ML20126H831

Submits Comments on Behavior of Am in Environ & How Am Might Be Expected to Behave as Component of Sewage Sludge Incinerator Ash Disposed of in Typical Landfill

ML20126H831
Person / Time
Issue date:	01/25/1985
From:	Starmer R NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS)
To:	Lohaus P NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I)
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References
FOIA-85-210 NUDOCS 8506180452
Download: ML20126H831 (7)

Text

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MEMORANDUM FOR:

Paul H. Lohaus, State Liaison Officer Region I FROM:

R. John Starmer, Section Leader Geochemistry Section Geotechnical Branch Division of Waste Management, NMSS

SUBJECT:

TRANSMITAL OF GE0 CHEMICAL INFORKATION PERTINENT TO AMERICIUM BEHAVIOR IN A LANDFILL As we have discussed, I looked into what information is available on the behavoir of americium in the enviroment and how americium might be expected to behave as a component of sewage sludge incinerator ash disposed of in a typical landfill.

I was not able to find any information directly applicable to the situation but was able to find information on leaching of incinerator ashes and ash from coal fired generating plants. This information may be of use in making preliminary estimates of the leaching of americium from sewage sludge ash.

I was also able to find some general information on the behavior of americium in the environment but again that information is not directly applicable to the environmental conditions existing in a landfill or in the geochemical environment surrounding a landfill.

I have enclosed publications on incinerator ash and incinerator ash leaching, on ash leaching methods as practiced by EPRI and the State of Illinois, and some generic chemical / geochemical information on americium.

My thoughts on the situation you have described are sum.arized below:

1)

If rare earth element data were available for leaching of coal ash, that data might be used as an analog of the trivalent actir. ides such as americium.

I have not found any.

2)

Americium is found in the trivalent state as Am under even the most change in behavior between the (strongly)ggests that there will be little severe environmental conditions. This su reducing conditions expected in a landfill and the oxidizing conditions expected in the surrounding environment.

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. 3)

Most information on the solubility of americium has been developed for neutral to alkaline conditicos.

Indications are however, that the solubility of americium increases about 1000 fold for every unit decrease in pH belos about pH = 6.

This might indicate relatively high solubility in the (acidic) landfill environment but also suggests that americium solubility could be reduced significantly if the surrounding soil environment contained sufficient carbonate minerals to effectively j

neutralize the leachate and buffer the system at higher pH.

4)

Although americium is not strongly hydrolised or complexed by inorganic ligands under conditions expected in a landfill, the presence of a large variety of poorly characterized organic ligands may pose a potential problem, by increasing solubility and decreasing any tendency for sorption. While this could enhance the potential for migration, most organics are not significantly ionized at the low pH typical of landfill leachates and therefore they may not be very effective complexants.

5)'

Americium has low Kd's at pH = 4 for many earth materials, but moderate Kd's as the pH increases. No information is available to me on Kd's for sediments or similar materials.

I will keep looking as time permits for more sorption data.

l While we can make some generic predictions of the behavoir of americium loaded sewage sludge incinerator ash in a landfill, in orcer to assess the behavoir of americium under site-specific conditions, information would be required on the distribution of americium in the ash components, the chemical conditions in the landfill, the groundwater chemistry and the soil mineralogy. A miniumum program of field characterization and laboratory work might be expected to yield the desired information however.

In fact, some of that information may already be available. With information on the landfill percolate and the groundwater composition, some preliminary geochemical modeling could be performed to make some statements about the behavior of americium under the

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site-specific conditions of interest. Using this information, a few simple leaching experiments might then be performed to determine the performace of the ash under in-situ conditions. Further, the resulting leachate might be precolated through columns of the site soil to determine leachate behavoir in the surrounding environment. This approach would help produce site-specific information on the behavior of americium over the long term.

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. If you need to discuss any of the above or the references, please call.

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R. John Stanner, Section Leader Geochemistry Section

-Geotechnical Branch Division of Waste Management, NMSS

Enclosures:

1.

" Leach Studies of Plutonium-Contaminated Incinerator Ash Incorporated in Cement" by S. L. Nicolosi et al.

2.

" Leaching of Solidified TRU-Contaminated Incinerator Ash" by M. Fuhnn59n and P. Colombo 3.

" Leaching Properties of Solidified TRU-Contaminated Incinerator Ash" (BNL 33671) by P. Colombo et al.

4.

" Incineration of a Typical LWR Combustible Waste and Analysis of the Resulting Ash" (NUREG/CR-3087) by R. L. Treat et al.

5.

Excerpt fror. " Physical-Chemical Characteristics of Utility Solid Wastes" (EPRI EA-3236) prepared by Tetra Tech, Inc.

6.

" Illinois Basin Coal Fly Ashes 1. Chemical Characterization and Solubility

2. Equilibria Relationships and Qualitative Modeling of Ash-Water Reactions" by W. R. Roy et al.

7.

" Extraction Procedure and Utility Industry Solid Waste" (EPRI EA-1667) by S. J. Rose et al.

8.

Excerpt from " Solid Phases and Solution Species of Different Elements in Geologic Environments" (PNL-2651) by D. Rai and R. J. Serne 9.

Excerpt from. "Radionuclide Interactions with Scil and Rock Media, Volume 1." (EPA 520/6-78-007) by L. l.. Ames and D. Rai

10. "The Sorption of Actinides in (sic) Igneous Rocks" by B. Allaro et al.

11. " Americium Thermodynamic Data for the EQ3/6 Database" (LA-10040-MS) by J. F. Kerrisk

12. "The Geochemistry of Actinides" by B. Allard

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