Quantifying and Predicting Reactive Transport of Uranium in Waste Plumes

The Hanford Site is the DOE's largest legacy waste site, with uranium (U) from plutonium processing being a major contaminant in its subsurface. Accident release of highly concentrated high level wastes (e.g. 0.5 lb U(VI)/gal) left large quantities of U in the vadose zone under tank farms (e.g. 7-8 tons U(VI) under tank BX-102 (Jones et al., 2001)). The U contamination has been found in groundwater in both 300 and 200 Areas of Hanford, indicating U(VI) was/is mobile. Because excavation costs are enormous, this U will likely be left in-ground for the foreseeable future. Therefore, understanding the contamination processes and the resulting U spatial and temporary distributions and mobility in the heavily contaminated Hanford site is needed in order to forecast its future transport. The overall objective of this research is to develop an experimentally supported conceptual model of U reactive transport, during and after the tank leakage, at heavily U-contaminated areas of the Hanford vadose zone. The conceptual model will incorporate key geochemical and physical controls on the contamination process, explain the current distribution of U in the vadose zone, and guide predictions of its future mobility under the influence of natural recharge. We do not seek to predict the complex flow geometry of any specific waste plume. Instead, our work is trying to identify the hierarchy of processes relevant along U waste plume paths.