Hydrogeologic monitoring at the Faultless site, Nye County, Nevada

Technical Report · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5615039

Thordarson, W

The Faultless event was the detonation of an intermediate-yield nuclear device on January 19, 1968, at a depth of 975 meters below the surface of Hot Creek Valley, Nevada. This report presents details of the hydrogeology and radiochemical monitoring, primarily for the reentry hole UC-1-P-2SR; data from test holes HTH-1, HTH-2, UCE-18, instrument holes UC-1-I-1 and UC-1-I-2, and the abandoned reentry hole UC-1-P-1S are included. The reentry hole UC-1-P-2SR was drilled to a total depth of 1097 meters. The hole penetrated valley-fill sediments above the Tubble Chimney, as well as valley-fill and Tertiary tuffaceous sediments within the rubble chimney and rubble-filled cavity. Monitoring of the water level in the reentry hole indicated that, from 1970-1974, the water level was approximately 694.9 meters in depth below land surface. From 1974 to the present (1983), the water level rose slowly to a depth of 335.1 meters below land surface as the rubble chimney became filled with water. In 1976, the water-level in test hole HTH-1 returned to a depth 6.7 meters above the pre-event water level, and the water level in test hole HTH-2 returned to a depth 2.7 meters above the pre-event water level. Ground water sampled from reentry hole UC-1-P-2SR is a predominantly sodium bicarbonate type containing some sulfate and minor chloride, similar to water from test hole HTH-1. Tritium concentrations fluctuated from a maximum value of 9.2 x 10/sup 8/ picocuries per liter in 1976, decreasing to 10/sup 5/ picocuries per liter in 1977, followed by a gradual increase to values of 10/sup 7/ picocuries per liter from 1980 to 1982. After 1971, gross-beta concentration ranged between 1.2 and 130 picocuries per liter, but generally was less than 10 picocuries per liter. Gross-alpha concentration generally was less than 10 micrograms per liter from 1975 to 1982. 15 refs., 11 figs., 13 tabs.

• Research Organization: Geological Survey, Lakewood, CO (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AI08-76DP00474
• OSTI ID: 5615039
• Report Number(s): USGS-OFR-84-580; ON: DE85014458
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
FAULTLESS EVENT
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
GROUND WATER
WATER CHEMISTRY
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GEOLOGY
NEVADA
RADIOACTIVITY
RADIOECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
TRITIUM
UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS
WATER TABLES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHEMISTRY
CROSSTIE OPERATION
DATA
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
EXPLOSIONS
FEDERAL REGION IX
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOISOTOPES
USA
WATER
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
450202* - Explosions & Explosives- Nuclear- Weaponry- (-1989)
520301 - Environment
Aquatic- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- Water- (1987)