The Underground Migration of Radionuclides Produced in Soil Near High Energy Proton Accelerators

Tritium production in the dolomitic rock adjacent to NuMI beam tunnels

“…This works out to be a range of 2.8 g/cm 2 in Carbon for ionized tritium having an energy of 88 MeV. 3 A corollary is that a leaching process does not remove a substantial amount of tritium from soil (or from rock). Water which becomes tritiated has to be present in the sample during the irradiation.…”

“…al. [3] describes the results of irradiation of soil samples near two proton synchrotrons 1 . The irradiation resulted in induced radioactivity, which was measured by radiochemical analysis.…”

“…al. observation that none of the 3 H in the radioactive leach waters was transferred to non-irradiated soil when the two were batch processed together 3 .…”

Environmental assessment -- Proposed neutrino beams at the Main Injector project

“…Leaching can occur when water passes through rock or soil containing radioactivity, leading to the presence of radioactivity in ground water in the vicinity of the NuMI tunnel. Studies of the leachable radioactivity produced in soil and rock adjacent to Fermilab target stations and elsewhere show that the two principal radionuclides of concern are tritium and sodium-22 (Borak, 1972, andBaker, 1994). The concentrations of the radionuclides produced in the dolomite decrease rapidly as one proceeds outward radially from the beamline through the rock.…”

Radiological impact of high-energy accelerators on the environment

“…Thus, for example, less than 0.7% of the y activity (principally ^Vir\ and 22 Na) produced in the earth dump of the Mark III electron linac was soluble. 7 *" Borak et al 73 have made detailed studies of the solubility of the radionuclides produced in glacial till (Table 9). Of these radionuclides only 45 Ca, 54 Mn, 22 Na and 3 H were observed in leach waters.…”