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Trench Water Chemistry at Commercially Operated Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Sites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

R. F. Pietrzak
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
R. Dayal
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
M. T. Kinsley
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
J. Clinton
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
K. S. Czyscinski*
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
A. J. Weiss
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
*
*Present address: Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation, Battelle Project Management Division, 505 King Avenue, Columbus, OH.
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Abstract

Water samples from the disposal trenches of two low-level radioactive waste burial sites were analyzed for their inorganic, organic, and radionuclide contents. Since oxidation of the trench waters can occur during their movement along the groundwater flow path,experiments were performed to measure the chemical and physical changes that occur in these waters upon oxidation. In addition to the highly acidic conditions of the oxidized Maxey Flats trench water, low concentrations of chelating agents, shown to exist in trench waters, may be responsible for keeping radionuclides in solution following oxidation of anoxic trench leachates from Maxey Flats and West Valley burial sites.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1983

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References

REFERENCES

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