Environmental Sampling FY01 Annual Report - Understanding the Movement of Mercury in the Environmental Surrounding the INEEL

[摘要] Environmental fate and transport of the toxic air pollutant mercury (Hg) is currently a high-priority regional concern for the INEEL, and national and global concern for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). At the INEEL’s Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC), significant quantities (est. 40 kg/year) of Hg may have been released over 37 years of Environmental Management’s (EM) High-Level Waste (HLW) treatment operations. The EPA is very concerned about the continued global buildup of Hg in the atmosphere and aquatic ecosystems, and has recently invested heavily in Hg research to better understand its complex environmental cycling.1,2 The Environmental Sampling work began in FY99 as a joint INEEL/U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) field research effort to (a) better understand the fate and potential impacts of Hg emissions from the INEEL’s HLW treatment operations (operational component) and (b) contribute at a national level to the scientific understanding of local, regional, and global Hg fate and transport (research component). The USGS contributed snow sampling support in the field (Water Resources Division, Salt Lake City) and laboratory analysis of all samples (Wisconsin District Mercury Research Laboratory).

[发布日期] 2001-09-01 [发布机构] Idaho National Laboratory

[关键词] Aquatic Ecosystems;Transport;Us Epa;Air;99 - General And Miscellaneous//Mathematics, Computing, And Information Science