Research about Hanford Site

USGS2014

230Th/U ages Supporting Hanford Site‐Wide Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis

This product represents a USGS Administrative Report that discusses samples and methods used to conduct uranium-series isotope analyses and resulting ages and initial 234U/238U activity ratios of pedogenic cements developed in several different surfaces in the Hanford area middle to late Pleistocene. Samples were collected and dated to provide calibration of soil development in surface deposits that are being used in the Hanford Site-Wide probabilistic seismic hazard analysis conducted by AMEC. The report includes description of sample locations and physical characteristics, sample preparation, chemical processing and mass spectrometry, analytical results, and calculated ages for individual sites. Ages of innermost rinds on a number of samples from five sites in eastern Washington are consistent with a range of minimum depositional ages from 17 ka for cataclysmic flood deposits to greater than 500 ka for alluvium at several sites.

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USGS2010

Separation, characterization and initial reaction studies of magnetite particles from Hanford sediments

Magnetic and density separation methods have been applied to composite sediment samples from the Hanford formation from sediment recovered during drilling of an uncontaminated borehole located near the 200 West Area of the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State. This paper describes the results of using those separation methods and from the characterization and initial reactivity measurements on a highly magnetic fraction isolated from that sediment. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of the highly magnetic sediment fraction indicates that this material contains predominantly magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ). Particle morphology observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and compositions determined energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) are consistent with this identification. Analyses by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicates that there is a thin coating on the particles that are likely a type of aluminosilicate. This highly magnetic fraction of material is not reactive with indigo carmine, an organic redox probe molecule that was shown to readily react with synthetic magnetite. Because of the limited amounts of material readily available, initial tests have been conducted that demonstrate the ability to complete U(VI) sorption on individual particles (nominally ∼100 μm in size) of the isolated sediment and to remove and mount these individual particles for analysis of the concentration and chemical state of the sorbed U species using small area XPS.

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