Sampling and Surveying Radiological Environments

Mark E. Byrnes

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2000
• ISBN:
  9781000713497
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Environmental Law
• Index: Law

Private landowners or Federal Agencies responsible for cleaning up radiological environments are faced with the challenge of clearly defining the nature and extent of radiological contamination, implementing remedial alternatives, then statistically verifying that cleanup objectives have been met. Sampling and Surveying Radiological Environments provides the how-tos for designing and implementing cost effective and defensible sampling programs in radiological environments, such as those found in the vicinity of uranium mine sites, nuclear weapons production facilities, nuclear reactors, radioactive waste storage and disposal facilities, and nuclear accidents. It includes downloadable resources that walk you through the EPA's Data Quality Objectives(DQO) procedures and provides electronic templates you can complete and print.
Sampling and Surveying Radiological Environments addresses all of the major topics that will assist you in designing and implementing statistically defensible sampling programs in radiological environments, including:

• Summary of the major environmental laws and regulations that apply to radiological sites, and advice on regulatory interfacing
  · Internet addresses where you can find regulations pertaining to each States
  
• Theory of radiation detection and definitions of common radiological terminology
  
• Statistics and statistical software that apply to the environmental industry
  
• Details on commercially available radiological instrumentation and detection systems
  
• Building decontamination and decommissioning, radiological and chemical equipment decontamination procedures, and tank/drum/remote characterization
  
• Standard operating procedures for collecting environmental media samples
  
• Guidance on sample preparation, documentation, and shipment
  
• Guidance on data verification/validation, radiological data management, data quality assessment (DQA)
  

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This book has been written to provide the environmental industry with guidance on how to develop and implement defensible sampling and surveying programs in radiological environments. This book provides the reader with proven radiological surveying and sampling methods that can be used to support soil remediation, building decontamination and decommissioning, tank characterization, and surveys of highly radioactive environments using pipe crawling and other robotic devices.

The intent of this book is to provide the reader with all of the tools needed to develop and implement a cost-effective and defensible sampling and surveying program. The purpose of Chapter 1 is to provide the reader with background information about radiological contamination sources, impacted environmental media, contaminant migration pathways, routes of exposure, and definitions of radiological terminology.

Chapter 2 provides a summary of the major environmental laws and regulations that apply to radiological sites and provides Internet addresses where individual state environmental agency regulations can be obtained. Chapter 3 provides the reader with the fundamentals of radioactivity, radiation, and radiation detection. Chapter 4 provides guidance on how to develop a defensible sampling program. This chapter provides:

• A template to support the implementation of the scoping process
• Guidance on regulatory interfacing
• Details on how to implement the EPA seven-step DQO process
• Guidance on developing statistical sampling and survey designs
• Guidance on developing integrated sampling and surveying designs
• Information on capabilities of various statistical sampling design software packages
• Guidance on developing a Sampling and Analysis Plan
• Information on capabilities of various scanning and direct measurement methods
• Standard operating procedures for media sampling

Chapter 5 provides guidance on sample preparation, field documentation, and shipment of radiological samples to the laboratory for analysis. This chapter addresses issues such as bottle requirements, sample preservation, sample labeling, chain-of-custody, field and photographic logbooks, and field sampling forms. Chapter 6 provides guidance on data verification and validation. Chapter 7 addresses how radiological data should be managed. Chapter 8 provides guidance on implementing the EPA five-step data quality assessment (DQA) process. Chapter 9 provides radiological and chemical equipment decontamination procedures. The appendices and CD-ROM provide templates to assist the reader in implementing the EPA seven-step DQO procedure and developing a DQO Summary Report and Sampling and Analysis Plan. The appendices also provide statistics tables to support statistical calculations, a metric conversion chart, radiological decay chains, and sample container, preservation, and holding time requirements.

1.1 RADIOLOGICAL CONTAMINANT SOURCES

The primary sources of radiological contamination include uranium mine sites, uranium mill tailings, uranium processing plants, nuclear weapons production facilities, nuclear testing laboratories, nuclear reactors, and associated fuel storage and radioactive waste storage and disposal facilities.

Examples of various types of radioactive waste storage and disposal facilities include:

• Landfills
• Trenches
• Waste water and cooling water holding ponds
• Cribs
• French drains
• Aboveground or underground storage tanks
• Waste container storage yards

If radiological contamination migrates from any of these primary sources into the surrounding environmental media (e.g., soil, sediment, building material), the environmental media becomes a secondary source of contamination. For example, if radiologically contaminated cooling water migrates through cracks in a concrete holding pond and contaminates the underlying soil, the contaminated soil beneath the pond becomes a secondary source of contamination. Contamination from this secondary source can then migrate and contaminate other environmental media, such as groundwater (Figure 1.1).

The primary source of the radiological contamination will determine which specific isotopes should be considered contaminants of concern for a particular site. For example, the contaminants of concern for a uranium mine site often include Th-232, U-235, U-238, and the isotopes resulting from the decay of these parent isotopes, such as Ac-227, Pa-231, Ra-226, Ra-228, Th-230, U-234, etc. (see Appendix E). On the other hand, the contaminants of concern at a nuclear weapons production facility may include isotopes such as Co-60, Cs-137, Eu-152, Eu-154, Eu-155, Pu-239/Pu-240, Sr-90, etc.

Figure 1.1 Example of a primary and secondary source of contamination.

As discussed in Section 4.1.1.5.1.6, the primary and secondary sources of contamination are essential components in the development of a Conceptual Site Model.

1.2 IMPACTED MEDIA

The media that may be impacted by radiological contamination will vary from site to site and will be influenced by the source(s) of contamination and the method by which the contamination is released (e.g., spill, leak, equipment malfunction) into the environment. For example, the impacted media for a leaking underground waste storage tank will be primarily deep soil and groundwater, while the impacted media from a surface spill within a plutonium processing plant may include air, concrete, paint, shallow soil, and surface water. The development of a Conceptual Site Model in Step 1 of the DQO procedure (Section 4.1.1.5.1.6), will assist in the identification of the impacted media.

Examples of the types of media that may be impacted at radiological sites include:

• Soil
• Sediment
• Sludge
• Surface water
• Groundwater
• Air
• Piping
• Ventilation ducts
• Concrete
• Asphalt
• Sheetrock
• Wood
• Roofing material
• Paint

1.3 CONTAMINANT MIGRATION PATHWAYS AND ROUTES OF EXPOSURE

The term contaminant migration pathway refers to the path by which contamination may spread into the surrounding environment. The three primary contamination migration pathways for chemical and radiological contaminants include:

• Air
• Surface water
• Groundwater

The path...