Tritium in a deciduous forest adjacent to a commercial shallow land burial site: implications for monitoring to detect radionuclide migration. [Maxey Flats, Kentucky]

Conference · Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:5754296

Rickard, W H; Kirby, L J

Tritium as tritiated water was measured in the sap taken from the trunks of 26 maple trees growing in the vicinity of the shallow-land, low-level radioactive waste disposal site at Maxey Flats, Kentucky. Tritium values ranged between 10,000 and 290,000 pCi/l with the highest levels measured in sap from trees growing downslope from the burial site's western boundary. Levels of tritium of less than 1000 pCi/l were measured at a distance of 20 kilometers from the site: The source of elevated tritium levels in the vicinity of the disposal site is the evaporator facility which has released tritiated water vapor into the air more or less continuously for 10 years. Another possible source of at least some of the tritium is subterranean leakage from the trenches located near the western boundary. The evaporator facility has been shut down since December 1982. With the shutdown of the evaporator the levels of tritium in tree sap in future years is expected to show a marked decline as the tritiated soil water in the root zone becomes increasingly diluted with fresh rainwater and the residual tritium is dissipated to the air by evaporation and plant transpiration processes. 11 references.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 5754296
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA-11475; CONF-8308106-20; ON: DE84001413
• Resource Relation: Conference: 5. annual participants information meeting of DOE low level waste management program, Denver, CO, USA, 30 Aug 1983
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
TRITIUM
RADIATION MONITORING
KENTUCKY
TREES
TRITIUM OXIDES
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHALCOGENIDES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FEDERAL REGION IV
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LABELLED COMPOUNDS
LIGHT NUCLEI
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MONITORING
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLANTS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES
TRITIUM COMPOUNDS
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
053000* - Nuclear Fuels- Environmental Aspects
052002 - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage
520301 - Environment
Aquatic- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- Water- (1987)