potential of plants and animals into the waste material. Major unresolved problems include developing probabilistic approaches that include climatic variability, improved knowledge of soil-water-plant-erosion relationships, development of practical vegetation establishment and maintenance procedures, prediction and quantification of site potential and plant succession, and understanding the interaction of processes occurring on and in the cover profile with deeper subsurface processes.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 5361828
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-82-1692; CONF-820674-1; ON: DE82018374
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
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510300 -- Environment
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
COVERINGS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
RECOMMENDATIONS
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES