Soil decontamination criteria report, November 1980

A program to access the extent of transuranic soil contamination at DOE sites and to develop methods for their decontamination is underway at Rocky Flats. As part of this program, acceptable soil contamination levels for plutonium proposed by a number of authorities over the past couple of decades were reviewed. From this review, goals for soil decontamination work are proposed. These goals, which relate to the disposition of the products of a decontamination process, are summarized as follows (dpm/g will refer to disintegrations per minute of transuranic nuclides per gram of soil): soil fractions having less than 30 dpm can be disposed of as surface soil with unrestricted usage. Fine soil fractions (less than 100 μm) that have less than 500 dpm and coarse soil fractions that have less than 1000 dpm can be disposed of as subsurface soil as long as usage is controlled to ensure compliance with EPA dosage guidance. Soil concentrates that have an activity greater than the above values but less than 22,000 dpm should be interred in an approved, low level waste burial site. Soil concentrates that are greater than 22,000 dpm should be stored as retrievable waste. Changes in the technical and legal areas of soil decontamination are rapid. Permissible soil decontamination levels will change as will decontamination technology and the ability to monitor the effectiveness of the decontamination processes. As a result, annual updates of decontamination criteria, goals, and monitoring are expected