General investigation of radionuclide retention in migration pathways at the West Valley, New York low-level burial site. Final report 1 Oct 78-14 Feb 80

Technical Report · Wed Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1980

OSTI ID:6351296

Dana, Jr, R H; Ragan, V S; Molello, S A; Bailey, H H; Fickies, R H

This final report evaluates the containment capabilities of the low-level, solid radioactive waste burial ground at West Valley, New York. The investigation included a surface water study, a trench water study, geotechnical and radiochemical studies of soils, a geotechnical analysis of a research trench and analysis of subtrench core data. Tritium is the most abundant beta emitter in trench water while strontium-90 is the predominant beta emitter in surface water. Strontium-90 ranks as the second most abundant trench water radionuclide in 6 of the 11 trenches studied. Four radionuclides were found to have either definite or possible migration. Carbon-14 was found to migrate at a much slower rate than tritium, which migrated to a depth slightly greater than 3.2m below the trench flow. There is also inconclusive evidence for strontium-90 migration beneath the trenches. Plutonium-238 was detected immediately beneath all 3 trenches studied and in 4 of the 5 trench cores. Results predicted by testing performed in 1977 were confirmed by standard engineering tests on soils fron the site. Soil samples taken from the north burial area trench caps and analyzed for tritium showed approximate background levels at the surface and above background levels at depths of 20 to 50 centimeters.

• Research Organization: New York State Geological Survey, Albany (USA); New York State Museum and Science Service, Albany (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6351296
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CR-1565
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FUEL REPROCESSING PLANTS
GROUND WATER
HEAVY NUCLEI
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MID-ATLANTIC REGION
NEW YORK
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLUTONIUM 238
PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
SOILS
STRONTIUM 90
STRONTIUM ISOTOPES
SURFACE WATERS
TRITIUM
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER
WEST VALLEY PROCESSING PLANT
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES