Plutonium concentrations in airborne soil at Rocky Flats and Hanford determined during resuspension experiments

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:6932357

Sehmel, G. A.

Plutonium resuspension results are summarized for experiments conducted by the author at Rocky Flats, onsite on the Hanford reservation, and for winds blowing from offsite onto the Hanford reservation near the Prosser barricade boundary. In each case, plutonium resuspension was shown by increased airborne plutonium concentrations as a function of either wind speed or as compared to fallout levels. All measured airborne concentrations were far below maximum permissible concentrations (MPC). Both plutonium and cesium concentrations on airborne soil were normalized by the quantity of airborne soil sampled. Airborne radionuclide concentrations in ..mu..Ci/g were related to published values for radionuclide concentrations on surface soils. For this ratio of radionuclide concentration per gram on airborne soil divided by that for ground surface soil, there are eight orders of magnitude uncertainty from 10/sup -4/ to 10/sup 4/. This uncertainty in the equality between plutonium concentrations per gram on airborne and surface soils is caused by only a fraction of the collected airborne soil being transported from offsite rather than all being resuspended from each study site and also by the great variabilities in surface contamination. Horizontal plutonium fluxes on airborne nonrespirable soils at all three sites were bracketed within the same four orders of magnitude from 10/sup -7/ to 10/sup -3/ ..mu..Ci/(m/sup 2/ day) for /sup 239/Pu and 10/sup -8/ to 10/sup -5/ ..mu..Ci/(m/sup 2/ day) for /sup 238/Pu. Airborne respirable /sup 239/Pu concentrations increased with wind speed for a southwest wind direction coming from offsite near the Hanford reservation Prosser barricade. Airborne plutonium fluxes on nonrespirable particles had isotopic ratios, /sup 240/Pu//sup 239/ /sup 240/Pu, similar to weapons grade plutonium rather than fallout plutonium.

• Research Organization: Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-06-1830
• OSTI ID: 6932357
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA-6720; CONF-771109-109
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500300* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
510301 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- Soil-- (-1987)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
HANFORD RESERVATION
HEAVY NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
MASS TRANSFER
MONITORING
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEI
PARTICLE RESUSPENSION
PARTICLES
PLUTONIUM 238
PLUTONIUM 239
PLUTONIUM 240
PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
ROCKY FLATS PLANT
SOILS
US AEC
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WIND
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES