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Natural recharge (i.e., the amount of water from meteorological sources, such as rainfall or snowmelt, that infiltrates through the vadose zone to the groundwater table) at the Hanford Site is a variable quantity because it depends on soil, plant, and climatic factors that vary in time and space over the Site. Water balance data have been collected at selected locations at the Hanford Site for the past 10 years in an attempt to measure or estimate natural recharge for known soil, plant, and climatic conditions. The data collected include precipitation, neutron probe measured water content (storage), and drainage measurements from lysimeters. The lysimeter studies provided the first quantitative estimates of natural recharge at the Hanford Site. 12 refs., 40 figs., 11 tabs.

The mill tailings site at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania is the first mill site to receive remedial action under the Department of Energy's Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Program. Part of this remedial action will require excavating the 53,500 m/sup 3/ (70,000 yd/sup 3/) of tailings on the site having a specific activity exceeding 100 pCi/g, and encapsulating these contaminated tailings in a clay-lined cell. As part of the remedial action effort, Pacific Northwest Laboratory has been studying the interactions of tailings and tailings leachate with locally occurring clays proposed for liner materials. These studies include physical and chemical characterization of amended and unamended local clays, chemical characterization of the tailings, column studies of tailings leached with deionized water, and column studies of clays contacted with tailings solutions to determine the attenuation properties of the proposed liner materials. Column studies of tailings leached with deionized water indicated that the Canonsburg tailings could represent a source of soluble radium-226 and uranium-238, several trace metals, cations, and the anions SO/sub 4/, NO/sub 3/, and Cl. Of these soluble contaminants, uranium-238, radium-226, the trace metals As and Mo, and the anions F and SO/sub 4/ were present at levels exceeding maximum concentration levels in themore » tailings leaching column effluents. However, local clays, both in amended and unamended form were effective in attenuating contaminant migration. The soil amendments tested failed to increase radium attenuation. The tailings leaching studies indicated that the tailings will produce leachates of neutral pH and relatively low contaminant levels for at least 200 years. We believe that compacting the tailings within the encapsulation cell will help to reduce leaching of contaminants from the liner system, since very low permeabilities (

This report describes several laboratory procedures and computer model simulations used to evaluate the transport of water and radionuclides through unsaturated Hanford soils. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity was measured using the steady state methods of Klute and the transient state method of Rose. These experimental data were compared to other conductivity models. Good agreement was found between all methods in the wet range; however, disagreement was found in the dry range. None of the conductivity models explicity addresses the water vapor component of the conductivity. This may explain the under prediction of the hydraulic conductivity in the dry range where vapor transport is important. Radionuclide transport through unsaturated media was investigated by using two solute transport models to describe the transport of tritium and strontium-85 in laboratory columns. A two parameter convective-dispersive model was compared with a four parameter mobile-immobile water model. Both models adequately described the movement of tritium and strontium through small (5 cm x 27.5 cm) columns and the movement of tritium and strontium through a large (0.5 m x 1.7) column. The dispersion coefficient was found to be sensitive to changes in both velocity and column length. The mobile-immoble water equations were not as sensitive tomore » changes in experimental scales as the convective-dispersive equation. Both models were relatively successful in describing the rapid flush of strontium-85 from a column initially leached with a low salt solution followed by a high salt solution, a phenomona called the snow plow effect. The four parameter mobile-immobile water model predicted the initial release of the strontium more accurately than the two parameter convective-dispersive model. Both models confirm enhanced mobility of strontium-85 with leaching solutions of increased salt concentration.« less