Integrated fate and toxicity assessment for site contaminants
- Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, 60439 (United States)
- Hildebrand/U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office (United States)
Understanding the fate and toxicity of environmental contaminants is essential to framing practical management decisions. Forms and bioavailable concentrations often change over time due to natural physical, chemical, and biological processes. For some sites, hundreds of contaminants may be of initial interest, and even small projects can involve a substantial number of contaminants. With multiple assessments common, attention to effectiveness and efficiency is important, and integrating fate and toxicity information provides a valuable way to focus the analyses. Fate assessments help identify what forms may be present where and when, while toxicity information indicates what health effects could result if people were exposed. The integration process is illustrated by an application for the Hanford site, to support long-term management decisions for the cesium and strontium capsules. Fate data, health-based benchmarks, and related toxicity information were effectively combined to indicate performance targets for chemicals and radionuclides identified for capsule leachate that could migrate to groundwater. More than 50 relevant benchmarks and toxicity context were identified for 15 of the 17 study contaminants; values for chronic drinking water exposure provided the common basis for selected indicators. For two chemicals, toxicity information was identified from the scientific literature to guide the performance targets. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Three Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 (United States); Technological Institute of the Royal Flemish Society of Engineers (TI-K VIV), Het Ingenieurshuis, Desguinlei 214, 2018 Antwerp (Belgium); Belgian Nuclear Society (BNS) - ASBL-VZW, c/o SCK-CEN, Avenue Hermann Debrouxlaan, 40 - B-1160 Brussels (Belgium)
- OSTI ID:
- 21156448
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICEM'07: 11. International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management, Bruges (Belgium), 2-6 Sep 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; 14 refs.; Proceedings may be ordered from ASME Order Department, 22 Law Drive, P.O. Box 2300, Fairfield, NJ 07007-2300 (United States)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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