Investigation of groundwater recirculation for the removal of RDX from the Pantex Plant perched aquifer
- ed.
- Amarillo National Resource Center for Plutonium, TX (United States)
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
- Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States). Water Resources Center
The Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, is a US Department of Energy (DOE) facility that has been in operation since 1942. Past and present operations at Pantex include the creation of chemical high explosives components for nuclear weapons and assembly and disassembly of nuclear weapons. The Pantex Plant is underlain by the Ogallala aquifer, which in this area, consists of the main water-bearing unit and a perched water zone. These are separated by a fine-grained zone of low permeability. Multiple contaminant plumes containing high explosive (HE) compounds have been detected in the perched aquifer beneath the plant. The occurrence of these contaminants is the result of past waste disposal practices at the facility. RDX is an HE compound, which has been detected in the groundwater of the perched aquifer at significant concentrations. A pilot-scale, dual-phase extraction treatment system has been installed at one location at the plant, east of Zone 12, to test the effectiveness of such a system on the removal of these contaminants from the subsurface. A tracer test using a conservative tracer, bromide (Br), was conducted at the treatment site in 1996. In addition to the bromide, RDX and water elevations in the aquifer were monitored. Using data from the tracer test and other relevant data from the investigations at Pantex, flow and contaminant transport in the perched aquifer were simulated with groundwater models. The flow was modeled using MODFLOW and the transport of contaminants in the aqueous phase was modeled using MT3D. Modeling the perched aquifer had been conducted to characterize the flow in the perched aquifer; estimate RDX retardation in the perched aquifer; and evaluate the use of groundwater re-circulation to enhance the extraction of RDX from the perched aquifer.
- Research Organization:
- Amarillo National Resource Center for Plutonium, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC04-95AL85832
- OSTI ID:
- 663397
- Report Number(s):
- ANRCP--1998-7; ON: DE98003884
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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