Download or read book Assessment of Hydrologic Transport of Radionuclides from the Gasbuggy Underground Nuclear Test Site New Mexico written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is operating an environmental restoration program to characterize, remediate, and close non-Nevada Test Site locations that were used for nuclear testing. Evaluation of radionuclide transport by groundwater from these sites is an important part of the preliminary risk analysis. These evaluations are undertaken to allow prioritization of the test areas in terms of risk, provide a quantitative basis for discussions with regulators and the public about future work at the sites, and provide a framework for assessing data needs to be filled by site characterization. The Gasbuggy site in northwestern New Mexico was the location of an underground detonation of a 29-kiloton nuclear device in 1967. The test took place in the Lewis Shale, approximately 182 m below the Ojo Alamo Sandstone, which is the aquifer closest to the detonation horizon. The conservative assumption was made that tritium was injected from the blast-created cavity into the Ojo Alamo Sandstone by the force of the explosion, via fractures created by the shot. Model results suggest that if radionuclides produced by the shot entered the Ojo Alamo, they are most likely contained within the area currently administered by DOE. The transport calculations are most sensitive to changes in the mean groundwater velocity, followed by the variance in hydraulic conductivity, the correlation scale of hydraulic conductivity, the transverse hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient, and uncertainty in the source size. This modeling was performed to investigate how the uncertainty in various physical parameters affects calculations of radionuclide transport at the Gasbuggy site, and to serve as a starting point for discussion regarding further investigation at the site; it was not intended to be a definitive simulation of migration pathways or radionuclide concentration values.
Download or read book 1979 80 written by and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Assessment of Hydrologic Transport of Radionuclides from the Gasbuggy Underground Nuclear Test Site New Mexico written by Sam Earman and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Assessment of Hydrologic Transport of Radionuclides from the Rulison Underground Nuclear Test Site Colorado written by Sam Earman and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Assessment of Hydrologic Transport of Radionuclides from the Gnome Underground Nuclear Test Site written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Histoire e de la p dagogie du l7e si cle nos jours written by and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Assessment of Hydrologic Transport of Radionuclides from the Rio Blanco Underground Nuclear Test Site Colorado written by Jenny B. Chapman and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Modeling Groundwater Flow and Transport of Radionuclides at Amchitka Island s Underground Nuclear Tests written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1963, all United States nuclear tests have been conducted underground. A consequence of this testing has been the deposition of large amounts of radioactive material in the subsurface, sometimes in direct contact with groundwater. The majority of this testing occurred on the Nevada Test Site (NTS), but a limited number of experiments were conducted in other locations. One of these locations, Amchitka Island, Alaska is the subject of this report. Three underground nuclear tests were conducted on Amchitka Island. Long Shot was an 80-kiloton-yield test conducted at a depth of 700 meters (m) on October 29, 1965 (DOE, 2000). Milrow had an announced yield of about 1,000 kilotons, and was detonated at a depth of 1,220 m on October 2, 1969. Cannikin had an announced yield less than 5,000 kilotons, and was conducted at a depth of 1,790 m on November 6, 1971. The purpose of this work is to provide a portion of the information needed to conduct a human-health risk assessment of the potential hazard posed by the three underground nuclear tests on Amchitka Island. Specifically, the focus of this work is the subsurface transport portion, including the release of radionuclides from the underground cavities and their movement through the groundwater system to the point where they seep out of the ocean floor and into the marine environment. This requires a conceptual model of groundwater flow on the island using geologic, hydrologic, and chemical information, a numerical model for groundwater flow, a conceptual model of contaminant release and transport properties from the nuclear test cavities, and a numerical model for contaminant transport. Needed for the risk assessment are estimates of the quantity of radionuclides (in terms of mass flux) from the underground tests on Amchitka that could discharge to the ocean, the time of possible discharge, and the location in terms of distance from shoreline. The radionuclide data presented here are all reported in terms of normalized masses to avoid presenting classified information. As only linear processes are modeled, the results can be readily scaled by the true classified masses for use in the risk assessment. The modeling timeframe for the risk assessment was set at 1,000 years, though some calculations are extended to 2,000 years. This first section of the report endeavors to orient the reader with the environment of Amchitka and the specifics of the underground nuclear tests. Of prime importance are the geologic and hydrologic conditions of the subsurface. A conceptual model for groundwater flow beneath the island is then developed and paired with an appropriate numerical modeling approach in section 2. The parameters needed for the model, supporting data for them, and data uncertainties are discussed at length. The calibration of the three flow models (one for each test) is then presented. At this point the conceptual radionuclide transport model is introduced and its numerical approach described in section 3. Again, the transport parameters and their supporting data and uncertainties are the focus. With all of the processes and parameters in place, the first major modeling phase can be discussed in section 4. In this phase, a parametric uncertainty analysis is performed to determine the sensitivity of the transport modeling results to the uncertainties present in the parameters. This analysis is motivated by the recognition of substantial uncertainty in the subsurface conditions on the island and the need to incorporate that uncertainty into the modeling. The conclusion of the first phase determines the parameters to hold as uncertain through the main flow and transport modeling. This second, main phase of modeling is presented in section 5, with the contaminant breakthrough behavior of each test site addressed. This is followed by a sensitivity analysis in section 6, regarding the importance of additional processes that could not be supported in the main modeling effort due to lack of data. Finally, the results for the individual sites are compared, the sensitivities discussed, and final conclusions presented in section 7.
Download or read book Evaluation of the Radiochemistry of Near Field Water Samples at the Nevada Test Site Applied to the Definition of a Hydrologic Source Term written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Effective management of available groundwater resources and strategies for remediation of water impacted by past nuclear testing practices depend on knowledge about the migration of radionuclides in groundwater away from the sites of the explosions. A primary concern is to assess the relative mobilities of the different radionuclide species found near sites of underground nuclear tests and to determine the concentration, extent, and speed of this movement. Ultimately the long term transport behavior of radionuclides with half-lives long enough that they will persist for decades, their interaction with groundwater, and the resulting flux of these contaminants is of paramount importance. As part of a comprehensive approach to these assessments, more than three decades of site-specific sites studies have been undertaken at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) which have focused on the means responsible for the observed or suspected movement of radionuclides away from underground nuclear tests (RNM, 1983). More recently regional and local models of groundwater flow and radionuclide transport have been developed as part of a federal and state of Nevada program to assess the long-term effects of underground nuclear testing on human health and environment (e.g., U.S. DOE/NV, 1997a; Tompson et al., 1999; Pawloski et al., 2001). Necessary to these efforts is a reliable measure of the hydrologic source term which is defined as those radionuclides dissolved in or otherwise transported by groundwater (Smith et al., 1995). Measurement of radionuclides in waters sampled near the sites of underground nuclear test provides arguably the best opportunity to bound the hydrologic source term. This empirical approach was recognized early and concentration data has been collected annually since mid-1970's. Initially three sites were studied at the NTS; over the years the program has been expanded to include more than fifteen study locations. As part of various field programs, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory have annually returned water samples from wells in near-field locations at the NTS for radiochemical analyses. This report makes the distinction between samples taken in the near-field and the far field. The near-field includes the area extending radially (almost equal to)300 meters from surface ground zero (the firing point of an underground nuclear test projected upwards on ground surface). Over the years this sampling program has also been refereed to as the ''hot-well monitoring program'' because these water samples contained concentrations of tritium above natural background (tritium concentrations in southern Nevada precipitation are 0.5 to 2.0 Bq/L, Farmer et al., 1998). A majority of the hot wells contain tritium in excess of the 741 Bq/L (20,000 pCi/L) drinking water standard (Smith et al., 1996a; Smith et al., 1997). The sites which comprise our current hot well sampling network are plotted on a map of the NTS in Figure 1.
Download or read book Investigations in Well EPNG 10 36 at the Gasbuggy Nuclear Test Site Rio Arriba County New Mexico written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Well EPNG 10-36 began as a production well in the San Juan Basin of northwester New Mexico. In 1967, the Gasbuggy underground nuclear test was conducted neaby as part of an effort to study nuclear stimulation of low-permeability reservoirs. The proximity of the well to the nuclear test required it to be p lugged prior to the test. Re-entry into the well after the test was not possible due to the original producing horizon in the Pictured Cliffs Formatino, so the well was completed as a groundwater monitoring well in the Ojo Alamo Formation. The well was sampled annually and in the mid-1980s, tritium was detected. A pressure test and subsequent sampling and analysis confirmed that the casing had been compromised. There are unresolved issues as to the original source of the tritium and discrepancies in the location of tritium in the wellbore.
Download or read book Evaluation of the Hydrologic Source Term from Underground Nuclear Tests on Pahute Mesa at the Nevada Test Site written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The objectives of this report are to develop, summarize, and interpret a series of detailed unclassified simulations that forecast the nature and extent of radionuclide release and near-field migration in groundwater away from the CHESHIRE underground nuclear test at Pahute Mesa at the NTS over 1000 yrs. Collectively, these results are called the CHESHIRE Hydrologic Source Term (HST). The CHESHIRE underground nuclear test was one of 76 underground nuclear tests that were fired below or within 100 m of the water table between 1965 and 1992 in Areas 19 and 20 of the NTS. These areas now comprise the Pahute Mesa Corrective Action Unit (CAU) for which a separate subregional scale flow and transport model is being developed by the UGTA Project to forecast the larger-scale migration of radionuclides from underground tests on Pahute Mesa. The current simulations are being developed, on one hand, to more fully understand the complex coupled processes involved in radionuclide migration, with a specific focus on the CHESHIRE test. While remaining unclassified, they are as site specific as possible and involve a level of modeling detail that is commensurate with the most fundamental processes, conservative assumptions, and representative data sets available. However, the simulation results are also being developed so that they may be simplified and interpreted for use as a source term boundary condition at the CHESHIRE location in the Pahute Mesa CAU model. In addition, the processes of simplification and interpretation will provide generalized insight as to how the source term behavior at other tests may be considered or otherwise represented in the Pahute Mesa CAU model.
Download or read book Publications of the Water Resources Center written by University and Community College System of Nevada. Water Resources Center and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Desert Research Institute Publications of the Water Resources Center written by University of Nevada System. Water Resources Center and published by . This book was released on 1991-08 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Price list of available publications.
Download or read book Publications of the Water Resources Center written by University of Nevada System. Center for Water Resources Research and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Nuclear Science Abstracts written by and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 1462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NSA is a comprehensive collection of international nuclear science and technology literature for the period 1948 through 1976, pre-dating the prestigious INIS database, which began in 1970. NSA existed as a printed product (Volumes 1-33) initially, created by DOE's predecessor, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). NSA includes citations to scientific and technical reports from the AEC, the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration and its contractors, plus other agencies and international organizations, universities, and industrial and research organizations. References to books, conference proceedings, papers, patents, dissertations, engineering drawings, and journal articles from worldwide sources are also included. Abstracts and full text are provided if available.
Download or read book Plowshare written by Robert G. West and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A History of the Water Resources Division of the U S Geological Survey 1966 79 integrating the disciplines written by and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
