Hydrogeologic performance assessment analysis of the low-level radioactive waste disposal facility near Sheffield, Illinois
- Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
A hydrogeologic performance assessment was conducted for the commercial low-level radioactive waste disposal site located about 3 miles southwest of the town of Sheffield, in Bureau County, northwestern Illinois. The site has 21 trenches, which contain about 900,000 meters{sup 3}, of buried waste and about 60,000 curies of nuclear by-product material. The disposal trenches cut through a complex series of Quaternary deposits, and are composed primarily of silts, clays, and sands. Ground water beneath the site, which ranges in depth from 1.5 to 14 meters, generally moves in two directions: northeast to east toward a strip-mine lake and south to southeast towards small tributary channels belonging to Lawson Creek, which eventually drains into the strip-mine lake southeast of the site. The results in the performance assessment, which focused on the site ground-water pathway, suggest that tritium, strontium 90, and carbon 14 would be the only radionuclides released from the Sheffield site in any significant concentrations. A comparison of simulated tritium concentrations east of the site in the time frame of the burial history would suggest that model results are greater than the highest measured values by a factor of 2 or 3. The discrepancy between actual and predicted concentrations likely reflects errors in the assumed tritium inventory estimates, availability in the inventory, and/or the actual release from the multitude of waste forms considered in the performance assessment. A comparison of transport results for strontium 90 and carbon 14 is not possible since neither has been detected in ground water near the site. 30 refs., 44 figs., 47 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (USA). Div. of Low-Level Waste Management and Decommissioning; Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USNRC; Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 6019842
- Report Number(s):
- NUREG/CR-5714; PNL-7633; ON: TI91012193
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CARBON 14
RADIOECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
GROUND WATER
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
ILLINOIS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
GROUND DISPOSAL
HYDROLOGY
STRONTIUM 90
TRITIUM
COMPILED DATA
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE PATHWAY
FLOW MODELS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CARBON ISOTOPES
DATA
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FEDERAL REGION V
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
INFORMATION
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES
STRONTIUM ISOTOPES
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
052002* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage
540330 - Environment
Aquatic- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)