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Fluvial Dynamics Of Th-230 In The Church Rock Event, Puerco River, New-Mexico, William Graf

William L. Graf

The largest accidental surface release of radioactive materials in the United States occurred 16 July 1979, when a uranium tailings pond collapsed near Church Rock, New Mexico, releasing 378,500 m3 of liquids and 1000 mg of solids into the Puerco River. The resulting flood wave distributed radioactive thorium-230 through an 80-km reach of the river. A detailed analysis of 48 km of the entrenched channel shows that radionuclide concentrations in stream-bed sediments fluctuated irregularly with increasing distance from the source of contamination instead of declining exponentially as might be expected from hydraulic and geographic theory. Hydraulic calculations at 154 cross-sections …