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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Iodine-131 in vegetation collected near the Hanford Site: Concentration and count data for 1948--1951. Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10175203· OSTI ID:10175203
The purpose of the HEDR Project is to estimate the radiation dose that individuals could have received as a result of radionuclide emissions since 1944 from DOE`s Hanford Site. A major objective of the HEDR Project is to estimate doses to the thyroid of individuals who were exposed to iodine-131. A principal pathway for many of these individuals was milk from cows that ate vegetation contaminated by iodine-131 released into the air from Hanford facilities. The HEDR Project work is conducted under several technical and administrative tasks, among which is the Environmental Monitoring Data Task. Members of the Environmental Monitoring Data Task have developed databases of historical environmental measurements. These databases include iodine-131 concentrations for vegetation samples collected on and around the Hanford Site since 1944, the initial year in which the chemical separation plants were operated and whose effluents led to the release of radioactive iodine. These data will be used to assist in the HEDR model validation studies. To date, the vegetation data for 1945--1947 have been published. Because the factors used from 1945--1951 to convert raw count data to iodine-131 activity levels and to adjust reported iodine-131 activity levels did not account for all parameters affecting counting efficiency. Other conversion and correction factors need to be applied.
Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
10175203
Report Number(s):
PNWD--2177-HEDR; ON: DE94016799
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English