Radionuclide uptake by trees at a radwaste pond in Washington State

This paper presents work conducted in the summer of 1980 by Rockwell Hanford Operations, Hanford, WA, in support of a proposed effort to decommission and decontaminate a Hanford radwaste pond (216-U-10 Pond). The radionuclide values presented here are in addition to the U-Pond work that was recently published (La83) and are below any levels of environmental concern and within state and federal guidelines. U-Pond was constructed in 1944 for the surface disposal of industrial waste waters from nuclear separation processes and is one of the longest used aquatic, low-level, radioactive waste-disposal sites in the world. Tree leaf/twig, root, core and soil samples were collected and analyzed for 137Cs, 90Sr and 239Pu/240Pu. Strontium-90 was more readily taken up by trees than 137Cs or 239Pu/240Pu. Soil concentration values for 137Cs and 239Pu/240Pu were significantly greater (p less than or equal to 0.05) than all tree component parts. Radionuclide concentration ratios were higher for 90Sr (0.01-1355.0) than for 137Cs and 239Pu/240Pu for all tree components examined. Concentration ratios for 239Pu/240Pu ranged from 10(-6) to 10(-2) and are comparable to other studies conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge and Savannah River laboratories. These data represent the first quantitative information with respect to radionuclide uptake by trees on the Hanford Site.