Airborne radioactive effluent study at the Savannah River Plant

Under the Clean Air Act, Sections 112 and 122 as amended in 1977, the Office of Radiation Programs (OPR) of the United States Environmental Protection Agency is currently developing standards for radionuclides emitted to the air by several source categories. In order to confirm source-term measurements and pathway calculations for radiation exposures to humans offsite, the ORP performs field studies at selected facilities that emit radionuclides. This report describes the field study conducted at the Savannah River Plant (SRP), a laboratory operated by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company for the US Department of Energy. This purpose of the study at ARP was to verify reported airborne releases and resulting radiation doses from the facility. Measurements of radionuclide releases for brief periods were compared with measurements performed by SRP staff on split samples and with annual average releases reported by SRP for the same facilities. The dispersion model used by SRP staff to calculate radiation doses offsite was tested by brief environmental radioactivity measurements performed simultaneously with the release measurements, and by examining radioactivity levels in environmental samples. This report describes in detail all measurements made and data collected during the field study and presents the results obtained. 34 references, 18 figures, 49 tables