The Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state was initially created
during World War II for the production of plutonium to be used in atomic bombs. A
perceived need for a large increase in the number of nuclear weapons spurred
expansions in production facilities at Hanford through the 1960's, and production was
continued through the mid 1980's. The production process included irradiation of
uranium fuel in reactors followed by chemical separation of the plutonium from the
other fuel constituents, and finally transformation of plutonium nitrate to plutonium
metal. The various steps in the process produced large amounts of radioactive as well
as chemical hazardous waste. Some of this waste was released to the environment
either through deliberate disposal methods or by leaks in transfer and storage systems.
As a result, the soil at many areas of Hanford is contaminated to a point at which it
would be unsafe for human contact for more than a short period of time. The current
focus of efforts at Hanford is cleanup of the environment as well as decommissioning
of the facilities. As part of the cleanup process, future land use must be determined
which will then affect the scale of the remediation effort. The proposed land use will
determine the residual contamination which will be left after all remediation is
complete and access is allowed to the site. This document details the process for
determining the residual contamination levels associated with various land use options.
Some possible land use options are explained in the form of exposure scenarios.
These scenarios give data in the form of exposure factors which describe the possible
exposure level of an individual to contaminated media. Once the exposure factors are
determined, they can be used in the equations outlined in the Hanford Site Risk
Assessment Methodology to calculate preliminary remediation goals. These goals are
presented as contaminant concentrations in environmental media which are the
maximum allowable in order to meet regulatory limits. The limits are expressed either
as a risk for carcinogens, or as a hazard quotient for non-carcinogens. / Graduation date: 1997
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/34023 |
| Date | 22 May 1996 |
| Creators | Hekkala, Darin R. |
| Contributors | Higley, Kathryn A. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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