Environmental monitoring report: United States Energy Research and Development Administration, Oak Ridge facilities, calendar year 1976

The Environmental Monitoring Program for the Oak Ridge area includes sampling and analysis of air, water from surface streams, several food products, vegetation, and soil for both radioactive and nonradioactive materials. This report presents a summary of the results of the program for calendar year 1976. Surveillance of radioactivity in the Oak Ridge environs indicates that atmospheric concentrations of radioactivity were not significantly different from other areas in East Tennessee. Concentrations of radioactivity in the Clinch River and in fish collected from the river were less than 8.1 percent of the permissible concentration and intake guides for individuals in the offsite environment. While some radioactivity was released to the environment from plant operations, the concentrations in all of the media sampled were well below established standards. The total body dose to a hypothetical maximum exposed individual at the site boundary was calculated to be 7.2 mrem/yr which is 1.4 percent of the ERDA Manual Chapter 0524 standard. The maximum 50-year dose commitment to the critical organs of an individual from the aquatic food chain was calculated to be 150 millirem to the bone which is 10 percent of the allowable annual standard. The maximum dose commitment to individuals living nearest the site boundary from airborne releases, assuming continuous residence, was 0.4 millirem to the total body and 7.4 millirem to the lung. These doses are 0.08 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, of the annual standards. The average total body dose to an Oak Ridge resident was estimated to be 0.05 millirem as compared to approximately 100 mrem/yr from natural background radiation; the average dose commitment to the lung of an Oak Ridge resident was 0.7 millirem. The cumulative total body dose to the population within a 50-mile radius of the Oak Ridge facilities resulting from 1976 effluents was calculated to be 5.3 man-rem