Los Alamos National Laboratory

Site Description

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) occupies about 43 square miles in Los Alamos County, approximately 25 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico. LANL sits on the Pajarito Plateau, which is made up of fingerlike mesas ranging in elevation from 6,200 to 7,800 feet.

Sixteen drainage areas, with a total of 52,500 acres, pass through or start within the LANL site. Streamflow in these canyons is intermittent. Springs on the flanks of the Jemez Mountains supply base flow into the upper reaches of some canyons. Runoff from heavy thunder-storms or heavy snowmelt reaches the Rio Grande several times a year. The main aquifer in the LANL area is located within the Tesuque Formation beneath the entire plateau and Rio Grande Valley. The lowest part of the Puye Conglomerate and the Tesuque Formation are within the main aquifer beneath the central and western portions of the plateau.

Major Environmental Concerns

Environmental restoration activities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are currently arranged into 74 "Technical Areas" (TA). Several highly contaminated Material Disposal Areas ("MDA") have been abandoned in place and have been verified as sources of lateral migration of chemical and radioactive materials. There are over 1,100 potential release sites within these technical areas which have contaminated a number of alluvial aquifers according to the Installation Work Plan for Environmental Restoration, Nov-90 (LA-UR-90-3825). Of special concern to site management are:

• TA 21 MDA-U - Covers about 0.25 acre and used for the subsurface disposal of liquid chemical and radioactive wastes. Measurable levels of actinium, beryllium, and PCBs are present. A sampling trench indicates the continued presence of high concentrations of actinium.
• TA 21 MDA-V - Covers approximately 1 acre and was used for the disposal of radionuclide-contaminated wastewater from laundry operations. The seepage pits and drain lines have been abandoned in place. Sampling has detected traces of tritium, uranium, and plutonium-239 to a depth of 17.7 meters.
• TA 21 MDA-B - Covers 6 acres and is an inactive landfill. Trenches received chemical and radioactive wastes includ-ing plutonium, uranium, americium, curium, actinium, corrosive gases and at least one truck contaminated with fission products. A study done by the U.S.G.S. indicates lateral movement of water originating from the pits.
• TA 21 MDA-T - Covers 2 acres and includes 62 shafts, four adsorption beds, a pit (TA-21-186) and four sumps. The beds received in excess of 14 million gallons of plutonium processing waste. Transuranic wastes were mixed with cement and pumped into 175 corrugated pipes (2.5' dia., 20' long). Shafts were used for "cemented americium wastes" and "Transuranic cement paste" disposal. Several studies have been done to characterize the movement of waste within MDA-T showing subsurface migration of radionuclides.
• TA 33 MDA-K - This disposal area includes a septic system, leach field and two sumps. The septic system received liquid waste contaminated with plutoni-um, tritium, and possibly uranium-233, -235, and -238. Organic contaminants also present include trichloroethene, benzene, and acetone.
• TA 50 MDA-C - Covering approximately 12 acres, this disposal area contains approximately 3.6 million cubic feet of waste in six radioactive pits, one chemical pit, and 107 shafts. Material buried in the radioactive pits include building debris, depleted uranium chips, sludge from waste treatment plants and contaminated trash. Plutonium-contaminated sodium loops were buried in the shafts. The chemical pit received a "variety of chemicals, pyrophoric metals, hydrides and powers, sodium potassium alloys and up to 200 gas cylinders" containing nickel carbonyl. A 1986 DOE Environ-mental Survey (environmental problem 22) indicated above-background levels of radioactivity adjacent to the site, presumably resulting from lateral migration of waste in MDA-C.
• TA 54 MDA-L - This area served as the principal waste disposal area for LANL for over 20 years beginning in 1964. Included within MDA-L are one pit, three surface impoundments, and 34 shafts. The pit was used for "all wastes" from 1964 to 1975. Water evaporating from the pit eventually left a salt cake which reached to within three feet of the top of the impoundment berm. Being of no further use, the pit was backfilled and abandoned in place. From 1975 to 1985, shafts (ranging from 2 to 8 feet in diameter and up to 65 feet deep) were used for disposal of organics, inorganics, oils, pesticides, acids, bases, and reactive metals. Volatile organic vapors have been detected at depths of 100 feet.
• TA 54 MDA-G - Tritium migration from waste depositied in Area G was discovered as early as 1970. Migration is facilitated by the presence of open joints (fractures) in the Tuff, providing a pathway for tritiated water. Additional studies (A. Beele, et al, 1981) indicate tritium is also migrating into adjacent soils from asphalt-lined shafts in MDA-G.

Solution to Major Concerns

RKK, Ltd. can immediately install its CRYOCELL containment methodology to completely isolate any of the Los Alamos Technical Areas. CRYOCELL is the only containment system available today that provides diffusion free, monitorable, full containment and isolation, that is removable and repairable in-situ. No other technology available today can compare to or provide these design standards for mixed or high level waste containment.

CRYOCELL engineering is site specific. RKK's Thermodynamic Model-ing/Monitoring Program incorporates all site characteristics into a three dimensional model which RKK uses to design and estimate costs of CRYOCELL. This program is combined with on-site monitoring equipment to develop a real-time computer image of barrier status throughout its life-cycle.

Cost to Address Major Concerns

A conservative total site cost for a CRYOCELL barrier fully containing the entire TA 54 MDA-G, with a large contigency factor built in, is estimated to be $3.5 million, including all construction and operating costs for 30 years. This is more cost effective than any other technology, with the advantages of on-line/real-time monitoring, diffusion free containment, and quick adaptibility to the various site parameters of the LANL area.