Fingerprinting of ground water by ICP-MS; Progress report, July 1, 1991--December 31, 1991

The purpose of this project is to investigate the use of minor constituents of ground water and vadose zone water such as the rare earths and some lighter elements, to delineate ground water flow paths and recharge zones in the Yucca Mountain area. The major piece of equipment required to perform this task is an inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). This instrument has been purchased and should be delivered in February 1992. During this reporting period, three ICP-MS systems were evaluated the Perkin-Elmer Elan 5000 was chosen. As part of the evaluation process, samples of J-13 water and tuff were prepared and analyzed by each of the competing companies. This gave us the opportunity to make initial observations as to the number of compounds and their concentrations present in the J-13 samples. Table 1 lists the results of the analysis of J-13 water. Once the ICP-MS is operational, we will be collecting and analyzing waters from existing wells, springs, and seeps to determine which of these minor chemical constituents will be most helpful in establishing chemical signatures for the ground waters beneath Yucca Mountain