Low-level integrated system test

Abstract

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.

Field evaluation of two shallow land burial trench cap designs for long-term stabilization and closure of waste repositories at Los Alamos, New Mexico

“…Finally, the reader should refer to several other manuscripts which relate both to field data collected in the ITP experiments and the calibration of hydrologic models with the ITP data base. Two preliminary reports have been published on some of the earliest field data and methodology used in the ITP experiments (Abeele et al 1986, Hakonson et al 1987. Another concurrently-written report contains the soil water tension data collected in the ITP experiment (Nyhan and Drennon 1988), as well as an evaluation of the state-of-the-art tensiometry technology used in this effort.…”

“…Soil moisture determinations were performed using a Campbell Pacific model 503 neutron moisture gauge (Campbell Pacific Nuclear Corp., Pacheco, California) which had been previously calibrated for the crushed tuff used in this experiment . Readings were collected in the Control plots at depths of 20, 40, 80, and 110 cm at six plot locations (Abeele et al 1986). Similar data were collected in the Improved plots at depths of 20, 40, 60 (only in the overhang portion of the plot), and 220 cm.…”