THE FROZEN SOIL BARRIER DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

The Frozen Soil Barrier Demonstration Project was implemented to verify the technical feasibility and real costs of deploying a frozen soil barrier at a radiologically contaminated site. This project was a full-scale demonstration of a frozen soil barrier being used to contain radioactive contaminates emanating from a decommissioned settling pond associated with an experimental fusion reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The work began in September of 1996 and progressed though to December of 1998. The frozen barrier has been operational since November 1, 1997. This project showed that frozen soil barriers offer a proven technology to retain below grade hazardous substances at relatively low costs with minimal effect on the environment