Radioactive effluents in Savannah River. Summary report for 1996

During 1996, the radioactive effluents in the Savannah River were generally comparable to (or lower than) those observed during the earlier years of these studies, being orders of magnitude below DOE and EPA/CFR guide levels. Relative to SRS and Plant Vogtle, the upstream site at Shell Bluff and the downstream side at Highway 301 Bridge are the only resin sampler sites still in service. Vogtle associated activities were largest during June to August, and they are dominated by 60Co as was the case in 1995. In earlier years, Vogtle effluents had been dominated by 58Co. The maximum observed 58Co and 60Co were 52 fCi/L and 162 fCi/L; however, values an order of magnitude greater are projected just downstream of Plant Vogtle, as noted earlier. In addition to 58Co and 60Co, Vogtle activities for 54Mn was correlated. SRS associated gamma activities were for 137Cs, which were observed at levels consistent with known SRS sources. In 1996, an isotope-specific resin was used for cesium collection, and this resulted in a maximum observed 137Cs of 85 fCi/L at Highway 301 Bridge. The standard resin yielded a maximum of 54 fCi/L, which is comparable to the 1995 result. Although the isotopic-specific resin generally yielded the higher 137Cs concentration, the larger of the two resin values was adopted for conservatism