Mobilization Of Polonium-210 In Naturally-Contaminated Groundwater, Churchill County, Nevada
Abstract
Polonium-210 activities in groundwater rarely exceed about 40 mBq/L because it strongly binds to sediments. The recent discovery of natural 210Po at levels ranging from below 1 to 6,300±280 mBq/L in 62 drinking-water wells in Lahontan Valley, Churchill County, Nevada, led to a geochemical investigation of the processes responsible for its mobilization from the aquifer sediments. The source of the 210Po is radioactive decay of uranium in sediments transported into the valley by erosion of granitic rocks in the Sierra Nevada during the Pleistocene. There is little spatial or depth variability in 210Pb activity in study-area sediments (average 35 Bq/kg) and detailed analysis at a contaminated well indicates mobilization of <0.5 percent of the 210Po in the sediments would account for all of the 210Po in the well water. Elevated 210Po activities (>200 mBq/L) are associated with anoxic water (DO <0.1 mg/L) with high pH (commonly >9.0). Investigations in the 1980s by William Burnett and colleagues of naturally-contaminated wells in Florida showed that 210Po was mobilized by sulfate-reducing bacteria and remained in solution as long as sulfides did not accumulate above certain levels. Similarly, δ34SSO4 values in Lahontan Valley indicate that significant sulfate reduction has occurred in wells containing >200 mBq/L of 210Po, but sulfide is not accumulating and its concentrations are low (<0.03 mg/L) in 25 of 28 of those wells. In our working hypothesis, mobilization of 210Po in Lahontan Valley is linked to reduction of Mn oxides by sulfide in an anaerobic sulfur cycle (Figure 1). Such a sulfur cycle is consistent with the high pH, less than predicted δ18OSO4 values, low sulfide concentrations, and presence of elemental sulfur in the water. Results from the Nevada and Florida investigations suggest that 210Po contamination may be more widespread than previously recognized, occurring in groundwater near uranium-mine operations and other uranium containing sediments when sulfate-reducing conditions develop in the subsurface. Possible linkage of anaerobic S cycle, Mn reduction, and Po mobilization
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AGUFM.H34A..09S
- Keywords:
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- 0414 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- 0488 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Sulfur cycling;
- 0496 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Water quality