Integrated Assessment of Potential Risks and Hazards for a Reactor Museum at Hanford. W. C. Griffith, C. H. Drew, M. Rohrbach, N. L. Judd, E. M. Faustman, J. Abbotts, D. C. Mercer, and T. M. Leschine, University of Washington
The possibility of preserving the original plutonium production reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Eastern Washington, and opening it as a museum, has increased interest in assessing the human health risks in the 100 B/C area around the reactor. This area has 83 waste sites involving contaminated buildings and soils, including two reactors, spread over a 2.5 km2 area on the Columbia River. Since 1995, 23 waste sites have been remediated, including some of the most heavily contaminated sites. Many of the remediation projects have involved leaving buried radionuclides and other contamination 5 meters below the surface. The RESRAD model projections for the next 1000 years predict that a person living on any of the 23 remediated sites consuming home grown food is unlikely to exceed regulatory dose limits. These projections did not include existing groundwater contamination. In this study we have examined the descriptions of residual risks at the 23 remediated sites, and descriptions of the hazards associated with the other 60 waste sites to determine the type of assessment that will be needed to open a museum. Radiation doses to visitors in the reactor building may be the largest source of risk that has not yet been evaluated. Our analysis indicates that scenarios for visitors and people working at the museum need to be developed, taking into account the routes traveled to the museum across Hanford, and drinking water sources. The risk evaluations of the 23 remediated sites have only considered risks coming from that site. Given the large number of sites in a small area, scenarios for the museum need to consider combined exposures from all waste sites. This museum may be the first area of Hanford open to the public, and could provide a model for the Department of Energy to open other parts of Hanford to public access.
Research was supported by USDOE (DE-FG26-00NT40938) to the IRM/CRESPII. Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the DOE or of IRM/CRESP II.
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