Abstract
Results are presented from an ongoing field-scale experimental study (namely the Chernobyl Pilot Site project) aimed at characterization of processes controlling 90Sr releases from a shallow trench containing nuclear fuel particles, and subsequent radionuclide transport in the underlying sandy aquifer at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site. Microscopic analyses of waste material and leaching experiments have shown that 10–30% of the radioactive inventory is associated with chemically extra-stable Zr–U–O particles. The largest fraction of 90Sr activity in the trench (≈30–60%) is currently associated with relatively slowly dissolving non-oxidized UO 2 matrix fuel particles. The 90Sr migration velocity in the eolian sand aquifer is retarded by sorption to ≈9% of groundwater flow velocity ( K d ≈ 2 ml/g). The dispersivity values for non-reactive solute transport in the aquifer predicted by geostatistics (i.e. 0.8 6 cm) were confirmed by a natural gradient tracer test using 36Cl. The observed negative correlation between hydraulic conductivity and K d of aquifer sediments suggests that 90Sr could be subjected to larger dispersion in the subsurface compared with 36Cl.
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