The work reported here was funded by Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS). Dave Swanberg with WRPS led the effort and provided both programmatic guidance and technical input to the project team. These screening tests were very laboratory intensive. At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Ben Williams was instrumental in preparing the Cast Stone specimens and conducting the leach tests. Don Rinehart prepared the simulants. Keith Geiszler, Steve Baum, Igor Kutnyakov, Christian Iovin, and Dennesse Smith analyzed the many samples. Stan Pitman, Mike Dahl, and Karl Mattlin conducted the compressive strength measurements. At Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), Vickie Williams was the cornerstone of the preparation and measurement of the Cast Stone fresh properties, Kim Wyszynski and Vickie Williams prepared the simulants, and David Best, Whitney Riley, and Beverly Wall performed the analyses. John Harris with LaFarge graciously provided the dry blend ingredients sourced from the northwest.

The objective of the 300 Area K d /leach study was to perform controlled laboratory experiments to measure the leaching and adsorption characteristics of uranium in near-surface sediment samples collected from the 300 Area of the Hanford Site. The Environmental Restoration Contractor (ERC) will use the results of this research to model uranium mobility for the 300-FF-1 and 300-FF-2 operable unit (OU) waste sites.Eight near-surface sediment samples were collected by the ERC between December of 2000 and February 2001. The samples consisted of three uncontaminated background sediment samples (B11491, B11492, and B11493), two uranium-contaminated samples collected from the 300 Area North Process Pond (B11494 and B11495), and three uranium-contaminated samples collected in the vicinity of the 303-K building (B11BY4, B11BY5, and B11BY6).

This report was revised in September 2008 to remove acid-extractable sodium data from Tables 4. 8, 4.28,4.43, and 4.59. The sodium data was removed due to potential contamination introduced during the acid extraction process. The rest of the text remains unchanged from the original report issued in April 2004.The overall goal of the Tank Farm Vadose Zone Project, led by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., is to define risks from past and future single-shell tank farm activities at Hanford. To meet this goal, CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. tasked scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to perform detailed analyses on vadose zone sediments from within Waste Management Area (WMA) T-TX-TY. This report is the first of two reports written to present the results of these analyses. Specifically, this report contains all the geologic, geochemical, and selected physical characterization data collected on vadose zone sediment recovered from boreholes C3830, C3831, and C3832 in the TX Tank Farm, and from borehole 299-W-10-27 installed northeast of the TY Tank Farm.

Executive SummaryThis report was revised in September 2008 to remove acid-extractable sodium data from Tables 4.8, 4.28, and 4.52. The sodium data was removed due to potential contamination introduced during the acid extraction process. The rest of the text remains unchanged from the original report issued in September 2004.The overall goal of the Tank Farm Vadose Zone Project, led by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., is to define risks from past and future single-shell tank farm activities at Hanford. To meet this goal, CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. tasked scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to perform detailed analyses on vadose zone sediments from within Waste Management Area (WMA) T-TX-TY. This report is the second of two reports written to present the results of these analyses. Specifically, this report contains all the geologic, geochemical, and selected physical characterization data collected on vadose zone sediment recovered from boreholes C4104 and C4105 in the T Tank Farm, and from borehole 299-W-11-39 installed northeast of the T Tank Farm. Finally, the measurements on sediments from borehole C4104 are compared with a nearby borehole drilled in 1993, 299-W10-196, through the tank T-106 leak plume.Sediments from borehole 299-W-11-39 were considered to be background uncontaminated sediments against which to compare contaminated sediments for the T tank farm characterization effort. However, during characterization of the sediments from 299-W11-39, numerous indications were found that suggest some nearsurface contamination may have occurred in the past such that the water extract information for sediments from 299-W11-39 may not represent natural background conditions. Therefore, most of the comparisons of the contaminated T tank farm boreholes to natural background conditions used the sediment characterization information from background borehole 299-W10-27, just northeast of the TX Tank Farm.This report also presents our interpretation of the data in the context of sediment types, the vertical extent of contamination, the migration potential of the contaminants, and the likely source of the contamination in the vadose zone and groundwater below the T Tank Farm. The information presented in this report supports the T-TX-TY Waste Management Area field investigation report (a) in preparation by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. Sediment samples from the boreholes were analyzed and characterized in the laboratory for the following parameters: moisture content, gamma-emitting radionuclides, one-to-one water extracts (which provide soil pH, electrical conductivity, cation, trace metal, radionuclide and anion data), total carbon and inorganic carbon content, and 8 M nitric acid extracts (which provide a measure of the total leachable sediment content of contaminants). Key radiocontaminants, technetium-99, actinides, fission products (including strontium-90, europium radioisotopes, ruthenium and molybdenum), cobalt-60, and uranium, along with other trace metals were determined in acid and water...

Executive SummaryThis report was revised in September 2008 to remove acid-extractable sodium data from Table 4.22. The data was removed due to potential contamination introduced during the acid extraction process. The remaining text is unchanged from the original report issued in 2002.The overall goal of the Tank Farm Vadose Zone Project, led by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., is to define risks from past and future single-shell tank farm activities. To meet this goal, CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., asked scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to perform detailed analyses on vadose zone sediments from within Waste Management Area B-BX-BY. This report is the first in a series of four reports to present the results of these analyses. Specifically, this report contains all the geologic, geochemical, and selected physical characterization data collected on vadose zone sediment recovered from borehole 299-E33-45 installed northeast of tank BX-102.This report also presents interpretation of the data in the context of the sediment lithologies, the vertical extent of contamination, the migration potential of the contaminants, and the likely source of the contamination in the vadose zone, perched water and groundwater east of the BX tank farm. The information presented in this report supports the Waste Management Area B-BX-BY field investigation report prepared by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. (a) Overall, the analyses identified common ion exchange and heterogeneous (solid phase-liquid solute) precipitation reactions as two mechanisms that influence the distribution of contaminants within that portion of the vadose zone affected by tank liquor. Significant indications of caustic alteration of the sediment mineralogy or porosity were not observed, but slightly elevated pH values between the depths of 79 to 141 ft below ground surface (bgs) were observed. X-ray diffraction measurements indicate no evidence of mineral alteration or precipitation resulting from the interaction of the tank liquor with the sediment. However, no samples were studied by scanning electron microscopy, a more sensitive technique for searching for faint evidence of caustic attack.The analyses do not firmly suggest that the source of the contamination in the groundwater east of the BX tank farm is the 1951 overfill event at tank BX-102. However, evidence is convincing that the fluids from the overfill event are present in the vadose zone sediments at borehole 299-E33-45 to a depth of 170 ft bgs.The near horizontally bedded, northeasterly dipping sediment likely caused horizontal flow of the migrating contaminants. At borehole 299-E33-45, there are several fine-grained lenses within the Hanford H2 unit at 74.5, 120, and 167 ft bgs that likely cause some horizontal spreading of percolating fluids. The 21-ft thick Plio-Pleistocene fine-grained silt/clay unit is also an important horizontal flow conduit as evidenced by the perched water zone between 227 and 232 ft bgs.The following are the key findings of the detailed characterization o...