Summary of environmental reports, Department of Energy sites, January-December 1982

During calendar year 1982, radiation exposures to offsite populations from Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear facilities were consistently within DOE regulatory limits. The maximum reported individual whole-body dose to any member of the public from any DOE site was 24 mrem for the year. This compares favorably with the approximate 120-mrem average background exposure received each year by an individual living in the United States. The total population dose received by individuals living within an 80-km (50-mile) radius of these sites in 1982 was less than 170 man-rem from DOE operations, or only 0.002 percent of the nearly 10 million man-rem received by the same population each year from natural sources. Most releases of nonradioactive pollutants in site effluents were within EPA regulatory or state limits. Several facilities had pollution abatement projects planned or under construction to correct noncompliance conditions. Inadvertent releases of radioactive and nonradioactive pollutants posed no imminent public health threat nor created significant ecological impacts. 5 references, 4 figures, 10 tables