Movement of a tritium plume in shallow groundwater at a legacy low level radioactive waste disposal site in eastern Australia
Loading...
Date
2011-10-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
Between 1960 and 1968 low-level radioactive waste was buried in a series of shallow trenches near theLucas Heights facility, south of Sydney, Australia. Groundwater monitoring carried out since the mid1970s indicates that with the exception of tritium, no radioactivity above typical background levels hasbeen detected outside the immediate vicinity of the trenches. The maximum tritium level detected ingroundwater was 390 kBq/L and the median value was 5400 Bq/L, decay corrected to the time ofdisposal. Since 1968, a plume of tritiated water has migrated from the disposal trenches and extends atleast 100 m from the source area. Tritium in rainfall is negligible, however leachate from an adjacentlandfill represents a significant additional tritium source. Study data indicate variation in concentrationlevels and plume distribution in response to wet and dry climatic periods and have been used todetermine pathways for tritium migration through the subsurface.Crown Copyright © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd
Description
Keywords
Tritium, Plumes, Ground water, Radioactive waste disposal, Australia
Citation
Hughes, C. E., Cendón, D. I., Harrison, J. J., Hankin, S. I., Johansen, M. P., Payne, T. E., Vine, M., Collins, R. N., Hoffmann, E. L., Loosz, T. (2011). Movement of a tritium plume in shallow groundwater at a legacy low-level radioactive waste disposal site in eastern Australia. Paper presented to the 10th Biennial SPERA (South Pacific Environmental Radioactivity Association) Conference, 24/11/2008 to 27/11/2008, Christchurch, New Zealand. In Hermanspahn, N., & Matthews, M (Eds), Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 102(10), 943-952. doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2010.05.009