414 TRANS URANIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENVIRONMENT 



TABLE 8 Plutonium Inventory Ratios for Some Components of Los Alamos 

 and Trinity Study Areas in New Mexico 



*Inventory ratio = (pCi Pu/m^ in component)/(total pCi Pu/mM. All plutonium values are "''24opy except 

 Mortandad Canyon which is " ' Pu ; parenthetic value is coefficient of variation (CV = standard deviation/mean ). 



Tlie relative inventory of plutonium within all our study ecosystems is governed 

 primarily by component mass relationsliips since differences in mass of the various 

 ecosystem components are much greater than the differences in plutonium concentrations 

 between the same components. The data in Table 9 demonstrate that mass inventory 

 ratios for Mortandad Canyon provide a good approximation of the plutonium inventory 

 ratio. 



TABLE 9 Mass and Plutonium Inventory Ratios 

 in Mortandad Canyon at Los Alamos 



*Data from Table 8. 



Plutonium Transport 



Soils 



Rainstorm runoff in the intermittent streams receiving wastes was identified over 30 yr 

 ago in the environmental transport of plutonium (Kingsley, 1947). Additional studies 

 were begun to determine the relationships of rainfall, runoff, and suspended sediments 

 with radionuchde transport (Purtymun, 1974; Purtymun, Johnson, and John, 1966; 

 Hakonson, Nyhan, and Purtymun, 1976). 



Results of these studies demonstrate that runoff from snow melt and summer 

 rainstorms serves as a radionucUde transport vector in Los Alamos intermittent streams 

 and that the magnitude of this transport is higlily dependent on the hydrologic 



