Colonie interim storage site: Annual site environmental report: Calendar year 1988

The monitoring program at the Colonie Interim Storage Site (CISS) measures external gamma radiation levels and uranium and radium-226 concentrations in surface water, groundwater, and sediment. To verify that the site is in compliance with the DOE radiation protection standard (100 mrem/yr) and to assess the potential effect of the site on public health, the potential radiation dose was calculated for a hypothetical maximally exposed individual. Based on the conservative scenario described in the report, this hypothetical individual would receive an annual external exposure approximately equivalent to 3 percent of the DOE radiation protection standard. This is also approximately equivalent to the exposure a person would receive during a round-trip flight from New York to Los Angeles (because of the greater amounts of cosmic radiation present at higher altitudes). The cumulative dose to the population within an 80-km (50-mi) radius of CISS that results from radioactive materials present at the site is distinguishable from the dose the same population receives from naturally occurring radioactive sources. Results of 1988 monitoring show that the CISS is in compliance with the DOE radiation protection standard. 18 refs., 15 figs., 11 tabs