Radionuclide Activities in Contaminated Soils: Effects of Sampling Bias on Remediation of Coarse-Grained Soils in Hanford Formation

Only a limited set of particle size-contaminant concentration data is available for soils from the Hanford Site. These data are based on bench-scale tests on single soil samples from one waste site each in operable units 100-BC-1, 100-DR-1, and 100-FR-1, and three samples from the North Pond 300-FF-1 operable unit. The objective of this study was to 1) examine available particle size-contaminant of concern activity and concentration data for 100 and 300 Area soils, 2) assess the effects of sampling bias, 3) suggest sampling protocols, and 4) formulate a method to determine the contaminant of concern activities and concentrations of the whole soil based on the measurements conducted on a finer size fraction of the whole soil.