STUDIES ON UNSATURATED ZONE HYDROLOGY AND RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION AT A SHALLOW-LAND BURIAL SITE

Abstract

We studied unsaturated zone hydrology and the migration of radionuclides at a shallow-land burial site located at Maxey Flats, Kentucky. The initial results indicate that the principal pathway of water entry into the trench was by percolation through the trench caps. Tritium-bearing water was found to be moving upward from a saturated waste-burial trench through the trench cap to the soil surface. Evidence of tritium movement at a depth of 3 to 4 meters was observed to a distance of about 5 meters laterally. No 137Cs migration was observed, but very small amounts of 238Pu and 60Co were found to have migrated short distances from the trench.