Safety_Series_041_1975 - gnssn - International Atomic Energy ...

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126 APPENDIX IV
9(&r, 95Z r -95Nb, 103Ru, 106Ru and 137Cs are present in the effluent.
If necessary, the effluent can be tem porarily detained in the ponds
or diverted to storage and/or treatment facilities.
Both the plant operator and NYS Health Department collect
samples of air, water and milk in the vicinity of the site. During
the preoperational period the NY State Health Department collected
and published detailed data pertaining to population, surface water
supplies, agriculture, stream biota, and livestock within a 25-m ile
radius of the plant site [34]. Background radiation levels were
also measured in a pressurized ion chamber at about 30 locations
during the preoperational environmental programme [35] .
Two soil samples were collected and analysed for gross gamma
activity at each of four locations on the plant site at a 12-month
interval.
Milk samples were collected from six farms and analysed for
gross gamma activity and for several fission products. Low concentrations
of the fall-out nuclides 89Sr, 90Sr and 137Cs were detected
in nearly all milk samples. Surface water samples were collected
from numerous streams near the plant site and analysed for gross
gamma, fall-out nuclides, uranium and radium. Only rarely were
positive measurements obtained. Sampling sites were also
established for drinking water, bottom mud, fish and air samples.
After operation of the plant for a few years, the Northeastern
Radiological Health Laboratory of the USPHS (now part of EPA)
perform ed a special survey of the NFS plant environs [36].
Samples of milk, drinking water, fish, and deer were collected and
analysed fo r 3H, 60Co, 90Sr, 106Ru, 134Cs and 137Cs. Measurements
of 85Kr in air were also made. The study concluded that "the
presence of Nuclear Fuels Services ... did not significantly increase
the radiation dose to the 'typical individual' in 1968 above that due
to fallout and natural radiation".
Environmental surveillance at the Hanford Project
The US AEC Hanford project is a com plex of production reactors,
fuels fabrication and reprocessing plants, and research facilities.
The eight older plutonium producing reactors, now shut down, utilized
a once-through cooling system. Columbia River water was passed
through the reactors, then into delay ponds and finally back into
the river. The effluent contained fission>products and neutron
activation products.