Radiological survey of the low-level radioactive waste burial site at the Palos Forest Preserve, Illinois
Two landfill sites containing low-level radioactive waste material, Site A and Plot M, are located 14 miles southwest of Chicago, Illinois in the Palos Forest Preserve. Site A is the former location of the Argonne National Laboratory. Buried at Site A in 1956 were the dismantled reactor shells, building walls, and cooling towers from three of the world's first nuclear reactors. Plot M was used from 1943 to 1949 for burial of low-level radioactive wastes derived from Site A operations and from the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory. Tritiated water was detected in 1973 in some of the Forest Preserve picnic wells located 500 to 1000 yards north of Plot M. An extensive surveillance program was initiated in 1976 to: (1) study the elevated tritium content of some picnic wells and its observed seasonal fluctuations, (2) establish if other radionuclides buried in Plot M or remaining at Site A have migrated, (3) establish the rate of groundwater movement in the glacial till and underlying dolomite aquifer, (4) determine the tritium content of the till and aquifer, and (5) predict future tritium levels in the well water. Several test wells were installed in the soil and dolomite bedrock to monitor radioactivity in groundwater, measure water levels, and provide other geohydrological information. Tritium has migrated from the Plot M burial trenches into the surrounding drift. The tritium plume, the contaminated zone in the drift in which tritium concentrations exceed 10 nanocuries per liter of water (nCi/L), has migrated at least 165 feet horizontally northward and 130 feet vertically downward to the bedrock surface. Small amounts of other radionuclides - uranium, plutonium, and strontium-90 - have been found in boreholes beneath the concrete cap covering Plot M, but not in the subsoil outside of the Plot. The radionuclide concentrations found to date are too low to result in any measureable radiation exposure to the public.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31-109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 6218621
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8205107-2; ON: DE83009569
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 9. annual meeting of National Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers, New York, NY, USA, 5 May 1982; Other Information: Portions are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Migration of radionuclides following shallow land burial
Site surveillance and maintenance program for Palos Park: Report for 1988
Related Subjects
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
GROUND WATER
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
ILLINOIS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIATION MONITORING
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
SOILS
TRITIUM
DIFFUSION
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FEDERAL REGION V
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MONITORING
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
054000* - Nuclear Fuels- Health & Safety
052002 - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage
510301 - Environment
Terrestrial- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- Soil- (-1987)