Proposed Release Guides to Protect Aquatic Biota

At the request of South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) and the Department of Energy (DOE), the Savannah River Laboratory was assigned the task of developing the release guides to protect aquatic biota. A review of aquatic radioecology literature by two leading experts in the field of radioecology concludes that exposure of aquatic biota at one rad per day or less will not produce detectable deleterious effects on aquatic organisms. On the basis of this report, DOE recommends the use of one rad per day as an interim dose standard to protect aquatic biota

Savannah River Site radioiodine atmospheric releases and offsite maximum doses

Radioisotopes of iodine have been released to the atmosphere from the Savannah River Site since 1955. The releases, mostly from the 200-F and 200-H Chemical Separations areas, consist of the isotopes, I-129 and 1-131. Small amounts of 1-131 and 1-133 have also been released from reactor facilities and the Savannah River Laboratory. This reference memorandum was issued to summarize our current knowledge of releases of radioiodines and resultant maximum offsite doses. This memorandum supplements the reference memorandum by providing more detailed supporting technical information. Doses reported in this memorandum from consumption of the milk containing the highest I-131 concentration following the 1961 1-131 release incident are about 1% higher than reported in the reference memorandum. This is the result of using unrounded 1-131 concentrations of I-131 in milk in this memo. It is emphasized here that this technical report does not constitute a dose reconstruction in the same sense as the dose reconstruction effort currently underway at Hanford. This report uses existing published data for radioiodine releases and existing transport and dosimetry models

Control and treatment of radioactive liquid waste effluents at the Savannah River Plant

Radioactive waste effluents at the Savannah River Plant are treated on the basis of potential off-site effects. Those wastes that are not stored in tanks or released directly to plant streams are either discharged to seepage basins or treated further to reduce their activity before being discharged. Administrative controls require that releases not result in hamnful consequences and that they are also kept as low as practical. This document describes the controls, documents the releases of radionuclides to seepage basins, and describes other methods used to treat radioactive liquid wastes. (auth

Tritium in the Savannah River Site environment

Tritium is released to the environment from many of the operations at the Savannah River Site. The releases from each facility to the atmosphere and to the soil and streams, both from normal operations and inadvertent releases, over the period of operation from the early 1950s through 1988 are presented. The fate of the tritium released is evaluated through environmental monitoring, special studies, and modeling. It is concluded that approximately 91% of the tritium remaining after decay is now in the oceans. A dose and risk assessment to the population around the site is presented. It is concluded that about 0.6 fatal cancers may be associated with the tritium released during all the years of operation to the population of about 625,000. This same population (based on the overall US cancer statistics) is expected to experience about 105,000 cancer fatalities from all types of cancer. Therefore, it is considered unlikely that a relationship between any of the cancer deaths occurring in this population and releases of tritium from the SRS will be found