Water Movement and Water Chemistry in the Unsaturated Zone at a Low-LevelRadioactive-Waste Disposal Site Near Sheffield, Illinois, 1986-87

摘要

Hydrologic research was conducted at the low-level radioactive-waste disposalsite near Sheffield, Ill., during 1986-87. The purpose of the research was to address questions generated by earlier studies at the disposal site from 1981 to 1985 (PB95-186631). The specific goals of the research were (1) to characterize temporal trends in water movement and water chemistry over several (5-11) years, (2) to evaluate preferential movement of water and leachate (soluble trend-waste constituents) in an unsaturated glacial sand deposit underlying several disposal trenches, and (3) to determine the extent to which a tunnel, used in the study to access geologic deposits below four trenches, affected the natural movement of water in the unsaturated deposits.