A portion of the subsurface contamination at the Hanford Site, the former plutonium production facility in Washington State, affects the Columbia River. A component of this contamination, uranium (U), has variable isotopic composition due to nuclear industrial processes carried out at the site. This characteristic makes it possible to use high-precision isotopic measurements of U in environmental samples to identify even trace levels of contaminant U, determine its sources, and estimate discharge rates. Our data on river water samples indicate that as much as 3.2 kg/day can enter the Columbia River from the 300 Area of the Hanford Site, which is only a small fraction of the total load of dissolved natural background U carried by the Columbia River. This very low–level contamination can be discerned, despite further dilution to
Revised: September 26, 2013 |
Published: December 1, 2010
Citation
Christensen J.N., P.E. Dresel, M.E. Conrad, G.W. Patton, and D.J. DePaolo. 2010.Isotopic Tracking of Hanford 300 Area Derived Uranium in the Columbia River.Environmental Science & Technology 44, no. 23:8855-8862.PNNL-SA-74210.doi:10.1021/es1025799