Groundwater Monitoring At The NNSS

The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), used to be called the Nevada Test Site, which is where the U.S. tested many nuclear weapons.  We can easily measure surface and airborne contaminants from the site, but groundwater contamination is much more difficult.

Groundwater contains 100 times the amount of freshwater in our lakes and streams combined.  It sometimes consists of underground rivers (aquifers), but more often is associated with the slow flow of water through tiny pore spaces within rocks.

Different types of rocks have different porosities and this influences the water flow rate.

This recent video from the NNSS explains what they're doing to address groundwater contamination from the nuclear weapons testing.