Radionuclide contaminated soil: Laboratory study and economic analysis of soil washing. Final report

Abstract

The objective of the work discussed in this report is to determine if soil washing is a feasible method to remediate contaminated soils from the Hazardous Waste Management Facility (HWMF) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The contaminants are predominantly Cs-137 and Sr-90. The authors have assumed that the target activity for Cs-137 is 50 pCi/g and that remediation is required for soils having greater activities. Cs-137 is the limiting contaminant because it is present in much greater quantities than Sr-90. This work was done in three parts, in which they: estimated the volume of contaminated soil as a function of Cs-137 content, determined if simple removal of the fine grained fraction of the soil (the material that is less than 0.063 mm) would effectively reduce the activity of the remaining soil to levels below the 50 pCi/g target, assessed the effectiveness of chemical and mechanical (as well as combinations of the two) methods of soil decontamination. From this analysis the authors were then able to develop a cost estimate for soil washing and for a baseline against which soil washing was compared.