DIGGING FOR TREASURE--UNIQUE FATE AND TRANSPORT STUDY

摘要

In 1970, scientists at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), now called the National Institute ofStandards and Testing (NIST), implemented the most ambitious and comprehensive long-term corrosionbehavior test for stainless steels in soil environments. This study had historic significance since the NBS1957 landmark corrosion textbook compiled by Romanoff did not include stainless steels, and this 1970research set forth to complete the missing body of knowledge. To conduct the test, NIST scientists buried6,324 coupons from stainless steel types, specialty alloys, composite configurations, multiple materialforms, and treatment conditions at six distinctive soil-type sites throughout the country. Between 1971and 1980, four sets of coupons were removed from the six sites to establish 1-year, 2-year, 4-year, and 8-year corrosion rates data sets for different soil environments. The fifth and last set of coupons(approximately 200 at each site) remains undisturbed after 32-years, providing a virtual buried treasure ofmaterial and subsurface scientific data. These buried coupons and the surrounding soils represent ananalog to the condition of buried waste and containers. Heretofore, the samples were simply pulled fromthe soil, measured for mass loss and the corrosion rate determined while the subsurface/fate and transportinformation was not considered nor gathered. Funded through an Environmental Management ScienceProgram (EMSP) proposal, the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL)operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Bechtel-BWXT Idaho, LLC (BBWI), is chartered torestart this corrosion test and concurrently capture the available subsurface/fate and transport information.Since the work of retrieving the buried metal coupons is still in the planning stage, this paper outlines theinterdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers and defines the benefits of this research to long-termstewardship, subsurface science, and infrastructure protection programs.