PNNL

Abstract

Microscopic and spectroscopic analysis of uranium-contaminated sediment cores beneath the BX waste tank farm at the US Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford site revealed that uranium (U) existed as uranyl precipitates primarily associated with the intragrain fractures of granitic clasts in the sediment (McKinley et al. 2005). The dissolution of the precipitates appeared to be controlled by intragrain ion diffusion coupled with the dissolution kinetics of the uranyl precipitates most likely as Na-boltwoodite. Here we presented a coupled microscopic reactive diffusion model by independently characterizing the intragrain diffusion and dissolution kinetics of Na-boltwoodite. Diffusion characterization with a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) pulse gradient spin-echo (PGSE) technique showed that the intragrain fractures of the granitic clasts in the Hanford sediment contain two domans with distinct diffusivities. The fast diffusion domain has an apparent tortuosity of about 1.5, while the slow region has a tortuosity of two orders of magnitude larger. A two-domain diffusion model was assembled and used to infer the geochemical conditions that led to intragrain uranyl precipitation when the sediment was contaminated by U-containing wastes at the site. Rapid precipitation of Na-boltwoodite was simulated when a U-containing, alkaline caustic, and high carbonate tank waste solution diffused into intragrain fractures originally containing Si-rich solutions. The model was also used to simulate uranyl dissolution and release from the contaminant sediment to aqueous solutions. With independently characterized parameters for Na-boltwoodite dissolution, the model simulations demonstrated that diffusion could significantly decrease the rates of intragrain uranyl mineral dissolution due to diffusion-induced local solubility limitation, and the intragrain uranyl precipitates could serve as a long-term uranyl source for the vadose porewater and underlying groundwater at this site.