Advanced Assay Systems for Radionuclide Contamination in Soils
- Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Through the support of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) Technical Assistance Program, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has developed and deployed a suite of systems that rapidly scan, characterize, and analyze surface soil contamination. The INL systems integrate detector systems with data acquisition and synthesis software and with global positioning technology to provide a real-time, user-friendly field deployable turn-key system. INL real-time systems are designed to characterize surface soil contamination using methodologies set forth in the Multi-Agency Radiation Surveys and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM). MARSSIM provides guidance for planning, implementing, and evaluating environmental and facility radiological surveys conducted to demonstrate compliance with a dose or risk-based regulation and provides real-time information that is immediately available to field technicians and project management personnel. This paper discusses the history of the development of these systems and describes some of the more recent examples and their applications. In summary: INL mobile real-time systems have been successfully used as pre-certification devices for contaminated soils under specific conditions, and accepted by regulators as an approved method to replace or significantly reduce physical sampling and laboratory analysis. These systems coupled with advanced data collection and analysis software developed at the INL to perform production pre-screening soil surveys are also used to determine final analytical sample locations for final validation of sites. The success of the real-time soil characterization program at DOE-Ohio field office sites at Mound and Fernald provided the driver for use of some of these systems at the current INL ICP. Additionally, the use of INL real-time advanced assay systems at Fernald resulted in overall cost savings to the soil remediation project totaling $34 M by the end of the project in 2006. Although the genesis of these systems occurred in the DOE Environmental Management program, other agencies have examined the use of real-time mobile spectrometry in cross-cutting applications such as National Homeland Security; where modified versions of these systems could be applied to monitoring, and surveillance of facilities and events as well as event-response to terrorist attacks using radioactive materials. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9 - 332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21326136
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-10-WM-08360; TRN: US10V0563067501
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM'08: Waste Management Symposium 2008 - HLW, TRU, LLW/ILW, Mixed, Hazardous Wastes and Environmental Management - Phoenix Rising: Moving Forward in Waste Management, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 24-28 Feb 2008; Other Information: Country of input: France; 5 refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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