Environmental surveillance for nuclear facilities

One of the primary goals of environmental surveillance programs in the vicinity of nuclear facilities is to obtain information essential to assessing and controlling dose rates to the neighboring population. Experience has shown, however, that environmental radionuclide concentrations are frequently so low and so variable that dose estimates must be based primarily on in-plant and effluent measurements, coupled with suitable calculational techniques for extrapolating such data to the general environment. Although the number of pathways by which each of the released radionuclides may ultimately reach the population are numerous and complex, in most situations the primary contributors to the population dose will consist of no more than six radionuclides moving through three or four pathways. Current problems associated with environmental surveillance programs include (1) lack of a definition of de minimis dose levels for measurement or calculation; (2) deficiencies in quality assurance, data treatment, and source impact definition; (3) lack of periodic in-depth review and reevaluation of programmatic needs; and (4) lack of sufficient resources on the part of state and local agencies for providing an independent check on the data reported by nuclear facility operators