Radioactive waste disposal areas and associated environmental surveillance data at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Technical Report · Sat Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1979

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5886044· OSTI ID:5886044

Oakes, T. W.; Shank, K. E.

Environmental surveillance data have been collected around radioactive waste disposal areas for the past thirty years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The wealth of data collected around the ORNL radioactive waste burial grounds is presented in this review. The purpose of this paper is to describe the solid waste burial grounds in detail along with the environmental monitoring data. The various monitoring systems are reviewed, and the liquid discharge trends are discussed. Monitoring at White Oak Dam, the last liquid control point for the Laboratory, was started in the late 1940's and is continuing. Presently, a network of five environmental monitoring stations is in operation to monitor the radionuclide content of surface waters in the White Oak Creek watershed. Facts observed during the lifetime of the disposal sites include: (1) a large amount of /sup 106/Ru released during 1959 to 1964 due to the fact that Conasauga shale did not retain this element as well as it retained other radionuclides. (2) Large quantities of tritiated water have been released to the Clinch River in recent years, but, from a practical standpoint, little can be done to inhibit or control these releases. (3) A general downward trend in the number of curies released has been observed for all other radionuclides. A number of corrective measures that have been initiated at ORNL to reduce the radioactive liquid discharges are outlined in the paper.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 5886044
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-6893
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DATA
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
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INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
LABELLED COMPOUNDS
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MONITORING
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEI
ORNL
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIONUCLIDE KINETICS
RUTHENIUM 106
RUTHENIUM ISOTOPES
SOLID WASTES
SOUTHEAST REGION
SURFACE WATERS
TENNESSEE
TRITIUM COMPOUNDS
TRITIUM OXIDES
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES