Action Guides for Radioactive Effluents from PRTR

Operational guider were developed which would trigger the shutdown of Hanford’s Plutonium Test Reactor, should such action be required to prevent unwarranted levels of radioactive contamination in the surrounding area. Under normal operating conditions, negligible amounts of radioactive materials with the gaseous and aqueous effluents are released. Significant amounts could escape under certain postulated accident conditions, however, and guides were developed for (a) the automatic closure of valves associated with the containment vessel; (b) prompt manual shutdown using normal procedures; and (c) abnormal concentrations of radionuclides in the effluents that should not be allowed to persist. Existing standards for radiation exposure of persons living near atomic installations are applicable for chronic conditions, but are of limited value as a basis for deriving guides for emergency situations. The PRTR guides were derived from predictions of the characteristics of contaminants which would be present in the case of an accident, from knowledge of how the effluents would become dispersed in the atmosphere and the Columbia River, and from knowledge of how the contaminants would ultimately reach people living in the vicinity.