Safety of the High-Level Uranium Ore Residues at the Niagara Falls Storage Site, Lewiston, New York (1995) / Chapter Skim
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CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION
Pages 37-48
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From page 37... ...
Air monitoring results to date show that radon activity levels are well within acceptable levels for breathing, both on the NFSS and in surrounding areas. Water samples from monitoring wells on the site and in surrounding areas show that radioactive species have not entered the ground water system in amounts much in excess of background levels, and that their concentrations are well within acceptable limits.
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From page 38... ...
38 SAFETY OF NIAGARA FALLS STORAGE SITE TABLE 4. Peak 226Ra Concentrations and Times of Occurrence (U.S.
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From page 39... ...
pose a potential long-term risk to the public, given the existing environmental conditions and future unpredictability, if they are left permanently at the NFSS. - Rae , ~ 39 The continuing high levels of radioactivity of the K-65 residues, the cumulative uncertainties in understanding and predicting local geological and hydrological behavior, the indeterminate nature of future land and water use and future demographics, the unpredictable physicochemical behavior of the residues such as possible complexation with reactants in the soil and colloid or pseudocolloid formation, and the large potential risk to the public, all argue decisively against leaving the residues at the MESS permanently.
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From page 40... ...
Transport and concentrations of contaminants in the ground water were calculated by solving a mass transport equation that includes convective transport, molecular diffusion, hydraulic dispersion, chemical sorption, and radioactive decay. The mobility of the 226Ra and 230Th in the containment facility depends primarily on the movement of ground water through the facility.
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From page 41... ...
are known to contain sand lenses, the average hydraulic properties of the underlying clayey materials are con sewatively assumed to be between the properties of clay and sand. The Committee notes that this is not conservative if the sand lenses are continuous through the clay for some distance beyond the waste facility, or if the distance between adjacent lenses is short.]
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From page 42... ...
The isotope 222Rn has a relatively short half life, and quickly establishes secular equilibrium with 226Ra, after which time it decays with the half life of 226Ra. The isotope 226Ra is the daughter of 230Th, but because 231h has such a long half life, it takes a long time to reach secular equilibrium.
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From page 44... ...
A OlllUSlOI1 COelilClent 01 U.W3b cm^/sec was used for calculating releases from drier (13 percent moistures NFSS wastes and residues at Hanford and topsoil and stony soils at NFSS and Oak Ridge. This dependence of diffusion coefficient on moisture content is cited as the reason for the significant difference between radon releases at the Hanford site and the Oak Ridge site.
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From page 45... ...
4) An important alternative, that of solidifying the high-level residues on site and shipping the solidified residues to an off-site location, has not been considered, even though this alternative was chosen for managing essentially identical residues of common origin currently stored in silos at the Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP)
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From page 46... ...
Because the neighboring facilities contain long-lived toxic materials such as lead, arsenic, and polychIorinated biphenyls, this scenario might well have unacceptable consequences. The Committee notes the possible inconsistency in removing the residues at NFSS without analyzing toxic material behavior in the same scenario.
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From page 47... ...
One of these estimated alternatives treatments involves placing the K-65 residues into steel drums, then into containers, and shipping the filled containers to a facility at Yucca Mountain, NV, at an estimated cost of about $85 million. The second involves treatment of the K-65 residues at the NFSS and subsequent shipment of the processed residues to a National Laboratory for disposal, at a toW cost of $30 million.
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From page 48... ...
8) Current site monitoring activities are inadequate for the determination of long-term site integrity and potential future risks to the public and the environment from the movement off site of radioactive and non-radioactive wastes in the NFSS containment structure, as well as the possible influx of waste materials from the disposal sites adjacent to the NFSS.
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