Estimating Volume of Contaminated Soil for Excavation: A Quick and Simple Method

摘要

Estimates of the volume of radionuclide contaminated soil which must be excavated require data on the depth distribution of the contamination. Using a novel uncomplicated approach, vertical activity distribution data were obtained on a 1400 m sup 2 site. The volume of contaminated soil which had to be excavated was estimated to be between 227 and 425 m sup 3 . When the site cleanup was done, 312 m sup 3 of contaminated soil had to be removed to satisfy the cleanup criteria. The basic approach was to drill 193 holes over the entire site and to make measurements in each using a detector with a side-looking collimator. Soil samples from the holes were analyzed only to the extent necessary to obtain sufficient data for demonstrating a correlation between count rate and activity concentration in the soil. The site was then conceptually sliced into vertical strips of contamination concern. The product of the contamination depths which exceeded cleanup criteria and the areas of the slices gave the volume of excavation required. (ERA citation 12:046203)