Bioassay criteria for environmental restoration workers
Environmental restoration (ER) work at the U. S. Department of Energy Hanford Site posed questions concerning when to perform bioassay monitoring of workers for potential intakes of radioactivity. Application of criteria originally developed for use inside radionuclide processing facilities to ER work resulted in overly restrictive bioassay requirements. ER work typically involves site characterization or, excavating large quantities of potentially contaminated soil, rather than working with concentrated quantities of radioactivity as in a processing facility. An improved approach, tailored to ER work, provided soil contamination concentrations above which worker bioassay would be required. Soil concentrations were derived assuming acute or chronic intakes of 2% of an Annual Limit on Intake (ALI), or a potential committed effective dose equivalent of 100 mrem, and conservative dust loading of air from the work. When planning ER work, the anticipated soil concentration and corresponding need for bioassay could be estimated from work-site historical records. Once site work commenced, soil sampling and work-place surveys could be used to determine bioassay needs. This approach substantially reduced the required number of bioassay samples with corresponding reductions in analytical costs, schedules, and more flexible work-force management. (Work supported by the US Department of Energy under contract DOE-AC06-76RLO 1830.)
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 6526371
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-SA-21011; CONF-930130-9; ON: DE93007997
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 26. Health Physics Society midyear topical meeting on environmental health physics, Coeur d'Alene, ID (United States), 24-28 Jan 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
PERSONNEL
RADIATION MONITORING
REMEDIAL ACTION
HANFORD RESERVATION
BIOASSAY
CONTAMINATION
ENVIRONMENT
EXCAVATION
HEALTH HAZARDS
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
RADIATION DOSES
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
SOILS
ANIMALS
DOSES
HAZARDS
MAMMALS
MAN
MONITORING
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
PRIMATES
SAFETY
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
VERTEBRATES
560101* - Biomedical Sciences
Applied Studies- Radiation Effects- Dosimetry & Monitoring- (1992-)
540250 - Environment
Terrestrial- Site Resource & Use Studies- (1990-)