Natural radionuclides in Hanford site ground waters

Uranium, Th, Ra, Rn, Pb and Po radionuclide concentrations in ground waters from the Hanford Site indicate that U, Th, and Ra are highly sorbed. Relative to Rn, these radionuclides are low by factors of 10-3 to 10-6. Uranium sorption is likely due to its reduction from the +6 state, where it is introduced via surface waters, to the +4 state found in the confined aquifers. The distribution of radionuclides is very similar in all of the confined aquifers and significantly different from the distribution observed in the unconfined and surface waters. Barium correlates well with Ra over three orders of magnitude, indicating that stable element analogs may be useful for inferring the behavior of radioactive waste radionuclides in this candidate geologic repository. 8 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab