Predicted cumulative dose to firefighters and the offsite public from natural and anthropogenic radionuclides in smoke from wildland fires at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina USA

Viner, Brian J.; Jannik, Tim; Hepworth, Allan; Adetona, Olorunfemi; Naeher, Luke; Eddy, Teresa; Doman, Eric; Blake, John

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.10.017

Title: Predicted cumulative dose to firefighters and the offsite public from natural and anthropogenic radionuclides in smoke from wildland fires at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina USA

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Abstract

The contaminated ground surface at Savannah River Site (SRS) is a result of the decades of work that has been performed maintaining the country's nuclear stockpile and performing research and development on nuclear materials. The volatilization of radionuclides during wildfire results in airborne particles that are dispersed within the smoke plume and may result in doses to downwind firefighters and the public. To better understand the risk that these smoke plumes present, we have characterized four regions at SRS in terms of their fuel characteristics and radiological contamination on the ground. Combined with general meteorological conditions describing typical and extreme burn conditions, we have simulated potential fires in these regions and predicted the potential radiological dose that could be received by firefighting personnel and the public surrounding the SRS. In all cases, the predicted cumulative dose was a small percent of the US Department of Energy regulatory limit (0.25 mSv). These predictions were conservative and assumed that firefighters would be exposed for the duration of their shift and the public would be exposed for the entire day over the duration of the burn. Realistically, firefighters routinely rotate off the firefront during their shift and the public would likely remain indoorsmore »« less

Authors:

^[1];

^[1]; Hepworth, Allan ^[2]; Adetona, Olorunfemi ^[3]; Naeher, Luke ^[4]; Eddy, Teresa ^[5]; Doman, Eric ^[5]; Blake, John ^[2]

Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)
USDA Forest Service Savannah River, New Ellenton, SC (United States)
The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
Univ. of Georgia School of Public Health, Athens, GA (United States)
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, Aiken, SC (United States)

Publication Date:: Wed Nov 22 00:00:00 EST 2017

Research Org.:: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 1415036

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1549153

Report Number(s):: SRNL-STI-2017-00689
Journal ID: ISSN 0265-931X; PII: S0265931X17306872; TRN: US1800755

Grant/Contract Number:: AC09-08SR22470

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 182; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0265-931X

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY; Radioecology; Atmospheric dispersion; Radioactive dose; Wildfire

Citation Formats


                    Viner, Brian J., Jannik, Tim, Hepworth, Allan, Adetona, Olorunfemi, Naeher, Luke, Eddy, Teresa, Doman, Eric, and Blake, John. Predicted cumulative dose to firefighters and the offsite public from natural and anthropogenic radionuclides in smoke from wildland fires at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina USA.  United States: N. p., 2017. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.10.017.

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                    Viner, Brian J., Jannik, Tim, Hepworth, Allan, Adetona, Olorunfemi, Naeher, Luke, Eddy, Teresa, Doman, Eric, & Blake, John. Predicted cumulative dose to firefighters and the offsite public from natural and anthropogenic radionuclides in smoke from wildland fires at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina USA.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.10.017

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                    Viner, Brian J., Jannik, Tim, Hepworth, Allan, Adetona, Olorunfemi, Naeher, Luke, Eddy, Teresa, Doman, Eric, and Blake, John. Wed .  
"Predicted cumulative dose to firefighters and the offsite public from natural and anthropogenic radionuclides in smoke from wildland fires at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina USA".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.10.017.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1415036.

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@article{osti_1415036,

  title        = {Predicted cumulative dose to firefighters and the offsite public from natural and anthropogenic radionuclides in smoke from wildland fires at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina USA},

  author       = {Viner, Brian J. and Jannik, Tim and Hepworth, Allan and Adetona, Olorunfemi and Naeher, Luke and Eddy, Teresa and Doman, Eric and Blake, John},

  abstractNote = {The contaminated ground surface at Savannah River Site (SRS) is a result of the decades of work that has been performed maintaining the country's nuclear stockpile and performing research and development on nuclear materials. The volatilization of radionuclides during wildfire results in airborne particles that are dispersed within the smoke plume and may result in doses to downwind firefighters and the public. To better understand the risk that these smoke plumes present, we have characterized four regions at SRS in terms of their fuel characteristics and radiological contamination on the ground. Combined with general meteorological conditions describing typical and extreme burn conditions, we have simulated potential fires in these regions and predicted the potential radiological dose that could be received by firefighting personnel and the public surrounding the SRS. In all cases, the predicted cumulative dose was a small percent of the US Department of Energy regulatory limit (0.25 mSv). These predictions were conservative and assumed that firefighters would be exposed for the duration of their shift and the public would be exposed for the entire day over the duration of the burn. Realistically, firefighters routinely rotate off the firefront during their shift and the public would likely remain indoors much of the day. However, we show that even under worst-case conditions the regulatory limits are not exceeded. In conclusion, we can infer that the risks associated with wildfires would not be expected to cause cumulative doses above the level of concern to either responding personnel or the offsite public.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.10.017},

  journal      = {Journal of Environmental Radioactivity},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 182,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Wed Nov 22 00:00:00 EST 2017},

  month        = {Wed Nov 22 00:00:00 EST 2017}

}

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