Hydrogeologic investigation of the Maxey Flats radioactive waste burial site, Fleming County, Kentucky

Technical Report · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:5910242

Zehner, H H

Part of a hilltop named Maxey Flats was used as a commercial radioactive waste burial site from 1963 to 1977. The hill is about 9 miles from the city of Morehead. The climate of the area is humid, with normal annual precipitation 44.30 in. for the period 1941 through 1970. Most of the 47 burial trenches on the site are completed in weathered shale. They are covered with clay and crushed shale, but water infiltrates the covers and accumulates in the waste. The contaminated trench water is later removed and evaporated. Assuming water in trenches would not overflow onto the ground surface, flow through fractured rocks would be the principal means of contaminated-water transport if trench water were to move from the burial site. The bases of most trenches consist of a 1.5-ft-thick sandstone bed, at a depth of about 25 ft below ground level. Radionuclides have moved laterally through fractures in the bed as much as 270 feet from the nearest burial trench. Rocks underlying the burial site are of Mississippian, Devonian, and Silurian age, about 80% of which are shale. The bedrock has poor water-transmitting capability, and virtually all flow is through fractures. The spacing between most fractures is several feet, although it ranges from a few inches to more than 100 ft. Most fractures terminate, or are offset, at bedding planes. The ground-water system is therefore very nonuniform, and more permeable in the horizontal direction. At least eight hydrologic units underlie the burial site.

• Research Organization: Geological Survey, Louisville, KY (USA). Water Resources Div.
• OSTI ID: 5910242
• Report Number(s): USGS-OFR-83-133; ON: TI85901184
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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