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Groundwater Contamination (1984) / Chapter Skim
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7. Geologic Problems at Low-Level Radioactive Waste-Disposal Sites
Pages 104-108

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From page 104...
... Before 1970, low-level wastes were also allowed to contain significant quantities of long-lived 104 transuranic isotopes such as plutonium-239 (half-life of 24,000 years>. Until 1962, all low-level waste was disposed of by the federal government at federally operated facilities such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee.
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From page 105...
... Geohydrologic factors appear to have been a secondary consideration. Among the geologic media and hydrologic settings selected for the DOE sites are the following: mixed glacial tills, coastal plain sediments, thin floodplain sediments on permeable basalt, coarse-grained glacio-fluvial sediments, fractured perme
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From page 106...
... PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED AT EXISTING SITES Several geohydrologic problems have been encountered at existing sites, which can be partially attributed, in retrospect, to inadequate attention to earth-science criteria in site selection and to inadequate site characterization and design. Nearly all of these problems or shortcomings are related to eight factors: "bathtub effect,'' trench-cap integrity, erosion, high water table, hydrogeologic complexity, flooding, complex leachate chemistry, and rapid radionuclide migration.
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From page 107...
... High Water Table In addition to specifying minimum depth to the saturated zone, the potential occurrence of a high water table can be avoided by reducing the permeability of trench caps, providing good land-surface drainage, and avoiding large increases in landsurface elevation from backfilling. If the hydraulic conductivity of the burial medium is below 10-6 or 1O-7 cm/see, groundwater flow rates will be slow enough that radionuclide migration is dominated by molecular diffusion.
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From page 108...
... . Land burial of solid waste at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee: A case history, in Management of Low-Level Radioactive Waste, M
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Key Terms

  • maxey flats
  • west valley
  • complex leachate
  • radionuclide migration
  • existing sites

  • leachate chemistry
  • rapid radionuclide
  • groundwater flow
  • waste forms
  • site selection

  • radioactive wastes
  • disposal site
  • radioactive waste
  • engineering laboratory
  • hydrogeologic complexity

  • geohydrologic criterion
  • national engineering
  • bathtub effect
  • commercial disposal
  • disposal sites

  • dominant geohydrologic
  • flow rates
  • hydraulic conductivity
  • migrated vertically
  • backfill material

  • additional sites
  • underground disposal
  • coastal plain
  • plain sediments
  • permeable media


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