Date
01 Jun 1988, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Abstract
The goal in characterizing radioactively contaminated soil is to quantify the degree of contamination and its parameters. A cost effective, small scale characterization is done by performing a surface radiological survey with subsurface data coming from boreholes augered in a tight grid pattern. Confidence in the between-hole extrapolations depends on the grid size. However, at the widely contaminated site in Maywood, New Jersey a grid width of 100 feet was the only economical choice. Accurate contamination parameters were determined despite the wide hole spacings once geologists and health physicists learned how local geologic conditions controlled the contamination's location and extent. The contamination pathway was found to be fluvially dependent, and various logged soil types could be confirmed by their distinctive radiologic signatures. With this knowledge, grid drilling was abandoned. Drillhole sites were individually selected based on geologically supported, between-hole extrapolations thereby eliminating many costly boreholes.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
2nd Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 1988 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
McGrane, Dennis, "Complementing Radiologic Data With Geology – A Case History" (1988). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 4.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/2icchge/2icchge-session1/4
Complementing Radiologic Data With Geology – A Case History
The goal in characterizing radioactively contaminated soil is to quantify the degree of contamination and its parameters. A cost effective, small scale characterization is done by performing a surface radiological survey with subsurface data coming from boreholes augered in a tight grid pattern. Confidence in the between-hole extrapolations depends on the grid size. However, at the widely contaminated site in Maywood, New Jersey a grid width of 100 feet was the only economical choice. Accurate contamination parameters were determined despite the wide hole spacings once geologists and health physicists learned how local geologic conditions controlled the contamination's location and extent. The contamination pathway was found to be fluvially dependent, and various logged soil types could be confirmed by their distinctive radiologic signatures. With this knowledge, grid drilling was abandoned. Drillhole sites were individually selected based on geologically supported, between-hole extrapolations thereby eliminating many costly boreholes.
