NUREG/CR-6705 "Historical Case Analysis of Uranium Plume
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NUREG/CR-6705 SAND2000-2554 Historical Case Analysis of Uranium Plume Attenuation Sandia National Laboratories Research -ell.""Rea Office of Nuclear Regulatory U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 AVAILABILITY OF REFERENCE MATERIALS IN NRC PUBLICATIONS NRC Reference Material Non-NRC Reference Material As of November 1999, you may electronically access Documents available from public and special technical NUREG-series publications and other NRC records at libraries include all open literature items, such as NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room at books, journal articles, and transactions, Federal www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html. Registernotices, Federal and State legislation, and Publicly released records include, to name a few, congressional reports. 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Although references to material found decisions and orders of the Commission and on a Web site bear the date the material was Atomic and Safety Licensing Boards and of accessed, the material available on the date cited may Directors' decisions under Section 2.206 of NRC's subsequently be removed from the site. regulations (NUREG-0750). DISCLAIMER: This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the U.S. Government. Neither the U.S. Government nor any agency thereof, nor any employee, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for any third party's use, or the results of such use, of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this publication, or represents that its use by such third party would not infringe privately owned rights. NUREG/CR-6705 SAND2000-2554 Historical Case Analysis of Uranium Plume Attenuation Manuscript Completed: January 2001 Date Published: February 2001 Prepared by C.F. Jove Colon, P.V. Brady, M.D. Siegel, E.R. Lindgren Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque, NM 87185-0750 E. O'Donnell, NRC Project Manager Division of Regulatory Applications and Analysis Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 NRC Job Code W6811 Abstract Groundwater plumes containing dissolved The magnitude of the original contaminant uranium at levels above natural source, the geologic setting, and the background exist adjacent to uranium ore hydrologic regime were rarely similar a bodies at uranium mines, milling from site to site. Plumes also spanned set of locations, and at a number of explosive vast range of ages and no complete a test facilities. Public health concerns time-series plume analyses exist for require that some assessment of the particular site. Despite the accumulated potential for further plume movement in uncertainties and variabilities, the plume the future be made. Reaction-transport data set gave a clear and reasonably models, which might conceivably be used consistent picture of U plume behavior. to predict plume movement, require Specifically, uranium plumes: extensive data inputs that are often * Appear to reach steady-state, that uncertain. Many of the site-specific inputs is, they quit spreading rapidly are physical parameters that can vary (within a few years). spatially and with time. Limitations in * Exceed roughly 2 km in length data availability and accuracy mean that only in special cases e.g. where in reaction-transport predictions can rarely situ leaching has been carried out. provide more than order-of-magnitude The majority is much smaller. bounding estimates of contaminant * Exhibit very similar U chemistry movement in the subsurface. A more between sites. This implies direct means for establishing the limits of analogous contaminant attenuation contaminant transport is to examine actual mechanisms despite their location. plumes to determine if, collectively, they spread and attenuate in a reasonably consistent and characteristic fashion. Here a number of U plumes from ore bodies and contaminated sites were critically examined to identify characteristics of U plume movement. iii CONTENTS Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 111 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 2.0 Uranium in Soils ....................................................................................................... 1 2.1 Ore Formation and W eathering .................................................................................. 2 2.2 M icrobes and U ..................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Adsorption ............................................................. ................................................ 7 2.4 Colloids ......................................................................................................................... 8 3.0 Uranium Plum es ........................................................................................................ 9 3.1 Artificial Plum es ....................................................................................................... 9 3.2 Natural Plumes ............................................................................................................. 15 3.2.1 Koongarra ................................................................................................................. 16 3.2.2 0klo ........................................................................................................................... 17 3.2.3 Pogos de Caldas ................................................................................................... 17 3.2.4 Cigar Lake ................................................................................................................. 18 4.0 Plume Analysis ................................................................................................................ 18 5.0 Discussion and Conclusions ....................................................................................... 24 6.0 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... 30 References ............................................................................................................................... 31 FIGURES Figure 1 Uranyl speciation at 25'C and 1 bar as a function of pH under oxidizing conditions. f02 = 0.2 atm and pCO2 = 10-3.5 atm ............................................................................ 2 Figure 2. Uranium speciation at 25°C and 1 bar as a function of f02 and pH for an [U]total concentration is 10-14 molal ......................................................................................... 2 Figure 3. UM TRA Ground Water Project Title I site locations ...................................... 10 Figures 4a and 4b. Eh-pH diagrams at 25°C and 1 bar showing U phase boundaries