not sufficient to accurately estimate Pu inventory separately for mounds.

Also, no information was obtained on amounts of Pu below 5 cm in mounds.

Profiles to 25-cm depth were taken, but only in desert pavement areas.

In October, 1974, a mound study (now given the title Mound Study 1) was

conducted near ground zero at C Site in Area 11 on NTS.

Profile samples

(each with ten 2.5-cm depth increments) in ten blow-sand mounds and ten
adjacent desert pavement locations were collected and analyzed for Am
using REECo's Ge(Li) system.
These data were taken to obtain information
on the distribution of Am with depth in mounds versus that in desert
pavement.
The results of this study have been discussed by Gilbert
et al. (1975), Brady (1976), and Essington et al. (1977).
This study

indicated that for each 2.5-cm depth increment from the surface of the
blow-sand and desert pavement profiles, the average Am concentration

was higher in the blow-sand mound.
Also, the depth at which Am occurred
was less in desert pavement than in blow-sand mounds; and mound profiles
had a smaller fraction of the total Am in the top 2.5 or 5 cm than did

desert pavement profiles.

Mound Study 2

On the basis of these results, it was decided to initiate a larger-scale
mound study (Mound Study (MS)-2) at two safety-shot sites: the Project 57 site in Area 13 and the Clean Slate 3 site on TTR.
Information
on the motivation, design, and protocol development of MS-2 is given by

White and Dunaway (1976, pp. 33-122).

Design aspects and results of

statistical analyses of the resulting data are given by Essington et al.
(1977) and Gilbert and Essington (1977).

The primary objective of MS-2 was to estimate the total amount (inventory) of Pu in blow-sand mounds at the two chosen study sites. This was
accomplished by sampling entire mounds (actually "mound tops" and "mound
bottoms" were collected separately) except for "diffuse" mounds at Clean
Slate 3. These mounds were too large to collect in total. Desert
pavement samples adjacent to the sampled mounds were also collected for
comparison purposes.
FIDLER readings over mounds and desert pavement
were also taken.

A major finding of MS-2 was that roughly 60 to 65 percent of the total
(mound top + mound bottom) mound inventory was estimated to be in mound
bottoms even though Pu concentrations on a per gram dry weight basis

were roughly twice as large in mound tops as in mound bottoms.

At Clean

Slate 3, about 70 percent of the total surface inventory (mound + desert

pavement down to the 5~cm depth datum) was estimated to be in desert

pavement areas.
In Area 13, the percentage was about 85 percent.
The
FIDLER readings over mounds tended to be higher than those taken over
adjacent desert pavement.
This was also the case for soil concentrations
when expressed on a per gram basis.
Some data on the change in the Pu
to Am ratio in soil over time is also presented by Essington et al.
(1977) and Gilbert and Essington (1977).

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