ࡱ> "$!M ,bjbj== "WW,lZZZZ f ~~~~~~~~$O o>~~~~~>~~S~~~~j~r :EZ i0__ Radiological Environmental Monitoring of the WIPP Project by EEG during 2002. Don Gray The Environmental Evaluation Group (EEG) is a group of scientists and engineers conducting an ongoing independent technical evaluation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) project, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The group focuses its effort on protection of the public health and the environment. Part of this effort involves monitoring the air, water and soil in the area through targeted sampling and analyses for those radionuclides, present in the WIPP waste, which are of greatest concern for human health. This poster will present and discuss the results of EEGs monitoring of WIPPs operations during 2002 with emphasis on comparison to similar results obtained before the first waste arrived in March, 1999. ,OPYZ+,$a$, 1h/ =!"#$% i8@8 NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH <A@< Default Paragraph Font,OPYZ+.0000000,,,..+.Don GraySandia National LaboratoriesC:\Conferences\Radiochemistry Conference\Poster abstracts\Radiological Environmental Monitoring of the WIPP Project by EEG During 2002.doc@,p@UnknownGz Times New Roman5Symbol3& z Arial"qhCwFCwFu!r05\3H?ABSTRACT for presentation at the 2003 Radiochemistry ConferenceDon GraySandia National LaboratoriesOh+'0 , T` |  @ABSTRACT for presentation at the 2003 Radiochemistry ConferenceBST Don Grayforon on  Normal.dotrSandia National Laboratoriesthe2ndMicrosoft Word 9.0o@G@E@Eu՜.+,0( hp|  EEG5 @ABSTRACT for presentation at the 2003 Radiochemistry Conference Title  #Root Entry FFE%1Table WordDocument"SummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8CompObjjObjectPoolFEFE  FMicrosoft Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received its first shipment of Transuranic (TRU) waste in 1999

The effect of humic acids on MgO in the WIPP

Sara A. Mathews, Nathalie A. Wall, and Anna C. Snider

Sandia National Laboratories - Carlsbad Programs Group, 4100 National Parks Highway, Carlsbad, NM 88220, USA

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was excavated in a Permian bedded-salt formation and is a Department of Energy (DOE) repository for transuranic (TRU) waste from defense programs. WIPP received its first shipment of TRU waste in 1999. Premier magnesium oxide (MgO) is used as an engineered barrier in the repository. MgO reduces actinide solubility by consuming carbon dioxide produced from possible microbial action, buffering pH between 8-10, and reducing the amount of available water. Humic acids (HA) are issued from the degradation of animals and vegetation and are of colloidal size (0.001-0.1m m). HA may occur in the WIPP from soils contained in the waste or the degradation of organic matter present in the waste. The latest experimental results show that HA are stable for several months in WIPP brines; however, when MgO is present, the humic material precipitates completely. This presentation features x-ray diffraction analysis, as well as images employing scanning electron microscopy of MgO in the presence of and in the absence of HA.

This research is funded by WIPP programs administrated by the Department of Energy.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.