Results of the radiological survey at 110 E Hunter Avenue, Maywood, New Jersey (MJ022)

Maywood Chemical Works (MCW) of Maywood, New Jersey, generated process wastes and residues associated with the production and refining of thorium and thorium compounds from monazite ores from 1916 to 1956. MCW supplied rare earth metals and thorium compounds to the Atomic Energy Commission and various other government agencies from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. Area residents used the sandlike waste from this thorium extraction process mixed with tea and cocoa leaves as mulch in their yards. Some of these contaminated wastes also eroded from the site into Lodi Brook. At the request of the US Department of Energy (DOE), a group from Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducts investigative radiological surveys of properties in the vicinity of MCW to determine whether a property is contaminated with radioactive residues, principally 232Th, derived from the MCW site. The survey typically includes direct measurement of gamma radiation levels and soil sampling for radionuclide analyses. The survey of this site, 110 E. Hunter Avenue, Maywood, New Jersey (MJ022), was conducted during 1987. Following the removal of a small chunk of material showing elevated gamma exposure rates, all radionuclide concentrations and measurements conformed to DOE remedial action criteria. The slightly elevated radionuclide concentrations found in other soil samples were the result of naturally enhances radioactivity characteristic of some environmental materials such as coal ash and were unrelated to operations at the MCW site. The survey data demonstrate that the property requires no further action on the part of DOE. 4 refs., 2 figs., 3 tabs