Three Multidisciplinary Field Projects Selected for Subsurface Contaminant Transport Research

Summary

The Office of Science (SC) has selected three field-based projects for conducting research on the microbiological, chemical, and physical processes affecting the fate and transport of DOE contaminants in the subsurface. These five year, $3M/year awards will fund multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional teams of scientists working at DOE sites to make significant advances in the conceptual understanding and computational simulation of coupled subsurface processes affecting contaminant transport at the field scale. These projects also will provide soil and groundwater samples and site access to scientists within the Biological and Environmental Research program to further test small-scale, laboratory-derived hypotheses at larger scales in the field under environmentally relevant conditions. The three field sites are located on the Oak Ridge Reservation, at the Hanford 300 Area, and at a Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) site in Rifle, Colorado. The lead scientists for these projects have coordinated with the Office of Environmental Management and Office of Legacy Management offices to align the planned basic science research to support subsurface cleanup and/or long term stewardship decisions at the sites.