Composite Analysis for Low-Level Waste Disposal in the 200 Area Plateau of the Hanford Site, Southeast Washington

Abstract

A composite analysis of low-level radioactive waste disposal and other radioactive sources was recently completed for the Hanford Site in Southeast Washington State. Impacts from source release and environmental transportwere estimated for a 1 000-year period following Site closure in a multi-step process involving 1) estimation of radiological inventories and releases, 2) assessment of contaminant migration through the vadose zone, groundwater, and atmospheric pathways, 3) and estimation of doses. The analysis showed that most of the radionuclide inventory in past-practice liquid discharge sites and pre-1988 solid waste burial grounds on the 200 Area Plateau will be released in the first several hundred years following Hanford Site closure, well before projected releases from active and planned disposals of solid waste. The maximum predicted agricultural dose was less than 6 mrem/y in 2050 and declined thereafter. The maximum doses for the residential, industrial, and recreational scenarios, were 2.2, 0.7, and 0.04 mrem/y, respectively, and also declined after 2050.