Drilling operation for a ground-water characterization well at the Project Shoal Offsite Test Area. |
DRI Research for the U.S. Department of Energy
Introduction
In August 2006, DRI continued a long-standing relationship with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), signing a five-year, $42M Technical Research, Engineering, and Development Services (TREDS) Contract to support environmental remediation, environmental monitoring and compliance, stockpile stewardship and nonproliferation, and technology development for the DOE, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office.
In addition, in February 2007 as a subcontractor to Stoller-Navarro Grand Junction, DRI began research for the Office of Legacy Management to continue research on contaminant transport, risk, and risk management for the “Offsite Test Areas”, locations in five states where underground nuclear tests were conducted off the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The DOE Office of Legacy Management (OLM) was established to manage sites with long-term stewardship (LTS) requirements after regulatory closure. Because it is technical impractical to remove radionuclides from groundwater and other subsurface media caused by nuclear tests, the Offsites Test Areas will have long-term legacy management/LTS issues associated with them.
The following are short summaries of some of DRI’s current programs and research areas for the Nevada Site Office and OLM.
Groundwater Modeling and Contaminant Transportation
Map of NTS and major areas where underground nuclear tests were conducted, highlighted in red. |
The Desert Research Institute is characterizing and modeling groundwater contamination from past underground nuclear tests (UGTs) conducted by the United States. Most of these tests were done on the Nevada Test Site (NTS). In addition, DRI is modeling groundwater flow and contaminant transport at various “Offsite Test Areas.” The "offsites" are eight locations off the NTS in five states where the U.S. conducted underground tests: Offsite map DRI is working at two offsites in Nevada, the Project Shoal site and Central Nevada Test Area (CNTA), as well as sites in Alaska, New Mexico and Colorado.
In 2005, DRI's groundwater flow and transport model was used as the basis for designing and constructing a new monitoring well network for the "Faultless" test at CNTA. In addition, the DRI model for the Project Shoal site was approved and new monitoring wells were constructed at this site in 2006. More information is available about the model developed by DRI at the Project Shoal Web site.
 Drilling new groundwater monitoring wells at the Central Nevada Test Area. |
The vast majority of UGTs - over 800 - conducted by the U.S. were done at the NTS.
DRI is completing a contaminant flow and transport model for the Climax Mine. This is an area of granitic rock located at the north end of Yucca Flat on the NTS where three underground nuclear tests were conducted.
Recent geological investigations indicate that the Climax Stock area is more extensive than originally believed; further, the area contacts lower Paleozoic carbonates where the regional groundwater aquifer is located. DRI research will be useful in determining if contaminants from UGTs conducted in the Climax Stock area have potential for migrating to the lower carbonate aquifer.
 CEMP Ely Station |
The Community Environmental Monitoring Program
The Community Environmental Monitoring Program (CEMP) is a network of 29 radiation and meteorological monitoring stations in a three-state region ( Nevada, Utah, and California) designed to ensure that no airborne contaminant releases occur from past or ongoing activities on the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Automated instruments provide near real-time readout at the stations for gamma radiation; soil temperature, and meteorological properties including temperature, wind speed, humidity, and insolent solar radiation. In addition, air particulate samples are collected at the stations, primarily to analyze for alpha activity. For the automated instruments, DRI uses a variety of data transmission technologies to link the stations to a public internet site (http://www.cemp.dri.edu) maintained by the Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) at DRI’s campus in Reno. DRI manages the WRCC for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (http://www.wrcc.dri.edu). On the web site the public can view the environmental data in near real time from the majority of stations across the 85,000 square mile region covered by the network.
Craig Shadel of DRI (center) trains CEMs to operate the air monitoring equipment at an annual CEMP workshop. |
A key feature of the success of the CEMP is the “Community Environmental Monitors (CEMs),” citizens that live in the towns or on the ranches where the stations are located. The CEMs collect air filter samples, perform minor maintenance on the stations, and serve as spokespeople for the communities where they live on issues of concern to residents. Many of the CEMs are science teachers who use the CEMP as a “science laboratory” for their students. Continuing education credits are available for teachers in the program. The CEMP has become a model for stakeholder involvement in environmental monitoring.
More information on the CEMP is available at: CEMP Newsletter
Nonproliferation Research and Development
 Deployment of a portable environmental monitoring station for continuous radon monitoring. |
A relatively new area of research for DRI is using its expertise in environmental radioactivity to support nuclear nonproliferation. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) developed the Automated Radioxenon Sampler/Analyzer (ARSA) as a prototype sampling station for the International Monitoring System for measurements of nuclear explosions. In 2006, as a subcontractor to PNNL, DRI assisted with measuring background levels of radioxenon by deploying a portable environmental monitoring station (PEMS) in conjunction with the ARSA to measure meteorological and radiological phenomena (wind direction and speed, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, solar radiation, and total gamma radiation) that might be important in interpreting a detection of radioxenon. A second project involved measuring variations in radon flux. Radon flux was measured with an AlphaGuard P30 continuous radon monitoring instrument from Genitron Instruments deployed on the PEMS. Although radon is not a signature radionuclide for nonproliferation, an increase in outgassing of it could indicate an underground event. All variations in radon measured during the four week experiment were caused by changes in meteorological parameters such as temperature and barometric pressure.