Comparative Risk Analysis of Explosive Accident Scenarios Versus Human Health Risks Posed by an Inactive Material Disposal Area at Los Alamos National Laboratory. J. P. McCann, Neptune and Company, Inc., 1505 15th Street, Suite B, Los Alamos, NM 87544; and C. K. Rofer and J. C. Bueck, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
Historical evidence exists that a large block of high explosives may have been buried in one of the inactive material disposal areas at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Environmental Restoration Project activities planned for this area have the potential to encounter such explosives in one or more phases of the investigation and restoration process. Such an encounter could have undesired consequences, the most significant being the inadvertent detonation of the explosive materials with potential injury to workers, damage to equipment, and damage to the environment. A classic definition of a human health risk assessment of such a site is the determination of probabilities of various adverse health outcomes that would result or could result from exposure to the hazardous materials disposed at the site. This presentation compares the risks associated with an unwanted consequence (explosion) due to the intrusive activities required as part of the environmental investigation effort, to the potential human health risks posed by various hypothetical contamination and exposure scenarios at the site as evaluated using current EPA risk assessment guidance. The factors that may contribute to an explosion, the application and limitations of the human health risk assessment process, and how the outcome of such a risk analysis may be used by risk managers to make comprehensive risk-based site cleanup decisions are discussed.