Air pathway effects of nuclear materials production at the Hanford Site, 1983 to 1992

Technical Report · Fri Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10104223· OSTI ID:10104223

Patton, G W; Cooper, A T

This report describes the air pathway effects of Hanford Site operations from 1983 to 1992 on the local environment by summarizing the air concentrations of selected radionuclides at both onsite and offsite locations, comparing trends in environment concentrations to changing facility emissions, and briefly describing trends in the radiological dose to the hypothetical maximally exposed member of the public. The years 1983 to 1992 represent the last Hanford Site plutonium production campaign, and this report deals mainly with the air pathway effects from the 200 Areas, in which the major contributors to radiological emissions were located. An additional purpose for report was to review the environmental data for a long period of time to provide insight not available in an annual report format. The sampling and analytical systems used by the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP) to collect air samples during the period of this report were sufficiently sensitive to observe locally elevated concentrations of selected radionuclides near onsite source of emission as well as observing elevated levels, compared to distant locations, of some radionuclides at the down wind perimeter. The US DOE Derived Concentration Guides (DCGs) for airborne radionuclides were not exceeded for any air sample collected during 1983 to 1992, with annual average concentrations of all radionuclides at the downwind perimeter being considerably below the DCG values. Air emissions at the Hanford Site during the period of this report were dominated by releases from the PUREX Plant, with {sup 85}Kr being the major release on a curie basis and {sup 129}I being the major release on a radiological dose basis. The estimated potential radiological dose from Hanford Site point source emissions to the hypothetical maximally exposed individual (MEI) ranged from 0. 02 to 0.22 mrem/yr (effective dose equivalent), which is well below the DOE radiation limit to the public of 100 mrem/yr.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 10104223
• Report Number(s): PNL--8830; ON: DE94002708
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

053002
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540230
540250
AEROSOL MONITORING
AIR
EMISSION
HANFORD RESERVATION
IODINE 129
KRYPTON 85
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS MONITORING AND TRANSPORT
RADIOECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
SITE RESOURCE AND USE STUDIES