Fostering fully mature professional development among physicians will require new skills and opportunities that reinforce time-honored values while simultaneously partnering with others to nurture, sustain and improve patient care by addressing system issues.

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The hydrologic properties of the unsaturated zone and amount of net recharge to the system must be determined to field-calibrate a mathematical model to predict the long-term migration of radionuclides in the unsaturated zone. This study is being conducted to provide that necessary data for a specific area. Radioactive waste has been buried at the RWMC (Radioactive Waste Management Complex) at the INEL (Idaho National Engineering Laboratory) since 1952. In 1985, the U.S. Geological Survey and EG&G Idaho, Inc., in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, began a study of the geohydrology of the RWMC to provide a basis for estimating the extent of and the potential for migration of radionuclides in the unsaturated zone beneath the waste burial trenches and pits. Two test trenches were installed in the surficial sediment adjacent to the RWMC burial ground to collect hydrologic data from undisturbed and disturbed soil. Hydrologic data collected during 1985 and 1986 included measurements, taken every 12 hours, of soil temperature and soil-water potential from 30 sensors placed at selected depths to about 6 meters using thermocouple psychrometers; and soil-moisture content measurements collected weekly in 9 neutron-probe access holes with a neutron moisture depth gage. Meteorological data averaged every 6 hours included wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, air temperature; solar radiation and precipitation were totaled over the 6-hour period. (fig. 1). The RWMC is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy and operated by EG&G Idaho, Inc., a Department of Energy contractor at the INEL. Radioactive waste has been buried at the RWMC sijnce 1952. From 1952 to 1970, low-level radioactive and transuranic waste were buried in pits and trenches excavated into a veneer of surficial sediment. The sediment is underlain by a thick sequence of basaltic lava intercalated with sedimentary deposits. Since 1970, low-level radioactive waste has been buried and the transuranic waste has been stored on above-ground asphalt pads in retrievable containers. From 1952 to 1986, abou|t 180,000 m3 of low-level and transuranic radioactive waste containing abo|ut 9.5 million curies of radioactivity were buried at the RWMC. An estimated 335,000 liters of organic waste were also buried before 1970 (D.E. Kudera, EG&G Idaho, Inc., written commun., 1987). Radionuclides have been detected in core arid drill cuttings from several boreholes drilled into the surficial sedjiment and underlying basalt at the RWMC. Americium-241, plutonium-238, and plutonium-239,-240 (undivided) were detected in core samples from the 34 m deep sedimentary deposit. Because of the potential for the migrajtion of radionuclides from the RWMC to the Snake River Plain aquifer about 177 m below land surface, a comprehensive study to determine extent of and potential for migration was undertaken by the U.

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