A review of literature pertaining to the leaching and sorption of radionuclides associated with nuclear explosive melt glasses

For the purposes of groundwater characterization, environmental remediation and health risk assessment, the mechanism and rate by which radionuclides bound within nuclear device melt glass are manifest in Nevada Test Site groundwaters must be known. Exchange between radionuclides and groundwater is dominated by the kinetics of leaching and the resultant sorption of derivative nuclides by minerals along the flow-path. In this context, a survey of the report literature has been conducted to review work related to these subjects. This report provides a representative, although not exhaustive, summary of the literature; because of the specialized nature of nuclear melt glass, emphasis was given to the report literature available from Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories, the Department of Energy and its predecessor agencies and pertinent contractors. Where data is corroborated in journal literature, those references are also included. Before the risk to ground waters is estimated with any accuracy, recommendations for continued future work integrate systematic characterization of melt glass with leaching studies of these heterogeneous matrices.