Applying GIS characterizing and modeling contaminant transport in surface water at Los Alamos National Laboratory

During World War II, Los Alamos, New Mexico was chosen as the site for the secret development of the first atomic bomb. The remote location in the southwestern United States was ideal for such a project. After the war, research activities continued at the Los Alamos installation, focusing on new nuclear weapons models as well as greater effectiveness and reliability of existing weapons. Due to the emphasis on nuclear and non-nuclear weapons development as well as associated nuclear research, a large inventory of radionuclides and heavy metals have been tested, expended, and disposed of in the local environment, a high plateau of tuffaceous volcanic rocks incised by deep canyons in a semi-arid climate. In recent years an intensive evaluation of the environmental, impact of weapons testing at Los Alamos and elsewhere has been undertaken. GIS system utilization and image processing of past and current data has been an important part of this evaluation. Important problems can be more easily displayed and understood using this methodology. The main objective in this paper is to illustrate how transport of depleted uranium and associated heavy metals (copper in this case) used in dynamic testing of weapons components at open air firing sites can be evaluated and visualized. In our studies, surface water has been found to be the predominant transport mechanism. We have sampled soils, sediments, fallout, runoff water and snowmelt over a number of years in order to understand contaminant transport on- and offsite. Statistical analyses of these data have assisted in our characterization of issues such as contaminant variability, spatially and temporally, as well as in development of transport rates.