Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-d8cs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-15T06:45:08.801Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Biological Intrusion of Low-Level Waste Trench Covers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Thomas E. Hakonson  and
Ernest S. Gladney
Thomas E. Hakonson
Affiliation:
Environmental Science Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos New Mexico, USA
Ernest S. Gladney
Affiliation:
Environmental Science Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos New Mexico, USA
Get access

Abstract

The long-term integrity of low-level waste shallow land burial sites is dependent on the interaction of physical, chemical, and biological factors that modify the waste containment system. Past research on low-level waste shallow land burial methods has emphasized physical (i.e., water infiltration, soil erosion) and chemical (radionuclide leaching) processes that can cause waste site failure and subsequent radionuclide transport.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the need to consider biological processes as being potentially important in reducing the integrity of waste burial site cover treatments. Plants and animals not only can transport radionuclides to the ground surface via root systems and soil excavated from the cover profile by animal burrowing activities, but they modify physical and chemical processes within the cover profile by changing the water infiltration rates, soil erosion rates and chemical composition of the soil.

One approach to limiting biological intrusion through the waste cover is to apply a barrier within the profile to limit root and animal penetration with depth. Experiments in the Los Alamos Experimental Engineered Test Facility were initiated to develop and evaluate biological barriers that are effective in minimizing intrusion into waste trenches. The experiments that are described employ four different candidate barrier materials of geologic origin. Experimental variables that will be evaluated, in addition to barrier type, are barrier depth and soil overburden depth. The rate of biological intrusion through the various barrier materials is being evaluated through the use of activatable stable tracers.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 6: Symposium D – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management IV , 1981 , 519
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Anonymous “Unresolved Technical Issues in Land Burial of Low-Level Rdioactive Waste,” Oak Ridge National Laboratory report ORNL/NFW-79/62 (1979).Google Scholar
Dabrowski, T. E., “Radioactive Tumbleweeds in the 100 Areas,” Richland, Washington: United Nuclear Industries report UNI-65 (1973).Google Scholar
Duguid, J. O., “Assessment of DOE Low-Level Radioactive Solid Waste Disposal Storage Activities,” Battelle Columbus Latoratories report BMI–1984, 48 pp (1977).Google Scholar
Enlow, C. R. and Musgrave, G. W., “Grass and Other Thick-Growing Vegetation in Erosion Control,” in Soils and Men, Yearbook of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.:USDA, pp. 615–633 (1938).Google Scholar
Ellison, L., “The Pocket Gopher in Relation to Soil Erosion in Mountain Range,” Ecology 27:101–114 (1946).Google Scholar
Grant, W. E., “The Functional Role of Small Mammals in Grassland Ecosystems,” Ph.D. thesis, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.Google Scholar
Grinnel, J., “The Burrowing Rodents of California as Agents in Soil Formation,” J. Mammal. 14:137–148 (1923).Google Scholar
Hakonson, T. E. and Bostick, K. V., “The Availability of Environmental Radioactivity to Honey Bee Colonies at Los Alamos,” J. Environ. Qual. 5:307–310 (1976).Google Scholar
Klepper, E. L., Rogers, L. E., Hedland, J. D. and Schreckhise, R. G., “Radioactivity Associated with Biota and Soils of the 216–A–24 Crib,” Pacific Northwest Laboratory report PNL–1948–UC–70 (1979).Google Scholar
Lutton, R. J., Regan, G. L. and Jones, L. W., “Design and Construction of Covers for Solid Waste Landfills,” Environmental Protection Agency report EPA–600/2–79–165 (1979).Google Scholar
O'Farrell, T. P. and Gilbert, R. O., “Transport of Radioactive Materials by Jack Rabbits on the Hanford Reservation,” Health Phys. 29:9–5 (1975).Google Scholar
Thorp, J., “Effects of Certain Animals That Live in Soils,” Sci. Monthly 68:180–191 (1949).Google Scholar