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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

TNX Burying Ground: Environmental information document

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5538643

The TNX Burying Ground, located within the TNX Area of the Savannah River Plant (SRP), was originally built to dispose of debris from an experimental evaporator explosion at TNX in 1953. This evaporator contained approximately 590 kg of uranyl nitrate. From 1980 to 1984, much of the waste material buried at TNX was excavated and sent to the SRP Radioactive Waste Burial Grounds for reburial. An estimated 27 kg of uranyl nitrate remains buried at TNX. The TNX Burying Ground consists of three sites known to contain waste and one site suspected of containing waste material. All four sites are located within the TNX security fenceline. Groundwater at the TNX Burying Ground was not evaluated because there are no groundwater monitoring wells installed in the immediate vicinity of this waste site. The closure options considered for the TNX Burying Ground are waste removal and closure, no waste removal and closure, and no action. The predominant pathways for human exposure to chemical and/or radioactive constituents are through surface, subsurface, and atmospheric transport. Modeling calculations were made to determine the risks to human population via these general pathways for the three postulated closure options. An ecological assessment was conducted to predict the environmental impacts on aquatic and terrestrial biota. The relative costs for each of the closure options were estimated.

Research Organization:
Du Pont de Nemours (E.I.) and Co., Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River Lab.
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC09-89SR18035
OSTI ID:
5538643
Report Number(s):
DPST-85-711; ON: DE92013015
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English