The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory site environmental report for calendar year 1989

To verify that exposures resulting from operations at the Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear facilities have remained very small, each site at which nuclear activities are underway operates an environmental surveillance program to monitor the air, water and any other pathway where radionuclides from operations might conceivably reach workers or members of the public. This report presents data collected in 1989 for the routine environmental surveillance program conducted by the Radiological and Environmental Sciences Laboratory (RESL) of DOE and the US Geological Survey (USGS) at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) site. The environmental surveillance program for the INEL and vicinity for 1989 included the collection and analysis of samples from potential exposure pathways. Three basic groups of samples were collected. Those collected within the INEL boundaries will be referred to as onsite samples. Samples collected outside, but near, the Site boundaries will be referred to as boundary samples or part of a group of offsite samples. Samples collected from locations considerably beyond the Site boundaries will be referred to as distant samples or part of the offsite group. With the exception of Craters of the Moon National Monument, the distant locations are sufficiently remote from the Site to ensure that detectable radioactivity is primarily due to natural background sources or sources other than INEL operations. 35 refs., 14 figs., 13 tabs