Environmental surveillance of the Palos Park Forest Preserve

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

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6540522· OSTI ID:6540522

Golchert, N W; Sedlet, J; Hayes, K A

This is the second report describing an ongoing environmental surveillance program conducted at the Palos Park Forest Preserve near Chicago, Illinois. The Preserve was a site of a nuclear research laboratory (Site A) from 1943 to 1956 and a radioactive waste burial site (Plot M) from 1944 to 1949. An extensive radiological characterization of the site was conducted from February 1976 to August 1977, and tritium in the form of water was found to be the only radionuclide that migrated from the nuclear facilities. The results were published in US Department of Energy Report DOE/EV-0005/7. The present report summarizes the earlier findings and gives the detailed results of the work from August 1977 through December 1981. The vertical and horizontal distribution of tritium within the glacial till was determined from measurements of tritium in soil moisture. Chemical and radiochemical analyses were performed on a number of wells in the area. Tritiated water continued to be the only species that was observed to have migrated from the Plot M area. Migration from the Site A area was not observed. The concentration of tritium at the Red Gate Woods well, 1200 ft downgradient from Plot M, continued to show the seasonal fluctuations of high concentrations in the winter and low concentrations in the summer. Monitoring of the Palos Park area is continuing.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 6540522
• Report Number(s): ANL-83-6; ON: DE83007809
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
053000 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Environmental Aspects
054000* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Health & Safety
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
510301 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- Soil-- (-1987)
520301 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- Water-- (1987)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DATA
DRINKING WATER
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FEDERAL REGION V
GROUND WATER
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ILLINOIS
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MANHATTAN PROJECT
MASS TRANSFER
MONITORING
NATURE RESERVES
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
RADIATION HAZARDS
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOACTIVITY
RADIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
RESOURCES
SOILS
TRITIUM
USA
WATER
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES