Protective barrier program: Test plan for plant community dynamics

The Westinghouse Hanford Company (Westinghouse Hanford) and Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) are jointly developing protective barriers for the long term isolation of low-level radioactive defense waste for the US Department of Energy (DOE) at the Arid Sites. Protective barriers have been identified as an integral part of the overall final disposal strategy for low-level defense waste at the Arid Sites (DOE 1987). At present, the conceptual design of the Arid Site protective barrier is a multilayer structure that will minimize waster infiltration into and through the underlying waste, and will prevent intrusion into the waste by plant roots, animals, and humans. This multilayer system consists of a fine soil layer overlying a coarse sand and/or gravel geo-filter overlying a layer of large cobbles or basalt riprap. Plants contribute several crucial functions to the overall performance of the protective barrier.Through transpiration, plants are capable of removing considerably more moisture from a given volume of soil than the physical process of evaporation alone. This becomes especially important after periods of excessive precipitation when the possibility of saturation of the textural break and leeching to the buried waste is increased. Plants also function in significantly reducing the amount of wind and water erosion that would be expected to occur on the barrier surface. In addition to these physical functions, plants also influence other biotic effects on barrier performance