Plutonium Speciation, Solubilization and Migration in Soils

Technical Report · Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/834600· OSTI ID:834600

Neu, Mary P; Haire, Richard G

The DOE is currently conducting cleanup activities at its nuclear weapons development sites, many of which have accumulated plutonium in soils for 50 years. To properly control Pu migration in soils within Federal sites and onto public lands, better evaluate the public risk, and design effective remediation strategies, a fundamental understanding of Pu speciation and environmental transport is needed. The key scientific goals of this project are: to determine Pu concentrations and speciation at contaminated DOE sites; to study the formation, stability, and structural and spectroscopic features of environmentally relevant Pu species; to determine the mechanism(s) of interaction between Pu and Mn/Fe minerals and the potential release of Pu via redox cycling; and to model the environmental behavior of plutonium. Our goal is to use characterization, thermodynamic, mineral interaction, and mobility data to develop better models of radionuclide transport and risk assessment, and to enable the development of science-based decontamination strategies.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., Los Alamos, NM; Oak Ridge National Lab., Oak Ridge, TN (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
• OSTI ID: 834600
• Report Number(s): EMSP-73819-2002; R&D Project: EMSP 73819; TRN: US200433%%226
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 1 Jun 2002
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
DECONTAMINATION
DESIGN
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PLUTONIUM
PUBLIC LANDS
RADIOISOTOPES
RISK ASSESSMENT
SOILS
STABILITY
TRANSPORT