The distribution of Pu, 241Am, and water in Bandelier Tuff beneath a former liquid waste disposal site at Los Alamos was investigated. The waste use history of the site was described, as well as the previous field and laboratory studies of radionuclide migration performed at this site. One of the absorption beds studied had 20.5 m of water added to it in 1961 in an aggressive attempt to change the distribution of radionuclides in the tuff beneath the bed. Plutonium and 241Am were detected to sampling depths of 30 m in this bed, but only found to depths of 6.5 to 13.41 m in an adjacent absorption bed (bed 2) not receiving additional water in 1961. After 17 yr of migration of the slug of water added to bed 1, 0.3 to 5.1% of the Pu inventory and 3.0 to 49.6% of the 241Am inventory was mobilized within the 30‐m sampling depth, as less than one column volume of water moved through the tuff profile under the bed. The results of similar lab and field studies performed since 1953 were compared with our 1978 data and site hydrologic data was used as a time marker to estimate how fast radionuclide migration occurred in the tuff beneath absorption bed 1. Most of the radionuclide migration appeared to have occurred within 1 yr of the 20.5‐m water leaching in 1961. The implications of our research results to nuclear waste management were also discussed.

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Computing soil moisture content with a neutron probe requires use of a calibration curve that considers the thermal neutron capture cross section of the hole liner, as well as the hole diameter. The influence of steel, polyvinyl chloride, and aluminum casings that fit 0.051-to 0.102-m hole diameters was determined by comparison with neutron probe readings in uncased holes of corresponding diameters. Eccentricity of probe location was considered a potentially significant variable. The experiment was run in disturbed Bandelier tuff with an average dry density of 1.35g • cnf 3 and moisture content of 3.8 to 26.7% by volume. The casing material and hole diameter influenced the probe readings significantly, whereas eccentric location of the probe did not. Regression analyses showed an almost perfect inverse linear correlation between hole diameter and count rate. I.

The field research program involving the development of technology for arid shallow land burial (SLB) sites is described. Results of field testing of biointrusion barriers installed at an active low-level radioactive waste disposal site (Area G) at Los Alamos are presented. A second experiment was designed to test the ability of a capillary barrier to effectively convey water infiltrating a SLB trench around and away from underlying buried wastes. The performance of the capillary barrier was tested in the field for a Darrier of known thickness (2 m), slope (10%), and slope length (2 m), and for one combination of porous materials [a crushed tuff-clay (2% w/w) mixture overlying Ottawa sand] subjected to a k.:own water addition rate. The waste management implications of both studies are also di scussed. I.

An unusually wet season permitted us to test the integrity of our biobarrier installed in the improved or modified plots in our integrated system. Although the modified plots had a reduced water-holding capacity, they delivered leachate only at the drain installed above the biobarrier, demonstrating once more that the biobarrier is behaving successfully as a capillary barrier in rerouting the subsurface flow around the tuff beneath the biobarrier. As a result of vertical water flow impedance, more water was made available to plot vegetation, enhancing its growth dramatically. The capillary barrier theory was backed up by the tensiometer results showing saturation at the upper biobarrier interface.