In-Situ Radiation Detection Demonstration
Abstract
The Department of Defense DoD has hundreds of facilities where radioactive materials have been used or are being used and where past activities have resulted in environmental contamination. It is important that radioactive contaminants are remediated to levels that result in acceptable risk to the public. Remediation requires characterization studies, e.g., sampling and surveys, to define the affected areas, removal actions, and final confirmatory sampling and surveys. Surface soil contaminant characterization using soil sampling and hand held monitoring are costly, time consuming, and result in long delays between submission of samples for analysis and obtaining of final results. This project took a existing, proven radiation survey technology and improved its capabilities by documenting correlation factors for various detector/radionuclide geometries that commonly occur in field surveys. With this tool, one can perform characterization and final release surveys much more quickly and have detection limits that are as good as or better than current technology. This paper will discuss the capabilities of a large area plastic scintillation detector used in conjunction with a global positioning system GPS to improve site characterization, remediation, and final clearance surveys of the radioactively contaminated site. Survey results can rapidly identify areas that require remediation as well as guide surgical removal of contaminated soil that is above remediation guidelines. Post-remediation surveys can document that final radiological site conditions are within the remedial action limits.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA631387
Entities
People
- Amir Mohagheghi
- David R. Miller
- Mark L. Miller
- Robert Reese
- Stephen Duce
Organizations
- Sandia National Laboratories