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IN REPLY REFER TO:LS6-81-190 MAIL STOPf 9 5

Dr. M. L. Krupinski Program Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY

(CONTRACT W-7405-ENG-36) P.O. BOlC 1663

LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO 87545

April 1, 1981

Waste Management Program EG&G Idaho, Inc. P.O. Box 1625 Idaho Falls, ID 83401

Dear Mike:

Enclosed are the Monthly Reports on those projects under your low-level waste program.

Sincerely,

JGS:tj

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MONTHLY PROGRESS REPORT

LOW-LEVEL WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

D3 - Model SLB Site

D13 - Remedial Action Testing

D28 - Shallow-Land Burial Barriers-Migration D29 - Biological Intrusion Barriers for SLB Sites D41 - Los Alamos Disposal Site Studies D47 - Arid Site Closure

D50 - Alternatives Studies

LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE GROUP LS-6

Work performed for

OFFICE OF WASTE MANAGEMENT US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

W\. LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY

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MONTHLY PROGRESS REPORT

LOW-LEVEL WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

January and February 1981

Preparation of our January report was delayed due to an excessive workload in February so we have combined it with the February report. Activities over and above normally scheduled work in February were:

1. Meeting in Salt Lake City the second week in February on Site/Waste Modeling.

2. Meeting in Tucson the fourth week of February for the annual waste management review.

3. Preparation of Field Task Proposal/ Authorization form from new guidance, which was difficult to understand.

4. Loss of some funding on a couple of projects that required the rescheduling of many people and activities.

OveraJJ, program progress is very good. We stiJJ feel that we can make all of our scheduled milestones this year, but a couple of the tasks have had to be modified to adjust for construction delays and funding reductions. Our new funding expenditure forecasts are attached.

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03-Model SLB Site

Site fencing was started in January and was completed in February. The area to be used as an equipment storage yard was staked out and will be fenced with security fencing. The road network was staked out and some preliminary road work started. Drawings for the caisson cluster were completed in January and the construction job on the experiment clusters went out for bid in February. Figure 6 is an artist's conception of the experiment clusters with experiments emplaced. Consideration is being given to bringing water and power to the site.

013-Remedial Action Testing

The capability for the modeling of unsaturated flow has been identified within the Laboratory. This modeling capability will be used to plan both the remedial action testing experiments as well as the SLB-Barrier-Migration experiments.

The moisture cycling experiments will be conducted as illustrated on Figure 1. Tracers for both vapor and liquid phase transport will be emplaced as indicated in the figure. Water will be added to the experiment in amounts and with a frequency determined from the modeling. The experiment will be planned to have as much upward movement of water as possible to accelerate the possible upward transport. Water movement will be monitored with the neutron moisture probe. At the end of the experiment, the backfill will be destructively sampled and the extent of migration due to moisture cycling determined. Several of these experiments will be emplaced.

028-Shallow-Land Burial Barriers-Migration

The down-hole field instrumentation for moisture, temperature and bulk density measurements has been mounted on a trailer. An enclosure is being built around the apparatus to protect it from the weather.

The experiments planned for this work task will (1) determine the migration potential for water and radionuclides in arid regions, (2) evaluate the performance of systems designed to keep water out of the buried waste materials, (3) evaluate the performance of natural liner materials to prevent migration of radionudides out of a facility, (4) evaluate the performance of passive treatment systems, (5) determine the potential for the migration of radioactive gases due to microbiological degradation of waste materials, (6) evaluate a system designed to prevent the migration of tritium out of a disposal facility, and (7) provide a data base for computer modeling of the hydrological and geochemical aspects of shallow land burial in arid environments.

The proposed experiments are outlined in Figures 2, 3, and 4. Also shown on Figure 3 is a remedial action testing experiment.

029-Shallow-Land Burial Barriers-Intrusion

The experimental configurations of the plant and animal test plots has been finalized. Experimental variables selected for study include soil overburden depth (30 em and 60 em); bio-barrier type (2 to 7.5 em diameter cobble, graded size cobble and gravel, bentonite clay, and crushed tuff); and vegetation species (barley, clover, and alfalfa). The design, with four replications per treatment, requires a sample size of 288 (2 over burden depths x 4 hie­barrier types x 3 bio-barrier depths x 3 vegetation species x 4 replications per treatment = 288). Extra lysimeters of each experimental variable will be prepared in order to insure balanced sample sizes for the statistical analysis of the data.

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An example of a cover profile is given in Figure 5. The cesium chloride tracer introducted into the bottom of the profile will provide time series data on the rate of root penetration, should it occur, thru various bio-barrier materials.

A greenhouse study was initiated to evaluate the optimum method of applying the tracer within the cover profiles as determined by the 133cscl content of alfalfa, clover, and barley plants. Methods of introducing the tracer into the cover profile include spiking of a sponge material and the natural soil with a l33cscl solution.

Laboratory studies have been initiated on the field capacity and saturation point of the top soil that will be used in the lysimeter study to determine the appropriate watering rates for the plants grown on the various profile configurations. Preliminary data indicate that field capacity of the soil overburden is about 36 percent while the. bulk density averages about 1.2 glee. ·

A total of 320 lysimeters were prepared from stock polyvinyl chloride pipe for use in the bio-intrusion study. Since each lysimeter may contain as much as 400 kg of fill material special consideration had to be given to the strength of the lysimeter particularly when suspended from a front end loader. Drilling was begun on the 320 shafts that will contain the lysimeters. Each hole is being cased with 30 em diameter PVC to insure integrity of the hole with time.

Four culverts, 1.9 m in diameter, were placed on pads within the bio-intrusion study plot and were filled with four different experimental waste cover profiles to evaluate the effectiveness of the various barriers in preventing animal burrowing with depth. The basic difference between each profile is in the type of barrier used to prevent animal intrusion. Barrier materials were cobble, cobble-gravel, bentonite clay and crushed tuff analoguous to the profiles that will be tested in the plant intrusion study.

D41-Los Alamos Disposal Site Studies

Work on the hydrology and geology reports continue.

Considerable effort is being spent on BIOTRAN and the PNL airborne and unsaturated flow models.

D47-Arid Site Closure

Information is being collected on a continuing basis for these experiments. General experimental plans are being developed.

D50-Alternative Studies

Reports on Deeper Burial (University of Texas), Mined Cavities, Surface Storage (University of Arizona), and Well and Shaft Injection are in review. These reports are scheduled to be sent to EG&G Idaho in March for review.

A draft copy of our report on Alternatives and a development plan for future alternative work was sent to EG&G Idaho for comment.

Due to the reduction in funding, work on this task will end next month.

N&UTROII IIOIITUR&

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