Final Report of the Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment LAHDRA Project Prepared for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC National Center for Environmental Health Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects Radiation Studies Branch November 2010 S h o n k a R e s e arch A s s o c ia te s This page intentionally left blank Final Report of the Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment LAHDRA Project Prepared for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC National Center for Environmental Health Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects Radiation Studies Branch Prepared as a team effort by individuals from ChemRisk L L C Shonka Research Associates Inc NGTS Inc ENSR Corporation Advanced Technologies Laboratories International Inc and several private consultants Project Director and Principal Author Thomas Widner Contributing Authors Joseph Shonka Robert Burns Susan Flack Jack Buddenbaum James O’Brien Kate Robinson Jeff Knutsen Other project team members Cheryl Allen Chris Atkinson Lisa Barfield Tim Bauer Regan Burmeister Joel Cehn David Dodge Ellen Donovan Shannon Gaffney Jou Hwang Bill Joyce Claudine Kasunic Tim Kirkham Jim Key Chris Kirman Matthew Le Michael Marcial William McCaughey Tom Mongan Duane Quayle Cindy Saban Debby Shonka Michael Simmons Jeff Vollmer Jody Williams November 2010 S h o n k a R e s e arch A s s o c ia te s This page intentionally left blank Dedication This report is published in special memory of Thomas Widner Project Director and Principal Author for the LAHDRA project who passed away during the completion of this report Mr Widner spent the last 28 years of his career becoming an authority in health physics environmental dose reconstruction industrial hygiene and human health risk assessment and made significant contributions to these fields He was instrumental in developing and advancing our understanding of retrospective dose reconstruction at former DOE weapons complex sites Mr Widner was an intelligent compassionate individual who will be remembered as a respected colleague mentor and friend by the LAHDRA team Without his scientific contribution and dedication to this project this report would have not been possible FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT Community Introduction to the LAHDRA Report The following poem was written by Beata Tsosie-Peña of Santa Clara Pueblo and read at the LAHDRA public meeting held January 28 2010 at Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo New Mexico The LAHDRA team selected this poem for inclusion in this report because it reflects an example of a community member’s perspective The LAHDRA team would like to express its appreciation to the communities surrounding Los Alamos National Laboratory for its active involvement in this project over the last decade Dedicated to the women of Las Mujeres Hablan and those working for justice in their communities with special thanks to Tina Cordova Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium Growing up I was disconnected Some things were not discussed Among people who valued hard work and employment One-sided silence through years of schooling I learned about the nuclear age From movies and propaganda and Bradbury field trips The glorified versions of a history that happened in my own back yard In our state of Enchantment Pristine open spaces and a population Not respected by a higher nation Still living off the land as the industrial age passed them by Only to get thrust into nuclear realization Beneath a mission Urgent and thick with intensity Beneath a shroud of secrecy I was not yet born The day scientists feared for our sky Thoughts of atmospheric ignition And that everyone would die I was not yet born when the Jemez was taken Homesteaders relocated not of their volition Uranium miners on the road to perdition Beloved mountains occupied before I could praise them Disconnected from ancestral knowledge In three generations Clan animals vanished Even as the jobs began to appear Unprotected hired hands from the valley A job was nothing to fear It was a welcome exchange in hard times FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT i I wasn’t yet born The day silver ash rained down for days And a plume of poison drifted over state lines Radioactive fallout on cisterns of drinking water On crops and livestock who all miscarried that year The people were lied to And went about life as usual While the truth fled With bread over their mouths To keep from breathing air they knew was foul And the world was changed forever A month later 80 000 people were killed instantly Justified atrocity named enemy And the book was closed on Trinity Even though it was our own citizens who were bombed Children born into an experimental population With a cancer rate way higher than the average nation Entire families still sick and dying Still crying for the elders and children they lost too soon I – was born into military healthcare mixed blood and desert beauty Free from the shame of colonized blame My grandfather employed by Sandia My down-winder grandmothers who birthed babies and taught me songs While washing tainted laundry and making pots from local clay I wonder now can earth decay Eating the elk my uncles brought down Breathing fire smoke from trees that drank From discarded waste placed…anyplace Today – my daughters are born Into single driver car twice daily parades Dependence on industrial weapon economic charades The sound of bombs exploding As we pray to the sun in mornings Will my cornmeal prayers Protect them as they play in ditches Carrying water from a source three miles away from tritium releases What did my oldest get exposed to As I breathed in smoke from a tech area burned 3 times over What kind of poison Can penetrate the walls of my womb What stories were silenced and why and from whom The truth must be told From the people who lived it Who dwell in this place that houses our spirit Respectfully I pray for past present and future souls to be at peace someday For clean earth air and water So my children can play ii FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT Splashing and laughing as we tend to our gardens Beneath the loving gaze of our sacred mountains Free of fear from invisible poison Free to hear undisturbed and clear the birds sing in the morning As we continue to question And speak our points of view Let us share the stories anew that have never been told And release the pain not even a century old No longer shamed by accusations of ignorance Let our diverse voices be our deliverance No breath here is unimportant We are free to pray Each in our way For justice strong leaders and supportive institutions A foundation for our expectations As we welcome in this time of healing For the good Of all future generations Beata Tsosie-Peña c 2010 all rights reserved Beata is from Santa Clara Pueblo and works for environmental health and justice with Tewa Women United a network of Las Mujeres Hablan This poem was selected as an example of one community member’s perspective it may not reflect the perspective of the community as a whole The perspectives and opinions expressed within the poem do not necessarily state or reflect the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the authors of this report FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT iii This page intentionally left blank iv FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary Front Chapter 1 Introduction to the LAHDRA Project Tab 1 Chapter 2 Overview of Historical Operations at Los Alamos Tab 2 Chapter 3 Information Gathering at Los Alamos Tab 3 Chapter 4 Plutonium Processing at Los Alamos Tab 4 Chapter 5 Reactor Development and Operations at Los Alamos Tab 5 Chapter 6 Accelerator Operations at Los Alamos Tab 6 Chapter 7 Tritium Processing at Los Alamos and a Screening Assessment of Public Exposures Tab 7 Chapter 8 Hot Cell Facilities and Operations at Los Alamos Tab 8 Chapter 9 Operations with Other Radionuclides Tab 9 Chapter 10 The Trinity Test Tab 10 Chapter 11 Beryllium Use at Los Alamos Tab 11 Chapter 12 Processing and Testing of High Explosives at Los Alamos Tab 12 Chapter 13 The LANL Health Division Tab 13 Chapter 14 Environmental Monitoring at LANL Tab 14 Chapter 15 Development of Residential Areas Around Los Alamos Tab 15 Chapter 16 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Events at LANL Tab 16 Chapter 17 Prioritization of Radionuclide Releases Tab 17 Chapter 18 Screening-Level Evaluation of Airborne Plutonium Releases from DP West Site Tab 18 Chapter 19 Prioritization of Chemical Releases from LANL Tab 19 Chapter 20 Preliminary Screening of Airborne Beryllium Releases from LANL Operations Tab 20 Chapter 21 Public Involvement within the LAHDRA Project Tab 21 Chapter 22 Findings of the LAHDRA Project Tab 22 This page intentionally left blank LAHDRA PROJECT LIST OF ACRONYMS INITIALISMS AND ABBREVIATIONS 25 28 37 49 410 ACIS ADWEM Early code name for uranium-235 from the isotope’s atomic number 92 and atomic weight 235 Early code name for uranium-238 from the isotope’s atomic number 92 and atomic weight 238 Early code name for neptunium-237 from the isotope’s atomic number 93 and atomic weight 237 Early code name for plutonium-239 from the isotope’s atomic number 94 and atomic weight 239 Early code name for plutonium-240 from the isotope’s atomic number 94 and atomic weight 240 i e one higher than 239 hence the 10 AEC AIRNET AKA ALDNW ANP ARF ATSDR Automated Chemical Inventory System Associate Laboratory Directorate for Nuclear Weapons Engineering and Manufacturing— formerly ALDNW U S Atomic Energy Commission DOE predecessor agency A LANL network of ambient air sampling stations “also known as” Former Office of Associate Laboratory Directorate for Nuclear Weapons Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Atmospheric Release Fraction Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry BR Site BZ Bruns Railhead Site in Santa Fe NM Breathing Zone CAS Case Chemical Abstracts Service a registry for chemicals Early code word for curie especially when referring to polonium shipments “200 cases of Postum” meant 200 curies of polonium Chronic Beryllium Disease Cubic Centimeters Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety Cadmium Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Response Program Committed Effective Dose Equivalent a unit of radiation dose Cubic Feet per Minute Code of Federal Regulations Curie a unit of radioactivity 1 Ci 3 7 x 1010 disintegrations per second Former Computing Information and Communications CIC Division now the Computing Communications and Networking Division CCN Chemistry and Metallurgy Former Chemistry Metallurgy Baker Division which later became MST Division Chemistry and Metallurgical Research The radiochemistry group at early LASL Carbon dioxide CBD cc CCNS Cd CDC CEARP CEDE CFM CFR Ci CIC CM CMB CMR CMR-12 CO 2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT i DARHT D-Building DE D D DF Site DOE DOEAL DOP DP DPM DSF DU DVD DX Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamics Test Earliest plutonium processing facilities at Los Alamos Dose Equivalent a unit of radiation dose Decontamination and Decommissioning Detonator Firing Site U S Department of Energy Department of Energy Albuquerque Operations Office diocthyl phthalate an aerosol often used to test effluent treatment filters DP Site 1 or TA-21 The site of plutonium processing at LANL from 1945 until 1978 Was also the site of polonium processing Disintegrations Per Minute a rate of radioactive decay Document Summary Form Depleted Uranium Digital Versatile Disc Dynamic Experiments Division at LANL EEOICPA EIS EMAD EMF EML ENSR ER ERDA ERSS ESA ES H eV Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act Environmental Impact Statement Engine Maintenance and Disassembly building at NRDS ElectroMagnetic Field Environmental Measurements Laboratory ENSR Corporation a provider of ENvironmental SeRvices Environmental Restoration Energy Research and Development Administration DOE predecessor agency Environment and Remediation Support Services Engineering Science and Application Environment Safety and Health Electron Volts FACA fCi FGI FQ Federal Advisory Committee Act Femtocurie 10-15 curie or 0 000000000000001 Ci Foreign Government Information Filter Queens- vacuum cleaners adapted at LASL to collect air samples G-2 G MAP GMX GMX-1 GPS GT Site Army Intelligence Gaseous Mixed Activation Products GMX Division possibly for Gadgets Munitions and Explosives The Radiography Group at early LANL Global Positioning System Anchor Site West H HAI H-Division HE HEPA HHS HMX HP Site HSE H Division or Health Division at LANL History Associates Inc The Health Division at LANL High Explosive High Efficiency Particulate Air filter Dept of Health and Human Services High Melting Explosive Hot Point Site Health Safety and Environment 1 There are several theories about the origin of the “DP Site” name for TA-21 It may stand for D-Prime since it replaced D Building “D Plant ” “Displaced Persons ” “D-Plutonium or “D-Production” Martin 1998 ii FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT HSR HT HTML HTO HSPT HYPO Health Safety and Radiation Protection group at LANL formerly ESH Heat Treatment Building at TA-1 Hyper Text Markup Language Tritiated water water in which a hydrogen atom is replaced with tritium 3H Human Studies Project Team Water Boiler Reactor in its high-power configuration IAEA ICRP ICRU IH IM-5 INEEL IP IPM International Atomic Energy Agency International Commission on Radiological Protection International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements Industrial Hygiene The Records Management Group within the LANL Information Management Division Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory Internet Protocol Images per minute JHSPH Johns Hopkins School of Public Health kW kilowatt one thousand watts of power LA– LAHDRA LALP LAMS LAMPF LAMPRE LANL LANSCE LA-PR LAPRE LAPRE I LAPRE II LA- UR LCLS LMFBR LOAEL LOPO LSSS A prefix in many Los Alamos technical report designators Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment project A type of LANL publication from Los Alamos Laboratory publication A type of Los Alamos technical report from Los Alamos Manuscript Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility Los Alamos Molten Plutonium Reactor Experiment Los Alamos National Laboratory name from January 1981 to present formerly known as Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory January 1947 to December 1980 Los Alamos Neutron Science Center- formerly LAMPF A type of Los Alamos technical report from Los Alamos Progress Report Los Alamos Power Reactor Experiment First Los Alamos Power Reactor Experiment Second Los Alamos Power Reactor Experiment A type of Los Alamos technical report from Los Alamos Unlimited Release LANL’s Legal Counsel Litigation Support Database Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level Water Boiler Reactor in its low-power configuration Limiting Safety System Setting mA-hr MAP MDL MED MeV MFP mL mm MDA MOU MPC MST MTR Millampere-hours a measure of work load for accelerators like at LANSCE Mixed Activation Products Minimum Detection Level Manhattan Engineer District Million Electron Volts Mixed Fission Products milliliter one thousandth of a liter millimeter one thousandth of a meter Minimum Detectable Activity Memorandum of Understanding Maximum Permissible Concentration Materials Science and Technology Division Materials Test Reactor FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT iii MW Megawatt one million watts of power NASA NBS NCEH NCRP NEPA NERVA NESHAPS NIOSH NMED NMT NOAEL NO x NRC NRDS NSA NTK NTS National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Bureau of Standards predecessor to NIST National Center for Environmental Health part of CDC National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft a USAF project Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health New Mexico Environmental Department Nuclear Materials Technology No Observed Adverse Effect level Oxides of nitrogen U S Nuclear Regulatory Commission Nuclear Rocket Development Station at NTS Nuclear Science Abstracts Need-to-know Nevada Test Site OCR ORNL ORF ORR OSHA OSR OSTI OUO OWR OWREX Optical Character Recognition Oak Ridge National Laboratory Overall Release Fraction Oak Ridge Reservation Occupational Safety and Health Administration Off-Site Releases Database Office of Scientific and Technical Information Official Use Only Omega West Reactor Omega West Reactor Experiment PARKA PBX PCB PDF PEL PETN PHERMEX PI Postum PPM A Phoebus 1 reactor set up as a critical assembly Plastic Bonded Explosive Polychlorinated Biphenyls Portable Document Format Permissible Exposure Limit pentaerythritol tetranitrate an explosive Pulsed High-Energy Radiation Machine Emitting X-rays Priority Index Early code word for polonium a material used at Los Alamos Pages Per Minute PROJECTS Project Apple Project Camel Project Orange Project Royal Project Sugar Project Tee PRG PRS iv Rocky Flats Plant The first full-scale test firing of the Fat Man type bomb minus the plutonium at the China Lake Naval Ordnance Sta in CA Pantex Plant unknown Burlington Army Ordnance Plant in Iowa unknown Preliminary Remediation Goals Potential Release Sites FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT PSR P VAP Proton Storage Ring Particulate Various Activation Products Q The top level of security clearance granted by DOE R RAEHP RaLa RCRA RDX rem RF RfC RFETS RFI RMAD RMC RPF RRES RSAC RSB Roentgen a unit of radiation exposure Rio Arriba Environmental Health Partnership Radioactive Lanthanum Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Rapid detonating explosive A unit of radiation dose equivalent from Roentgen Equivalent Man Respirable Fraction Reference Concentration Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site RCRA Facility Investigation Reactor Maintenance Assembly and Disassembly building at NRDS Records Management Center Records Processing Facility Risk Reduction and Environmental Stewardship Radiological Safety Analysis Computer program CDC’s Radiation Studies Branch S Site S-7 SAP SCI SED SL-1 TA-16 S is from Sawmill Site after a former sawmill in the area LANL’s Classification Office Special Access Program Sensitive Compartmented Information Special Engineering Detachment in the Manhattan District era A 3-MW experimental reactor in Idaho Stationary Low-Power Plant No 1 that was destroyed in 1961 when a control rod was removed manually South Mesa Special Nuclear Material Space Nuclear Propulsion Office a joint office between the AEC and NASA Early code name for bismuth which was irradiated to make polonium Shonka Research Associates Inc Savannah River Site Water Boiler Reactor in its highest Super power configuration Solid Waste Management Unit SM SNM SNPO Soda Pulp SRA SRS SUPO SWMU TA TATB TD Site TFF TLD TNT TR TR TRU TSTA TU Technical Area a section of land at Los Alamos with TA number from 0 to 74 that has been the site of identified operations or activities 1 3 5-triamino-2 4 6-trinitrobenzene an explosive Trap Door Site Target Fabrication Facility ThermoLuminescent Dosimeter Trinitrotoluene an explosive Transfer Record Trinity Project Transuranic that is elements having atomic numbers greater than 92 Tritium Systems Test Assembly Tuballoy an early code name for depleted uranium from the British Tube Alloys project a code name for their atomic bomb program FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT v UC UCNI UHTREX UK UNM USAEC USEPA USGS University of California operator of the Los Alamos facility since its founding Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information Ultra High-Temperature Reactor Experiment United Kingdom University of New Mexico United States Atomic Energy Commission United States Environmental Protection Agency United States Geological Survey VHS Vitamin B VJ Day VRS VTR Video Home System a video cassette format patented by JVC Early code name for the isotope boron-10 a material used at Los Alamos The day of Allied victory over Japan in WW II Virtual ReScan technology Vault Type Room W W-47 WB WEM WETF WFO WIPP WNR WP WX Site W the Hanford Plant near Richland Washington Code designation for Wendover Air Base in Utah that was the training site of the 509th Composite Group which dropped the atomic bombs over Japan whole body Weapons Engineering and Manufacturing Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility at TA-16 Work for Others Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Weapons Neutron Research Facility Weapons Physics Weapons Group WX X-10 The X-10 Site in Oak Ridge Tennessee now Oak Ridge National Laboratory Y Site Y the code name for Los Alamos Laboratory under the MED from April 1943 to December 1946 Z Z Division named for Jerrold R Zacharias a physicist from MIT’s Radiation Laboratory an ordnance design testing and assembly group formed at LASL in July 1945 Moved to the old Oxnard Air Field east of Kirtland Air Base just outside of Albuquerque between fall of 1945 and January 1947 and became informally known as Sandia Base _______________ Reference Martin 1998 Martin C Los Alamos Place Names Los Alamos Historical Society Los Alamos New Mexico vi FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT Metric SI Prefixes Factor 1018 1015 1012 109 106 103 102 101 Prefix Exa peta tera giga mega kilo hecto deka Symbol E P T G M k h da Factor 10-1 10-2 10-3 10-6 10-9 10-12 10-15 10-18 Prefix Deci Centi Milli Micro Nano Pico Femto Atto Symbol d c m µ n p f a Summary of New and Old Radiological Units Quantity Name Symbol radioactivity becquerel Bq 1 disintegrations per second dps curie Ci 3 7 × 1010 Bq Gy joule kilogram J kg rad 10-2 Gy Sv J kg rem 10-2 Sv old absorbed dose gray old rad dose equivalent sievert old exposure old rem coulomb per kilogram C kg roentgen R In other units 2 58 × 10-4 C kg Chemical Concentrations 1 0 mg L 0 001 g L 1 000 µg L 1 000 000 ng L 1 0 µg L 0 001 mg L 1 000 ng L 1 0 ng L 0 001 µg L 0 000001 mg L 1 0 percent 1 0 g 100g 10 o oo parts per thousand 10 g kg 10 000 mg kg 1 0 g kg 0 10 percent 1 000 mg kg 1 0 mg kg 0 0010 g kg 0 00010 percent 1 000 µg kg 1 0 µg kg 0 001 mg kg 1 000 ng kg FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT vii Table of the Elements viii Z # Name Symbol 89 13 95 51 18 33 85 56 97 4 83 107 5 35 48 20 98 6 58 55 17 24 27 29 96 105 66 99 68 63 100 9 87 64 31 32 79 72 108 2 67 1 49 53 77 26 36 57 103 82 3 71 Actinium Aluminum Americium Antimony Argon Arsenic Astatine Barium Berkelium Beryllium Bismuth Bohrium Boron Bromine Cadmium Calcium Californium Carbon Cerium Cesium Chlorine Chromium Cobalt Copper Curium Dubnium Dysprosium Einsteinium Erbium Europium Fermium Fluorine Francium Gadolinium Gallium Germanium Gold Hafnium Hassium Helium Holmium Hydrogen Indium Iodine Iridium Iron Krypton Lanthanum Lawrencium Lead Lithium Lutetium Ac Al Am Sb Ar As At Ba Bk Be Bi Bh B Br Cd Ca Cf C Ce Cs Cl Cr Co Cu Cm Db Dy Es Er Eu Fm F Fr Gd Ga Ge Au Hf Hs He Ho H In I Ir Fe Kr La Lr Pb Li Lu Z# 12 25 Name Magnesium Manganese Symbol Mg Mn 101 80 42 60 10 93 28 41 7 102 76 8 46 15 78 94 84 19 59 61 91 88 86 75 45 37 44 104 62 21 106 34 14 47 11 38 16 73 43 52 65 81 90 69 50 22 74 92 23 Mendelevium Mercury Molybdenum Neodymium Neon Neptunium Nickel Niobium Nitrogen Nobelium Osmium Oxygen Palladium Phosphorus Platinum Plutonium Polonium Potassium Praseodymium Promethium Protactinium Radium Radon Rhenium Rhodium Rubidium Ruthenium Rutherfordium Samarium Scandium Seaborgium Selenium Silicon Silver Sodium Strontium Sulfur Tantalum Technetium Tellurium Terbium Thallium Thorium Thulium Tin Titanium Tungsten Uranium Vanadium Md Hg Mo Nd Ne Np Ni Nb N No Os O Pd P Pt Pu Po K Pr Pm Pa Ra Rn Re Rh Rb Ru Rf Sm Sc Sg Se Si Ag Na Sr S Ta Tc Te Tb Tl Th Tm Sn Ti W U V FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 Z# 70 39 30 40 Name Ytterbium Yttrium Zinc Zirconium Symbol Yb Y Zn Zr The Z Number or Atomic Number of an element is the number of protons in its atomic nucleus This page intentionally left blank x FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT Executive Summary The Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment LAHDRA project began in early 1999 It was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC with much of the work performed by contractors to CDC namely ChemRisk LLC and subcontractors Shonka Research Associates Inc NGTS Inc ENSR Corporation Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International Inc and several individual consultants The LAHDRA project’s primary purpose was to identify all available information concerning past releases of radionuclides and chemicals from the Los Alamos National Laboratory LANL Originally established as “Site Y” as part of the Manhattan Project to create the first atomic weapons LANL’s activities expanded after the War to include thermonuclear weapon design high explosives development and testing weapons safety nuclear reactor research waste disposal and incineration chemistry criticality experimentation tritium handling biophysics and radiobiology This report presents a summary of the information obtained by the LAHDRA team regarding • historical operations at LANL • the materials that were used • the materials that were likely released off site • development of residential areas in Los Alamos and • the relative importance of identified releases in terms of potential health risks The information in this report was obtained from millions of records reviewed at LANL by the project team books and reports that are publicly available and interviews with past and current LANL workers and members of the public Products of the LAHDRA Project The products of the LAHDRA project include • this report which summarizes historical operations and prioritizes associated releases • a project information database containing bibliographic information and content summaries of relevant documents located by the project team FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-1 • sets of copies of documents selected as relevant by the project team made available in a reading room in Albuquerque NM • a collection of electronic document images saved as Portable Document Format PDF files of all documents for which paper copies or electronic files were obtained and • a chronology of incidents and off-normal events identified in report reviews prepared by the LANL Health Division Systematic Document Reviews Conducted LAHDRA document analysts had unprecedented access for an independent study team reviewing historical records at LANL A core group of approximately 15 analysts most of whom held U S Department of Energy DOE Q-level security clearances worked on the project on a part-time basis As originally specified the LAHDRA project was divided into six phases that were planned to be completed sequentially Each phase was meant to target a specific group of records as outlined below Phase 1 The LANL Records Management Center Phase 2 The LANL Archives Phase 3 The LANL Technical Report Library Phase 4 Records at the LANL Technical Areas Phase 5 Records pertaining to “Work for Others” Phase 6 Documents located at other sites Because of restrictions that were placed on the number of analysts that could work in a given repository at any time the sequential approach was abandoned and work progressed in multiple repositories concurrently The systematic document searches that were performed by the LAHDRA team are described in Chapter 3 The main elements of the information gathering process are summarized in Table ES-1 along with approximations of the quantities of documents reviewed at each repository ES-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary Table ES-1 Summary of LAHDRA systematic document review efforts at Los Alamos Location Approximate Quantities Reviewed LANL Records Center LANL Reports Collection ES H Records Center and satellites Documents or Groups of Documents Selected and Summarized 16 896 boxes of documents 18 000 rolls of microfilm 31 420 notebooks 3 085 classified reports by LANL and 32 000 by others 10 000 unclassified LANL reports in vault and 25 000 online 90 000 unclassified reports by other plus 600 000 on microfiche 1 187 boxes of documents plus dosimetry and air quality records 2 902 1 529 227 LANL Archives 1 532 archived collections with 125 000 folders 992 Litigation Support Database 75 724 documents by title 3 813 full documents 347 LANSCE Division WEM WP Divisions Engineering Drawings Center Environmental Stewardship Division Industrial Hygiene Safety Records Former J Division Field Testing 10 000 documents by title and 2 500 full documents in Admin Building 3 375 documents in Radiological Air Monitoring Archive 18 876 documents and 1 126 photos in vault 36 safes containing 7 056 documents 2 550 drawings on aperture cards plus 1 000 reels of microfilm 250 000 documents from the ERSS database 137 boxes of NEPA EA records 12 drawers of EIS documents 100 Cultural Resources reports 36 97 2 188 and 1 000 drawings 1 056 8 lateral file drawers of historical records 17 699 boxes with approximately 11 000 folders 0 Notes ES H Environment Safety and Health LANSCE Los Alamos Neutron Science Center WEM Weapons Engineering and Manufacturing WEP Weapons Engineering and Physics ERSS Environment Remediation Support Services NEPA National Environmental Policy Act EA Environmental Assessment EIS Environmental Impact Statement LANL Central Records Management Center The initial and principal focus of LAHDRA’s document review effort was the LANL Central Records Management Center The Central Records Center was a 15 000 square foot building located at 180 6th Street in Los Alamos Its purpose was to receive and catalogue records from the various LANL groups and divisions to place and maintain these records in retrievable storage and disposition them in accordance with DOE retention and disposition guidelines and other associated requirements such as the moratorium on destroying records deemed pertinent to epidemiological studies Late in the project the Central Records Center was relocated to the new National Security Sciences Building NSSB at Technical Area TA -3 Systematic review of the contents of the Central Records Center that were accessioned prior to December 31 1999 was completed in early June 2005 with all of the selected FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-3 material received from LANL by the end of that month During late 2008 and continuing into 2009 the project team reviewed records accessioned by the Records Center since 1999 LANL Archives Collections During the first calendar quarter of 2005 LAHDRA analysts began reviewing printouts of LANL Archives collections and the folders existing within each collection identifying based on reviewing folder titles folders to be reviewed by the project team The project team began the reviewing records at the LANL Archives in early June 2005 and completed this review in early May 2006 During late 2008 and continuing into 2009 the project team reviewed collections added to the LANL Archives since 2005 LANL Reports Collection From 1942 to 1992 the LANL Reports Collection was a filing point for reports issued by LANL and by other DOE sites Three types of records are in the Report Collection vault which is located below the LANL Research Library in the Oppenheimer Study Center building at TA-3 classified reports in paper format unclassified reports in paper format and reports on microfiche Approximately 3 000 classified report titles issued by LANL as LA- or LAMS- reports are located in the Report Collection In the second half of the project the project team was denied access to the following categories of classified information in document repositories at LANL • Nuclear weapons design information • Information falling under Sigma levels 14 and 15 • Sensitive Compartmented Information SCI • Special Access Programs SAPs • Foreign Government Information FGI and • Unclassified Sensitive Vendor Proprietary Information Access to classified reports issued by any of the following entities with publication dates after 1962 was denied beginning in March 2001 LANL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Sandia National Laboratory the Defense Nuclear Agency and its predecessor and successor agencies and the DOE Albuquerque Area Office Prior to this ban approximately 55-60% of the classified LANL-issued technical reports had been reviewed Approximately 1 144 classified LANL reports issued after 1962 were not initially reviewed by the project team because of LANL’s March 2001 decision to withhold ES-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary them LAHDRA document analysts were allowed to review the titles of these withheld reports but that approach proved to be ineffective and problematic because of the vagueness of many titles During 2005 C M Wood of the CDC reviewed the titles of LANL technical reports that fell within this restriction and selected 18 for review These classified technical reports were reviewed by a LAHDRA document analyst and several were selected as relevant summarized and added to the project information database The LAHDRA team reviewed all of the classified “LA” and “LAMS”-series reports issued before 1963 in the Report Collection Access to classified reports issued by entities other than LANL has been denied to LAHDRA analysts since November 2001 The project team had reviewed approximately 3540% of the classified reports issued by entities other than LANL up to letter “L” in the alphabeticallyshelved documents prior to losing access The remaining reports in this group were reviewed during 2005 by a LAHDRA analyst working in tandem with an LANL employee trained to recognize deniable category information Approximately 10 000 unclassified report titles issued by LANL as LA- or LAMS- reports are located in the Report Collection vault Images of approximately 25 000 unclassified LA- LA-MS- LA-UR and LA-PR reports are available as PDF files in the LANL electronic library catalog Prior to the heightened security measures that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 the unclassified “LA” reports were publicly available on the LANL Web site The project team reviewed 100% of the unclassified “LA” reports that were formerly available without restriction on the Internet The Report Collection vault also holds approximately 90 000 unclassified reports issued by academic institutions private corporations that conducted research on behalf of DOE DOE sites other than LANL and other defense-related agencies The project team reviewed 70 to 75% of these non-LANL unclassified reports shelved in the Report Collection vault up to letter “P” in the alphabetically shelved documents before work was halted in 2004 and the remainder were reviewed early in 2007 There are also approximately 1 5 million documents on microfiche at the LANL Reports Collection A search of two relevant databases indicated that LANL is the authoring institution for approximately 11 000 NSA reports and 53 000 DOE Energy reports or about 10% of each database’s contents The project team completed reviewing these microfiche reports in November 2006 ES H Records Center The ES H Records Center has been in operation since 1998 Its purpose is to receive records from the various ES H Groups catalogue and consolidate those records and to eventually forward them on to the LANL Central Records Center Many of the records stored at the ES H Records Center are recent i e from the 1990s A total of 1 187 boxes were reviewed in the ES H Records Center Of these 227 were FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-5 deemed to contain material relevant to the project In early 2009 LAHDRA analysts reviewed records that had been added to the ES H collection since their previous review of those holdings The LAHDRA team also completed reviews of the Weapons Engineering and Manufacturing WEM and Weapons Physics WP division holdings These LANL divisions are organized under the Directorate’s Office of the Associate Laboratory Directorate for Nuclear Weapons Engineering and Manufacturing ADWEM formerly known as the Office of Associate Laboratory Directorate for Nuclear Weapons ALDNW The WEM WP vault-type room VTR contained approximately 18 876 classified documents and 1 126 classified photographs Thirty-six classified safes within the ADWEM main offices were also reviewed for potentially relevant information The safes contained 7 056 documents marked “RESTRICTED DATA ” but LAHDRA analysts did not identify any titles considered potentially relevant to the LAHDRA project After reviewing a list of classified vaults and repositories at LANL the LAHDRA team estimated the holdings at 21 vaults 107 VTRs 5 alarmed rooms and 1 600 repositories file cabinets 2-5 drawers each with combination locks Not all of the vaults or VTRs contain only records some contain weapon parts and or special nuclear material Los Alamos Neutron Science Center Document review of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center LANSCE Division formerly known as the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility or LAMPF focused on office files within Main Administration Building 1 located at TA-53 and the Radiological Air Monitoring RAM Records Archive Of these documents 2 500 were considered potentially relevant and underwent detailed review Copies of 36 documents were requested and summarized for the LAHDRA project database Highlights of these records are the Shift Supervisor Logbooks that contain daily beam current and beam-hour information dating back to 1971 Forty-five boxes of documents 3 375 documents located at the RAM Records Archive Building 3R were reviewed Copies of 97 documents were requested and summarized This archive would be a source of relevant information for any future studies of off-site releases from TA-53 Legal Counsel Litigation Support Database During the LAHDRA project team members made several attempts to gain access to the contents of the Legal Counsel Litigation Support Database LCLS sometimes called the Legal Database While the database itself was not made available in late 2003 early 2004 the LAHDRA team received and reviewed a hardcopy listing of the documents contained in that database The list includes document number title author addressee and copy recipient date status and page count The LCLS database consists of the following document categories H-Division Human Studies Project Team Central Records Management “Other” documents and Records Processing Facility documents During 2005 LAHDRA analysts ES-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary reviewed the hardcopy indices of the LCLS database and selected documents for review Images of these documents were made available to LAHDRA analysts by Legal Counsel Staff and they were reviewed between May and September 2005 Documents selected as relevant were printed and released to the project team LANL Engineering Drawings Facility In February 2006 the project team began reviewing documents held by the LANL Engineering Drawings Facility at TA-63 This facility housed engineering drawings and associated documents memos letters specifications etc dating back to the 1940s The initial searching was for drawings pertinent to Original TA buildings especially D-Building Omega Site facilities and associated stacks DP Site facilities and ventilation systems and the Los Alamos town site Approximately 1 000 historical drawings were selected as relevant to the LAHDRA project The project team also completed systematic review of the TA-63 microfilm records which contain correspondence and documents pertaining to many LANL facility modifications Environmental Restoration Records Processing Facility LAHDRA analysts reviewed the holdings of a small library of environmental restoration related documents at both TA-21 and the Environmental Restoration ER group’s Records Processing Facility RPF The TA-21 library was housed in a portable building at DP West Site its purpose was to serve as a resource for individuals involved in decommissioning activities there Its holdings included binders of memoranda remediation investigation reports and drawings Much of this material had already been collected by the project team during its review activities in the Records Center and elsewhere The RPF managed the records of what was formerly the ER group at LANL Most of the holdings of the LANL Records Processing Facility located at the Pueblo School Complex had been scanned to PDF files and were available to review through an electronic document management utility called Domino Review of this material is discussed below In addition to these electronic records the project team also reviewed some hardcopy records that existed at the RPF earlier in the project as well as records that had recently been acquired and not yet scanned Environmental Stewardship Division As the project team completed its systematic review activities for LANL’s centralized records collections it shifted its focus to records held within division or group offices The initial focus of the review of division and group records was the Environmental Stewardship ENV Division The ENV Division consisted of a large number of groups many of which held records of interest to the project FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-7 team Review of these records was therefore a substantial part of the team’s activities as reviews at the centralized collections began winding down Project team members also met with representatives of the following other LANL divisions and groups to inquire about their activities and any records they held • Associate Directorate for Security and Safeguards • Chemistry • Dynamic and Energetic Materials • Earth and Environmental Science • Environmental Protection • Hydrodynamic Experiments • Industrial Hygiene and Safety • Materials Science and Technology • Plutonium Manufacturing and Technology • Radiation Protection • Weapons Component Manufacturing • Weapons Engineering Technology LANL ENV Division In May 2006 the LAHDRA team obtained a summary of records and databases generated by the groups and programs within the LANL ENV Division There were approximately 50 groups and programs listed along with a number of electronic databases Of the document collections and other information sources identified within the ENV Division the largest by far was the RPF’s Domino database The Domino database was an electronic storehouse for historical and current RPF records that is environmental restoration files These records included environmental project case files remediation management records regulatory compliance records and decontamination and decommissioning records The records were stored as PDF files and managed using the IBM Lotus Domino application Records in the Domino application were indexed using a unique identifier known as an ERID number The system contained approximately 100 000 ERIDs amounting to approximately 250 000 documents Systematic review of the Domino records was performed by going through them sequentially by ERID number and reviewing the image files for those with titles that were either of potential interest or were too ambiguous ES-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary to support a judgment Documents deemed relevant to the LAHDRA project were printed and a DSF was completed Records Processing Facility Potential Release Sites Database The project team also reviewed the RPF’s Potential Release Sites PRS database which is far more limited in content compared to the Domino database using the same approach as for Domino Other ENV Division records collections that were reviewed include records pertinent to compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act NEPA associated environmental impact assessments Meteorology and Air Quality MAQ group records meteorological data and Cultural Resources Group reports that include historical information about operations at LANL facilities Challenges in Information Gathering at LANL Access to classified documents at LANL has been more difficult than previously experienced by CDC personnel or LAHDRA team members at any of the other DOE sites that have been subjects of dose reconstruction investigations The main challenges faced in accessing reviewing and arranging relevant documents for public release were associated with the following issues • The Cerro Grande fire • security stand-downs and the fallout of security incidents involving LANL staff • frequent requirements to re-establish need-to-know • establishment of security plans for accessing and reviewing documents • increased escorting requirements and limitations on numbers of analysts that could work concurrently • calls by LANL staff for review of documents by titles alone • establishment of seven categories of information to be withheld from the LAHDRA analysts • pre-screening by document “owners” and or classification office contractors to identify deniablecategory information • difficulties in gaining access to reports issued by entities that no longer exist FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-9 • establishment of an appeal process for use when potentially relevant information was withheld • arranging for access to documents at LANL generated by a foreign government • a significant backlog of selected documents awaiting classification review and public release • limited resources staffing at repositories impacting ability of LAHDRA analysts to be present • a LANL shutdown in response to a security incident and • initiation of pre-screening of documents by LANL Legal staff for privileged information Archiving of Relevant Documents Retrieved Under the LAHDRA Project For each document or set of documents deemed to be relevant by the LAHDRA team a Document Summary Form DSF was completed to capture bibliographic data project-specific information and analyst comments A Microsoft® Access database was created to describe and catalogue the information reviewed and collected during this project A total of 8 372 records were entered into the LAHDRA database A user-friendly front-end platform was developed for analysts to enter review and search the assembled information As the number of paper copies grew and as scanning technology matured the LAHDRA team decided that a better way to preserve and present the reference material being collected would be to create scanned images Therefore starting in 2003 all documents were scanned optical character recognition OCR processed and saved as searchable PDF files Finally the resulting image file collection was indexed to support searching Prioritization of Airborne Radionuclide Releases During the period of LANL’s existence many operations involving radionuclides have been performed at LANL resulting in a variety of effluents As an initial step towards prioritizing historical airborne releases from LANL the LAHDRA team applied an approach wherein Priority Index PI values were calculated by computing the air volume required to dilute the annual activity released to be equal to the maximum effluent concentration MPC for each radionuclide set forth by federal regulations For example a PI of 104 indicates that 104 L of air would be required to dilute the released material to a concentration equal to the maximum permissible concentration The PI is intended to be a guideline to determine if a nuclide set requires further iterations of calculation and refinement or if it warrants lower priority relative to other nuclides Priority indices were calculated for plutonium uranium tritium ES-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary radioactive lanthanum RaLa mixed fission products MFP mixed activation products MAP and iodine-131 Prioritization of releases requires estimates of quantities that were released To date LANL has not prepared a comprehensive compilation or accounting of its historical airborne radionuclide releases The most complete compilation of airborne radionuclide effluent data available from LANL was assembled in the 1970s to support the preparation of a Final Environmental Impact Statement FEIS This compilation was found to have significant errors and omissions and the prioritization of LANL releases cannot be considered accurate for the era prior to the 1980s In addition with the exception of studies of the impact of the Cerro Grande fire there has been no study of non-point releases from LANL from incidents such as routine operations or fires from radioactive dumps For initial prioritization efforts however the LAHDRA team used the available release data as reported by LANL and applied adjustments to account for effects such as loss of material in sample lines The LAHDRA team performed no independent evaluation or reconstruction of LANL’s reported releases The processes used to prioritize releases of radionuclides from LANL operations are described in Chapter 17 Data Available to Estimate Plutonium Releases Airborne plutonium releases were prioritized based on values compiled for the 1979 FEIS annual environmental surveillance reports and monthly reports of the CMR-12 and H-1 monitoring sections All values from 1948 through 1975 were adjusted using a sample line loss correction factor equal to 5 for 1948-1958 and 2 for 1959-1975 and a filter burial correction factor equal to 2 33 for 1948-1958 and 1 6 for 1959-1975 based on assessments performed by LANL staff No effluent data were located for the wartime processing of plutonium in D-Building and LANL’s release estimates include no contribution from D-Building during any period of its operations or from the DP West Site plutonium processing that occurred 1945–1947 Data Available to Estimate Uranium Releases Uranium usage and release data were located for 1949–1996 Available documents provided estimates of the quantities of uranium used in explosive testing as well as some results of stack sampling and analysis Sample line loss and filter burial correction factors were applied to uranium stack sampling results for periods prior to 1976 as was done for plutonium While the majority of the uranium expended in a dynamic test is deposited locally an “aerosolization fraction” was applied to the quantity of uranium expended in a given year in order to calculate the airborne activity potentially carried offsite Release estimates between 1949 and 1951 reflect only firing site expenditures while data for 1952 through 1972 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-11 includes uranium release estimates based on the 1979 FEIS After 1973 data from annual environmental surveillance reports were utilized Data Available to Estimate Tritium Releases Airborne tritium release estimates were located for 1967–1996 and no correction factors were applied Tritium release data were obtained from the data compilations for the 1979 FEIS and the environmental surveillance reports and available stack release data Tritium was used at LANL as far back as 1944 or 1945 more data are required to determine pre-1967 tritium releases at LANL LAHDRA staff have found additional documents containing tritium release data associated with episodic releases before and after 1967 and have added them to the project information database but these data are scattered across many documents and have not been compiled or used to bound releases prior to 1967 Data Available to Estimate Radioactive Lanthanum Releases Prioritization of RaLa releases from 254 explosive tests conducted in Bayo Canyon 1944–1961 was based on a source term evaluation performed by LANL personnel The aerosolization factor used for uranium was also applied to reported source quantities for the RaLa tests Data Available to Estimate Mixed Fission Products Releases LANL reported a class of airborne effluents as mixed fission products MFP from 1961 through 1996 with their main sources being the Omega Site TA-2 reactors Radioactivity included in the MFP “nuclide group” for prioritization included releases reported as MFP or as fission product nuclides such as 60 Co and 137Cs Data Available to Estimate Mixed Activation Products Releases Another class of airborne effluents called mixed activation products MAP was reported by LANL for 1976–1996 with the most significant source being accelerator operations Radioactivity included in the MAP “nuclide group” for prioritization included releases reported as MAP Gaseous Mixed Activation Products G MAP Particulate Various Activation Products P VAP and the air activation products 11C 13 N 15O and 41Ar Data Available to Estimate Iodine-131 Releases Airborne release estimates for iodine-131 are presented for 1967 through 1986 Release data was obtained from the data compiled for the 1979 FEIS as well as annual environmental surveillance reports ES-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary Results of the Prioritization of Airborne Radionuclide Releases The LAHDRA prioritization of airborne radionuclide releases shows that based on LANL compilations plutonium and uranium were of primary concern until the late 1970s After that MAP radionuclides appear to have been of primary concern through 1995 However in some cases limited or no data were found in LANL compilations of releases for important nuclides such as plutonium D-Building data and pre-1948 data polonium tritium before 1967 all nuclides pre-1950 and non-point source emissions Table ES-2 Classes of airborne radionuclides with highest Priority Indices for each period of LANL operations Years Radionuclide Class with Highest Priority Range of Annual Priority Indices Indices L 13 to 1×10 15 to 6×10 15 to 3×10 15 to 4×10 15 to 2×10 15 to 4×10 15 to 3×10 14 to 1×10 14 to 5×10 14 to 2×10 1944-1947 Radioactive Lanthanum 6×10 1948-1961 Plutonium 3×10 1962-1966 Uranium 2×10 1967 Plutonium 4×10 1968 Uranium 2×10 1969 Mixed Fission Products 4×10 1970-1973 Plutonium 1×10 1974-1978 Uranium 9×10 1979-1995 Mixed Activation Products 3×10 1996 Uranium 2×10 15 16 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 14 In 2006 the LAHDRA team conducted a review and calculation was to evaluate reported releases from DP West for 1957 using the actual daily stack reports This analysis showed that some simple assumptions made in the early 1970s such as stack or sampler flow rates were inappropriately used for all periods The LAHDRA team also found that 40% of all operating hours were not monitored mostly weekends and holidays LANL has previously addressed this issue by scaling estimates from operating hours to estimate releases during hours in which no stack measurements were made an approach that is likely conservative The LAHDRA team believes that any future efforts to characterize LANL releases should include a more robust method of estimating releases during periods that were not monitored There are many possible reasons that plutonium releases were of particular concern for LANL For example the crudeness of LANL’s early plutonium processing facilities and delayed adoption of singlebank and ultimately multiple-stage HEPA filtration relative to other plants that were more clearly recognized as production facilities were factors in LANL becoming a more significant source of airborne plutonium emissions than it would otherwise have been The documents discovered by the LAHDRA FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-13 team indicate that airborne plutonium releases from LANL before the 1970s were significantly higher than has been officially reported The relative importance of airborne plutonium releases could increase with further investigation if other identified sources were characterized The other identified sources include D-Building DP West Building 12 stacks before 1948 other release points at DP West early Chemistry and Metallurgical Research CMR Building operations beginning in 1953 non-point sources accidents and waste disposal operations These sources were not monitored by LANL or reflected in estimates of plutonium historically released from the site Using only LANL summaries of DP West Building 12 stacks alone and correcting for sample line loss and filter burial corrections that LANL failed to apply when the data was compiled in the 1970's the releases greatly exceed the independently established total releases from routine operations for all other DOE plutonium production facilities The level of interest in characterizing past releases of plutonium from LANL operations is heightened by the fact that residential areas were built closer to production areas at LANL than at any other major Manhattan Project U S Atomic Energy Commission AEC or DOE site The nearest residences Sundt apartments were located approximately 200 m from D Building in the Original Technical Area TA-1 and as little as 50 m from other key buildings in TA-1 From 1948 to 1963 there was also a trailer park on the rim of Los Alamos Canyon just west of DP West site 1 km west of the DP West Building 12 stacks This housing area was separated from Material Disposal Area B a radioactive waste burial ground that experienced a major fire in 1948 by only a fence The trailer park was also situated directly above Omega Site TA-2 where five versions of nuclear reactors were operated on the canyon floor because of perceived dangers of associated operations When a flexible tubing line was run up the wall of Los Alamos Canyon and tied to a tree atop South Mesa to serve as the release point for gases released from the reactors airborne radioactivity was released at roughly the same elevation as trailer park residents Airborne releases of Mixed Activation Products from accelerator operations appear to have been most significant in the majority of years after the 1970s by which time controls and monitoring of other airborne effluents such as plutonium had significantly advanced Uranium releases yielded relatively high PIs for the late 1960s 1974-1978 and 1996 but in general associated values were lower than those for plutonium Airborne tritium releases did not yield the highest PIs for any of the years presented in Table ES-2 but the true importance of the radionuclide cannot yet be definitively evaluated because of the scattered and incomplete nature of effluent measurements or estimates prior to 1967 Incident reports indicate that ES-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary sizable episodic releases of tritium occurred between the mid-1940s and 1967 the earliest year for which reports of tritium releases were compiled by LANL Conclusions Regarding Airborne Radionuclide Releases This prioritization effort was intended to present a “first look” at the scope and extent of radionuclides released at LANL over the years of its operation Because LAHDRA’s primary focus was to gather information it expended limited effort toward entering or evaluating raw data identified in historical LANL documents In general the values LAHDRA used for the prioritization came from data previously compiled by LANL with adjustments made as supported by available data LAHDRA expended little effort analyzing the data from logbooks or other more detailed data sources A significant amount of original release information that is lab measurements of a filter from a stack for the 1950s and 1960s is available though and could be captured and analyzed if further evaluation of airborne releases is undertaken Alternate Methods for Characterizing Airborne Releases Until around 1978 LANL’s airborne plutonium releases were either not measured at all or were improperly measured or reported Major release points for which there are no plutonium measurements include the historic D-Building the first plutonium component manufacturing facility in the world and DP West Site releases before 1948 D-Building operated until around 1953 Releases from other building stacks at DP Site aside from the main Building 12 stacks were also not included in any LANL compilations The LANL plutonium release compilations also did not consider non-point source emissions including those from accidents and incidents that released directly to the environment without passing through a stack with an associated monitoring system such as major fires at plutonium disposal areas in the 1940s or radioactive disposal area operations that continue to this day Until around 1959 release points at LANL such as DP West were not provided with single stage HEPA filters Maraman et al 1975 A second stage of HEPA filters were finally installed around 1973 Until the mid-1950s the DP West Site stacks were not equipped with an appropriate sampling system An accurate estimate of LANL plutonium releases thus cannot be made based on LANL data given LANL’s failure to measure all releases At best the calculated prioritization represents a lower bound of total LANL releases The LAHDRA project examined the feasibility of estimating the releases using two alternate methods back calculation from soil concentration and back calculation from plutonium levels in tissue samples collected during autopsies of Los Alamos residents These alternate methods are described in detail in FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-15 Chapter 17 Utilizing these back calculation methods helped the LAHDRA team identify key documents related to LANL releases and understand the limitations associated with estimating LANL releases through these alternate methods Future independent assessments of LANL releases will likely incorporate several back calculation methods comparing the results of each method to available data in order to establish both a lower and upper bound for the releases Plutonium Soil Measurements as Indicators of Historical Releases The historical LANL soil measurement data that are available and that have been used to date in attempting to back calculate the LANL plutonium releases are not ideally suited for this task The areas around D-Building and DP West have been heavily disturbed and finding suitable soil sampling locations there would be problematic However a LANL technician observed that the hillside of South Mesa across Los Alamos Canyon from the TA-1 has remained relatively undeveloped and undisturbed as such this area should be considered for a new soil sampling program If this work were to be done the samples should be collected along the canyon rim from the bridge at Diamond Drive to the area across from DP West and analyzed using a new method of measurement called sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry SF-ICPMS This method can distinguish between weapons-grade plutonium that has not been used in a nuclear weapon and plutonium attributable to fallout Using this method for soil analyses could cleanly separate plutonium in the soil from global fallout and soil impacted by LANL releases This method has been successfully used at the Nevada Test Site NTS Ketterer and Szechenyib 2008 Without SF-ICPMS the back calculation must include an estimate of plutonium attributable to global fallout in current samples and that value must be subtracted from the measured plutonium concentration in the soil sample this subtraction increases the uncertainty in the calculation Without any new soil samples the material found by the LAHDRA team in various LANL document repositories could be used to estimate historical LANL plutonium releases and could also be used in a rigorous effort to quantify uncertainties associated with the various parameters associated with the back calculation however the uncertainties would be greatly reduced if a new program of measurements including those analyzed via SF-ICPMS was undertaken Analysis of Measurements of Plutonium in Body Tissues of Los Alamos Residents The LANL Human Tissue Analysis Program was a 35-year effort by LANL to study plutonium levels in workers and in the general United States population The collection and analysis of tissues was intended to answer questions about the behavior of plutonium in the human body In later years the program was expanded to other areas of the country in order to estimate the amount of nuclear fallout people were ES-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary subjected to from atmospheric nuclear weapons testing The non-worker tissue program ended in 1980 Nearly 1 000 decedents had tissues removed during autopsies and sent to LANL by coroners The LAHDRA staff attempted an independent analysis of the autopsy program results This effort described in Chapter 17 demonstrated that excess plutonium beyond what would be expected from global fallout from nuclear weapons testing is present in non-worker residents of Los Alamos The LAHDRA team also established and a method for developing a residential history for each autopsy case who lived in Los Alamos for any part of his or her life This information can be used to calculate the distance and bearing from LANL release points along with the years of occupancy at each residence It should be noted that portions of the original tissue samples taken under the LANL human tissue analysis program as well as logbooks associated with the program have been maintained by the United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries USTUR for many of the autopsy cases If these samples were to be reanalyzed using ICP-MS it may be possible to determine how much of any autopsied individual’s exposure was due to fallout or releases from LANL USTUR has performed an initial study of the method with promising results A re-analysis of the available tissue samples using ICP-MS combined with the information regarding the distance of each case from known release points over time might be able to reduce the uncertainty in retrospective dose reconstructions and possibly permit use of the autopsy data for bounding LANL release estimates Prioritization of Waterborne Radionuclide Releases PIs for waterborne radionuclides were calculated for total plutonium 89Sr 90Sr and tritium These radionuclides are the only constituents for which relatively complete historical compilations of liquid releases prepared by LANL were found It is important to note that LANL also reported waterborne releases for the following radionuclides at various times over the years 227Ac 241Am RaLa 7Be 134Cs 137 Cs 57Co 60Co gross alpha gross beta 54Mn 22Na 83Rb 84Rb 75Se 85Sr total uranium 234U and 88Y Release data for these nuclides were either only provided for brief time intervals or were redundant with the longer-term historical compilations Prioritization of these nuclides was therefore not attempted in this initial assessment Estimates of historical releases were obtained from the compilation of data for the 1979 FEIS from excerpts and compilations of AEC effluent records and from annual environmental surveillance reports that were issued by LANL beginning in 1971 Priority Indices were calculated by computing the volume of liquid required to dilute the annual activity released to be equal to the maximum effluent concentration per 10 CFR 20 The waterborne radionuclide classes that yielded the highest PIs for each period from 1945 through 1996 are identified in Table ES-3 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-17 Table ES-3 Classes of waterborne radionuclides with highest PIs for periods of LANL operations Years Radionuclide Class 1945-1955 Plutonium 1956 1957-1996 Range of Annual Priority Indices L 6 55E 07 to 1 19E 09 Strontium 3 30E 08 to 3 30E 08 Plutonium 3 50E 07 to 2 94E 09 90 The current results indicate that in regards to waterborne releases plutonium is of most concern It is not yet possible however to definitively address the relative importance of waterborne effluents versus airborne effluents We can note though that in general pathways for public exposure from liquid releases appear to have not been as complete as those for airborne releases due to the ephemeral nature of surface water flow in many cases with a large part of off-site transport possibly occurring during heavy rains or runoff from periods of snow melting Prioritization of Chemical Releases LANL operations have involved many non-radioactive materials including metals inorganic chemicals and organic chemicals including solvents To prioritize chemical releases chemical use and release data were extracted from chemical inventories and various LANL documents Details regarding these data sources can be found in Chapter 19 Prioritization of chemicals took into account estimates of annual usage and U S Environmental Protection Agency USEPA toxicity values such as cancer potency slope factors and reference doses RfDs Chemicals that were considered carcinogenic were ranked based on estimated annual usage multiplied by the applicable cancer slope factor Oral slope factors were used in all but one case because they provided a more conservative higher estimate of toxicity for prioritization than the inhalation slope factors All chemicals with published RfDs were ranked by dividing the annual usage by the applicable RfD For agents that have both ingestion and inhalation RfDs the more conservative lower value was used Table ES-4 presents a ranking of each chemical that was documented as used at LANL for which some usage quantity information was obtained and for which a cancer potency slope factor and or reference dose has been published The prioritization of chemical releases based on their potential to cause cancer indicated that four of the top five ranked chemicals were organic solvents that were commonly used in chemical processing and for cleaning of metals and other materials Trichloroethylene ranked highest indicating highest relative potential for health effects for both cancer and non-cancer effects For chemicals with cancer potency slope factors and some usage data available 2 4 6-trinitrotoluene TNT yielded the highest ranking for a ES-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary material that was not a solvent while uranium as a heavy metal toxin ranked highest for non-cancer effects among materials that are not solvents followed by TNT FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-19 Table ES-4 Ranking of LANL chemicals based on toxicity parameters and indicators of annual usage a Chemical Acetone Slope Factor SF Reference Dose RfD Peak annual use mg kg-1 d-1 -1 mg kg-1 d-1 kg - 0 9 Ranked based on cancer effects Use × SF 18 800 Rank - Ranked based on cancer effects Use × RfD-1 nonRank 20 889 13 Benzene 0 055 0 004 181 10 7 45 250 9 Carbon tetrachloride Chlorodifluoromethane b 0 13 - 0 0007 14 3 558 32 200 73 - 5 797 143 2 252 5 17 0 0805 0 01 3 088 249 4 308 800 7 Dichlorodifluoromethane - 0 0571 32 200 - 563 923 6 Dioxane 0 011 - Methanol - 0 5 6 600 Chloroform c b 32 0 35 8 - 13 200 14 Methyl ethyl ketone - 0 6 22 000 - Methylene chloride 0 008 0 06 2 200 17 n-Hexane - 0 06 304 - Tetrachloroethylene 0 54 0 01 10 540 5 692 TNT 2 4 6-trinitrotoluene 0 03 0 0005 37 950 1 139 Toluene - 0 08 3 300 Trichloroethane methyl chloroform - 0 2 39 300 Trichloroethylene 0 4 0 0003 27 719 Uranium as a heavy metal - 0 0006 47 500 - 79 166 667 2 Xyleneb d - 0 0286 290 - 10 140 15 a ES-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary 12 11 5 067 16 2 1 054 000 4 3 75 900 909 3 - 41 250 10 - 16 500 8 92 396 667 1 11 088 All toxicity parameter values were obtained from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Risk Assessment Information System The inhalation RfD was used because it was more conservative than the oral RfD In all other cases oral RfDs were used c The inhalation SF was used because it was more conservative than the oral RfD In all other cases oral SFs were used d Combined congener values were used combined p- m- o- b 36 667 36 667 6 1 Development of Residential Areas in Los Alamos Evaluation of off-site exposures from activities at Los Alamos technical areas would require documentation of the development of nearby residential areas over time While it was initially thought that the 31 houses commandeered from the Los Alamos Ranch School and Anchor Ranch would provide sufficient housing for the projected staff of 30 scientists and their families it soon became clear that the scope of the challenge to provide housing for Los Alamos residents had been severely underestimated Pressure to provide housing and the limited availability of suitable land in the region of finger-like mesas and canyons led to the development of housing that in some cases was much closer to operational areas than has become customary for government facilities that undertake processing of nuclear materials and high explosives and or operation of devices such as reactors or high-energy particle accelerators Based on the LAHDRA team’s review of historical documents nine locations were identified as being sites of historical operations that appear to warrant evaluation in terms of potential off-site releases or health effects The LAHDRA project team collected maps photographs and historical documents that describe the history of development of each Los Alamos housing area The assembled information is summarized in Chapter 15 For each of the nine locations of interest the following parameters were evaluated to support evaluation of the potential for public health effects • The distance from the area to housing areas that were in place during the period s that associated operations were active • The direction from the location to each housing area and • The prevalence of winds from the location toward each the housing area Screening-Level Assessment of Airborne Plutonium Releases Because airborne plutonium releases from DP West Site were documented to have been significantly higher than has been officially reported and because residential areas were located quite close to the site two screening-level evaluations using the methodology of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report No 123 NCRP 1996 were performed NCRP Report No 123 provides a series of simple screening techniques that can be utilized to compare estimated dose or risk received from radionuclides released into the environment with a benchmark reference level NCRP 1996 For atmospheric releases the report utilizes three conservative models and parameters Level I screening employs the simplest and most conservative approach which assumes a concentration based upon the radionuclide concentration at a point source emission in this case stack emissions from DP West Site Level II screening accounts for dispersion into the atmosphere while Level III includes a FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-21 more definitive pathway analysis It is important to emphasize that the results of the screening calculations are strictly for comparison to an environmental standard limiting value to determine if compliance with that standard is assured or if further investigation is warranted The screening values are not intended to represent estimates of actual doses to individuals For all screening assessments performed by the LAHDRA team the limiting value selected was 1 82×10-4 Sv y-1 which is based on 1 in 100 000 added risk of fatal or non-fatal cancer using a risk factor of 5 5×10-2 Sv-1 ICRP 2007 For each residential location the pathways considered were inhalation of contaminated air and consumption of contaminated soil and vegetables Consumption of locally raised meat or milk was not considered Parameters used by the LAHDRA team are discussed further in Chapter 18 Evaluations of airborne plutonium releases were performed for two eras to account for the fact residential areas became located closer to DP West over time The first evaluation was performed for releases during 1949 which is the apparent year of peak emissions for the period prior to 1957 A second screening-level evaluation was performed for releases during 1959 the apparent year of peak emissions after 1957 The year 1957 is significant because it marks the appearance of the Group 18 housing area resulting in a significant change in the proximity of the nearest residents to DP West The results of preliminary screening of airborne 239Pu releases from DP West site Building 12 stacks during 1949 and 1959 are presented in ES-5 and ES-6 respectively It is important to emphasize that these screening values are based on the incomplete LANL source term the actual values could be significantly higher if all releases were known and included in these calculations The screening values for both years exceeded the limiting values in Level I and Level II prompting application of the screening methodology at the next highest level The results of the Level III screening indicate that airborne 239Pu releases from Building 12 stacks – as represented by estimated releases during 1949 and 1959 – warrant further evaluation by experts in environmental and radiological assessment ES-22 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary Table ES-5 Summary of the preliminary screening of airborne 239Pu releases from DP West Site Building 12 stacks during 1949 Level of Screening Features of Screening Methodology I Vent air all pathways concentration at exposure point set equal to 25% of stack concentration II III Vent air all pathways Gaussian plume modeling to exposure point outside near-wake region wind blows toward exposure point 25% of the time Vent air specific pathways inhalation external exposure consumption of vegetables same dispersion assumptions as Level II Screening Value Sv y-1 Screening Limit exceeded 21 3 Yes Proceed to Level II 0 025 Yes Proceed to Level III 0 025 Yes Seek assistance from experts in environmental radiological assessment NCRP Guidance Table ES-6 Summary of the preliminary screening of airborne 239Pu releases from DP West Site Building 12 stacks during 1959 using the methodology of NCRP Report No 123 Level of Screening Features of Screening Methodology I Vent air all pathways concentration at exposure point set equal to 25% of stack concentration II III Vent air all pathways Gaussian plume modeling to exposure point outside near-wake region wind blows toward exposure point 25% of the time Vent air specific pathways inhalation external exposure consumption of vegetables same dispersion assumptions as Level II Screening Value Sv y-1 Screening Limit exceeded NCRP Guidance 13 6 Yes Proceed to Level II 0 061 Yes Proceed to Level III 0 061 Yes Seek assistance from experts in environmental radiological assessment FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-23 Screening-Level Assessment of Airborne Tritium Releases The benefits of incorporating tritium into nuclear weapons design was recognized early in the Manhattan Project Information regarding tritium uses is summarized in Chapter 7 Project Y personnel requested tritium from Oak Ridge TN in the spring of 1944 While LANL received tritium in increasing quantities over the decades for use at 10 or more TAs no airborne tritium effluent data were included in LANL compilations of effluent data for years prior to 1967 Tritium was released to the air at TAs 3 21 33 35 and 41 In addition tritium was used in firing site explosive testing activities at TA-15 for example Between 1967 and 1999 annual airborne tritium releases reported by LANL were never lower than 3 000 Ci and peaked at 35 600 Ci in 1977 Scattered incident reports located by LAHDRA analysts describe episodic releases of tritium that total as much as 64 890 Ci in 1965 and 39 000 Ci as early as 1958 each from within the 22-y period of tritium usage for which official reports of LANL releases include no data for the radionuclide LANL did not begin monitoring tritium stack releases until 1971 In 1973 the Lab prepared estimates of atmospheric releases for 1967 through 1970 based on accountability data There are no formal estimates of total tritium releases prior to 1967 though the LAHDRA document collection contains effluent monitoring and other tritium release data for some tritium facilities prior to 1967 Whether the available information represents a complete picture of LANL’s total atmospheric tritium releases for the pre-1967 period is currently unknown One of the most important factors to consider when evaluating atmospheric releases of tritium for potential health risks is the chemical composition of the release The difference between tritium gas and tritium oxide is enormous in terms of radiation dose to a human receiver If inhaled tritium gas is not incorporated into the body to any appreciable degree and the only dose consequence is the direct exposure to lung tissue Tritium oxide in contrast behaves like water and is readily incorporated into body tissues In terms of radiation dose per unit intake the dose from tritium oxide exceeds that from tritium gas by four orders of magnitude ICRP 1996 Given its application in the weapons program and accelerator operations tritium at LANL has primarily been used in the form of tritium gas However there are some circumstances in which an assumption of the oxide form is appropriate at least for initial screening purposes Examples include the use of tritium in explosive testing and operations involving water reactions with tritium-bearing salts resulting in oxide formation As with Plutonium the NCRP Report No 123 screening method for radionuclide releases to the environment was used to evaluate atmospheric tritium releases from LANL in terms of their potential risk ES-24 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary to local residents That assessment is described in Chapter 7 The source term used was the maximum release reported for each of the six TAs that represented the largest contributors to LANL’s atmospheric tritium releases To ensure a meaningful screening result these release totals were re-stated in terms of the corresponding tritium oxide activity for each total value The upper bound for the fraction of a tritium gas source that has converted to an oxide form was taken to be 1% based on published studies see Chapter 7 Level I screening was performed for the TA-3 release first since it was the smallest contributor to the tritium oxide source term The Level I screening evaluation for the TA-3 tritium releases exceeded the screening criterion by a substantial margin Screening therefore proceeded to Level II and III In the Level II screening process the estimated distances from the release points to the nearest residential locations were used to determine a plume diffusion factor from plots provided in NCRP Report No 123 The Level II screening evaluations showed that the adjusted screening criterion was exceeded only in the case of TA-35 for which the maximum release was treated as 100% HTO The screening-level evaluation suggests that airborne tritium releases from LANL after 1966 were unlikely to have been a source of health risks to local residents around Los Alamos that warrants high priority in any assessment of historical releases from LANL The possibility cannot be ruled out entirely however in light of the screening result for TA-35 The situation could change if releases consisted of a greater fraction of tritium oxide than has been considered here However given the degree of conservatism used in applying the NCRP screening method it appears the impacts of such effects would have to have been substantial before atmospheric tritium releases after 1966 would have posed a significant health risk Tritium release events before 1967 are described in numerous scattered documents found by the LAHDRA team but release totals have not been compiled that would support an evaluation of potential off-site exposures Airborne tritium releases before 1967 represent a notable data gap in what is known about historical releases from LANL operations Screening-Level Assessment of Airborne Uranium Releases Uranium at various levels of 235U enrichment has been used in a wide variety of applications at Los Alamos Information about uranium use is summarized in Chapter 9 Uranium was used as a fissile material in atomic weapons and in “tampers” that confined the explosion reflected some neutrons that would otherwise escape and thereby decreased the critical mass of fissile material required to achieve an atomic explosion Uranium was also used in liquid and solid forms as fuel in various forms of nuclear reactors developed and tested at Los Alamos Some LANL facilities including DP East Site produced fuel for reactors operated elsewhere such as those in the Rover program DP West Site’s Building 4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-25 housed laboratories for production of enriched uranium hydride which then was converted to a hot cell facility for examination of irradiated plutonium and enriched uranium fuel elements Uranium was also used in explosive testing at Los Alamos LANL staff estimated in 1971 that between 75 000 and 95 000 kg of uranium had been expended in experimental shots at the Lab from 1949 through 1970 In TA-1 uranium was processed in a “normal” uranium machine shop in C Building’s southeast section in chemistry and metallurgical experiments in D Building and in the HT Heat Treatment Building Enriched uranium processing metallurgy and recovery were conducted in M Building while normal and enriched uranium were cast and machined in Sigma Building the eastern portion of the building processed normal uranium while the western portion processed enriched uranium TU Building housed machining of normal uranium “tuballoy” while TU-1 Building housed recovery of enriched uranium The original machine shop in V Building machined uranium and beryllium The Sigma Complex in TA-3 built in the 1950s and 1960s has housed extensive laboratory areas for materials synthesis and processing characterization and fabrication of materials such as beryllium uranium thallium and aluminum alloys These activities have included large-scale metallurgy and fabrication of normal and fully enriched uranium As of 1969 the CMR Bldg except for its Wing 9 was used for laboratory work on small quantities of uranium and plutonium Wing 9 contained hot cells for handling of irradiated uranium and plutonium see Chapter 8 To gauge what impact LANL’s atmospheric uranium releases may have had in terms of human health risk the NCRP Report No 123 screening model NCRP 1996 was applied to airborne uranium source term information for TA-21 TA-21 was selected because it was the largest source of airborne releases of uranium reported by LANL for its routine i e non-firing site operations The screening was performed using the data for 1963 the year of the largest release reported by LANL Parameters used by the LAHDRA team are discussed further in Chapter 9 The NCRP Report No 123 screening evaluation for the 1963 airborne uranium release from TA-21 gave a screening value of 6 9×10-4 Sv This value is larger than the screening criterion indicating that further investigation of uranium releases from DP Site is warranted A screening calculation was also performed for uranium releases from TA-3 using the same method as for the TA-21 release For TA-3 the maximum reported release occurred in 1956 and the distance to the nearest residential area the Western Area was approximately 1 100 m The resulting screening value was 2 47 × 10-5 Sv This value is smaller than the screening criterion on its own however NCRP 123 recommends dividing the criterion by 10 to account for uncertainties Doing so gives an adjusted ES-26 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary screening criterion of 1 67 × 10-5 Sv which is smaller than the calculated screening value Thus further investigation of uranium releases from TA-3 is also warranted Screening-Level Assessment of Airborne Beryllium Releases A screening assessment of beryllium concentrations in public areas was performed based on information from historical documents and the atmospheric dispersion screening methods of NCRP Report No 123 That assessment is described in Chapter 20 Peak releases of airborne beryllium from the “new” SM-39 Shops at TA-3 for years after 1963 were estimated based on documented annual releases for 1964-1966 and 1968-1970 within which the highest value was for 1970 Peak SM-39 Shop releases representative of 1953-1963 before high efficiency particulate air HEPA filters of nominal 99 97% efficiency were added were estimated based on 1970 releases multiplied times a factor of 167 That value is the ratio of the effluent reduction factor for HEPA filters to the reduction factor for the filters of assumed 95% efficiency that were in place before HEPA filters were installed Because of similarity of operations peak release rates of airborne beryllium from V Shop at TA-1 for 1943 to 1953 were assumed to be equal to those from the SM-39 shop before HEPA filters were added Releases from the hot pressing of beryllium oxide BeO powder in Q Building at TA-1 were estimated based on a document that indicates that 6 100 lbs of BeO was obtained during 1944 for production of reactor components Based on an assumed release fraction of 0 25% it was estimated that 6 900 g of BeO containing 2 500 g of beryllium was released over 1 600 working hours in 1944 Releases from the testing of beryllium-containing atomic weapon components fired from a cannon in an annex to B Building at TA-1 were estimated based on a frequency of 1 shot per day 7 days per week LAHDRA team members estimated that each 20-mm diameter projectile contained 120 g of beryllium of which 10% was aerosolized yielding a release of 12 g per test over a 6-minute period Peak beryllium releases from explosive testing at the Pulsed High Energy Radiographic Machine Emitting X-rays PHERMEX facility at TA-15 were estimated based on a report that beryllium use in explosive tests peaked at 106 kg in 1964 The calculation assumed that 100 shots occurred in 1964 of which 80% did not involve beryllium and 20% did Of the 20 shots that used beryllium it was assumed that 16 used 3 31 kg beryllium and four used 13 25 kg If 10% of the beryllium in one of the larger shots was aerosolized 1 325 kg would have been released over 15 min For the beryllium shops and oxide pressing operations release or usage estimates were found only in the form of annual totals In order to estimate how high release rates could have been over shorter periods detailed monitoring data that are available for airborne plutonium releases from DP West site stacks for 1956 and 1957 were analyzed The relationships between daily concentrations and weekly monthly and FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-27 annual average concentrations were characterized and a table of multipliers was generated that can be applied to annual data to estimate peak releases over a series of shorter durations To support preliminary screening airborne beryllium releases were assumed to vary over time like the measured airborne plutonium releases and annual beryllium releases were converted to release rates over shorter durations so that airborne concentrations could be compared to occupational and ambient exposure limits For each beryllium emission source the distance to the nearest residential area was estimated and dilution factors were estimated using the method of NCRP Report No 123’s Gaussian plume modeling of releases to the atmosphere The estimated exposure point concentrations were compared to occupational and ambient concentration limits The results of screening of airborne releases from the beryllium operations are presented in Table ES-6 The release rate and concentration values for BeO powder pressing V Shop and SM-39 Shop releases are presented as 6-min 30-min and 8-h average values that would be expected to be reached or exceeded once per year and monthly average concentrations that would be expected to be reached or exceeded 5% of the time For the explosive tests at TA-15 the results in Table ES-7 for periods longer than a week are average values over the periods shown based on 100 shots year each with 0 25-h duration that together released 10% of the total beryllium reported expended in 1964 For periods shorter than a month the results are average values over the periods shown based on one shot with 0 25-h duration of exposure occurring during the period and releasing 1 25% of the total beryllium reported expended in 1964 The screening results indicate that the 8-h time weighted average permissible exposure limit of 2 μg m-3 for beryllium adopted for workers by the AEC and later the Occupational Health and Safety Administration OSHA could have been exceeded in residential areas by releases from the B-Building gun tests The OSHA AEC ceiling limit of 25 μg m-3 for workers could also have been exceeded for releases from those tests based on concentrations estimated for 0 5-h and 0 1-h averaging periods The USEPA reference concentration of 0 02 μg m-3 could have been exceeded in residential areas by releases from B-Building gun testing BeO powder pressing V-Shop machining and tests at PHERMEX The National Emission Standard of 0 01 μg m-3 for beryllium in ambient air averaged over a 30-d period could have been exceeded in residential areas from the B-Building gun tests and BeO powder pressing The importance of the early beryllium releases is again heightened by the fact that residential areas were unusually close to the original Technical Area with the nearest residences roughly 50 m from B Building which was literally across Trinity Drive from numerous Sundt apartments Sigma Q and V Buildings– which all housed beryllium operations– were all within 170 m or less of the nearest residences While it ES-28 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary is clear that beryllium was viewed as an occupational hazard after 1947 it appears that the potential for public exposure has not been fully evaluated FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-29 Table ES-7 Results of a preliminary screening assessment of airborne beryllium concentrations in residential areas from identified emission sources at LANL Distance to exposure point m -3 Relative concentration s m B-Building Gun Testsa BeO Powder Pressing V Shop 1943-48 V Shop 1949-53 SM-39 Shop 1953 to 1963 SM-39 Shop after 1963 PHERMEX Testsa 49 140 170 170 960 960 4500 1 1×10 -2 2 5×10 -4 1 1×10 -4 1 1×10 -4 6 9×10 -6 6 9×10 -6 2 5×10-6 Release rates μg s-1 for relevant averaging periods 0 1 h 33 000 64 000 12 000 610 610 3 7 1 500 000 0 5 h 6 700 20 000 3 900 190 190 1 2 740 000 8 h 420 3 600 680 34 34 0 20 46 000 730 h 1 month 140 150 29 1 4 1 4 0 0086 670 0 069 0 0042 0 000025 3 7d 0 022 0 0013 0 0000080 1 8 0 0038 0 00023 0 0000014 0 12d 0 00016 0 000010 0 000000059 0 0017 Exposure point concentrations μg m-3 for relevant averaging periods 0 1 h 350c 16 0 5 h 71c 5 1 b 8 h 4 4 730 h 1 month 1 5e 0 90 1 4 0 44 d 0 038e a Episodic releases b Possible exceedance of OSHA AEC 8-h time weighted average limit 2 μg m-3 c Possible exceedance of OSHA AEC ceiling limit 25 μg m-3 d Possible exceedance of USEPA Reference Concentration 0 02 μg m-3 0 077 d 0 0033 e Possible exceedance of National Emission Standard for ambient air averaged over a 30-d period 0 01 μg m-3 ES- 30 DRAFT FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary Potential Doses to Members of the Public from the Trinity Test During World War II two atomic weapon concepts were carried through to production at LANL The implosion-assembled plutonium-based design was by far the more complicated of the two Testing that device was considered necessary both because of the “enormous step” of moving from theory and experiments with a combat weapon to its actual production and also because of the realization that if the device failed over enemy territory “the surprise factor would be lost and the enemy would be presented with a large amount of active material in recoverable form” LANL undated The “Fat Man” device was successfully tested at the Trinity Site near Socorro New Mexico on July 16 1945 and another was dropped over Japan 24 days later Viewed by some as one of the most significant events in world history the Trinity test fell within the scope of the LAHDRA investigation Information about the Trinity test that was gathered by the LAHDRA team is summarized in Chapter 10 of this report To preserve the secrecy of the atomic bomb mission New Mexico residents were neither warned before the July 16 1945 Trinity blast informed of residual health hazards afterward or evacuated before during or after the test Exposure rates on the day of the world’s first nuclear explosion measured up to 15 or 20 R h-1 in public areas northeast of ground zero at distances around 20 miles near Hoot Owl Canyon These critical measurements were made using instruments that were crude ill suited to field use and incapable of effectively measuring alpha contamination from about 4 8 kg of the unfissioned plutonium that was dispersed Vehicle shielding and contamination were recognized but not corrected for The terrain and air flow patterns caused the highest levels of fallout to occur in areas in and around what became known to Manhattan Engineer District MED and Army personnel as “Hot Canyon ” The residential areas where highest exposure rates were measured on the day following the test were unknown to monitoring teams and were not even visited on July 16 1945 so exposure rates there on test day could have been even higher Ranchers reported that fallout “snowed down” on local surfaces for days after the blast Thompson 1995 A rancher whose house was 20 mi northeast of Trinity reported that “for four or five days after the blast a white substance like flour settled on everything” Thompson 1995 Because local ground water was not palatable to humans many local residents collected rain water off their metal roofs into cisterns for drinking water Documents indicate that it rained the night after the test so fresh fallout was likely consumed in collected water Livestock were raised in the area with most ranches having one or more dairy cows and a ranch near Hot Canyon maintaining a herd of 200 goats Fallout from the world’s first nuclear test was measured in cardboard used by Kodak after it observed spotting on its film The contamination was traced back to cardboard that had been contaminated by an Indiana paper mill’s use of river water contaminated by the Trinity fallout Airplanes equipped with FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-31 filters followed the Trinity cloud across Kansas Iowa Indiana upstate New York New England and out to sea If modern monitoring methods had been available at the time the contamination would likely have been detected worldwide All evaluations of public exposures from the Trinity blast published to date have been incomplete in that they have not reflected the internal doses received by residents from intakes of airborne radioactivity and contaminated water and food Some unique characteristics of the Trinity event amplified the significance of those omissions Because the Fat Man device was detonated so close to the ground members of the public lived less than 20 miles downwind and were not relocated terrain features and wind patterns caused “hot spots” of radioactive fallout and lifestyles of local ranchers led to intakes of radioactivity via consumption of water milk and homegrown vegetables it appears that internal radiation doses could have posed significant health risks for individuals exposed after the blast The young health physics community had never faced the challenge of monitoring such an extensive environmental release of fission products activation products and unfissioned plutonium and wartime pressures to maintain secrecy and minimize legal claims led to decisions that would not likely have been made in later tests Different standards of safety were applied to informed project workers than to uninformed members of the public Project workers knew enough to evacuate areas when high exposure rates were measured or to take the necessary precautions to minimize exposure but members of the public did not realize that changes in their behavior were prudent and project staff did not call for evacuations or protective measures even though predetermined tolerances for exposure rate and projected total exposure had been exceeded Too much remains undetermined about exposures from the Trinity test to put the event in perspective as a source of public radiation exposure or to defensibly address the extent to which people were harmed Beyond omission of internal doses all assessments released to date are based on monitoring data that have not been subjected to the processes used in modern dose reconstruction studies that include quality checking cross-checking against other data sources application of appropriate adjustments or corrections and uncertainty analysis Findings of the LAHDRA Project The LAHDRA project has significantly expanded the quantity of original documentation that is publicly available relevant to past operations at LANL activities by LANL personnel within New Mexico and the potential for public health effects from past environmental releases ES- 32 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary The gathered set of information is neither perfect nor complete Some documents that were generated will never be found because of their loss or destruction others are difficult to read because of their age and repeated photocopying and most of the authors and participants from the periods of highest releases have passed away However in spite of these factors the members of the LAHDRA study team believe that enough information exists to reconstruct public exposures from the most significant of LANL’s releases to a degree of certainty sufficient to allow health professionals to judge if significant elevations of health effects should be expected or measurable For the latter part of the project some documents containing certain categories of sensitive information were withheld from review by LAHDRA analysts Because documents in these categories included nuclear weapon design details foreign intelligence and other types of information truly not relevant to studies of off-site releases or health effects it does not appear that any information needed for dose reconstruction was withheld And while text was redacted from many selected documents prior to public release LAHDRA analysts had access to original and redacted copies and could verify that redacted text did not contain information that would be needed for dose reconstruction The information gathered by the LAHDRA team indicates that airborne releases to the environment from LANL operations were significantly greater than has been officially reported or published to the scientific community The preliminary prioritization steps that have been performed within the LAHDRA project while quite simple have provided information regarding the relative importance of past releases of airborne radionuclides waterborne radionuclides and chemicals In general the LAHDRA team has shown that early releases 1940s-1960s were more important than those that followed and that plutonium was the most important radionuclide released in those early years Airborne activation products from accelerator operations were most important after the late-1970s and plutonium was important for waterborne releases from the mid-1940s onward Among chemicals released organic solvents as a class were likely the most important followed by TNT and uranium as a heavy metal While prioritization analyses have provided relative rankings of contaminants within categories the preliminary analyses described herein provided no estimates of concentrations to which members of the public were exposed resulting intakes or doses to members of the public that could be converted to estimated health risks or compared to toxicological benchmarks or decision criteria Priority Indices based on dilution volumes required to be in compliance with maximum allowable effluent concentrations do not reflect how uptake factors vary between radionuclides or the decay that occurs between release point and the location of potential public exposure And because of the paucity of details regarding uses and releases of chemicals before the 1970s the preliminary ranking process used for toxic chemicals did FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-33 not incorporate estimates of the fractions of quantities of chemicals that were on-hand or used that may have been released to the environment LAHDRA has been almost exclusively an information gathering effort If estimates of historical exposures to members of the public are desired for the releases that have been identified and prioritized by the LAHDRA team it will be necessary to delineate pathways of human exposure that were complete to characterize environmental fate and transport and to calculate doses and the subsequent health risks to groups who were exposed Methods for performing these steps have been developed and applied to numerous other atomic weapons complex sites but they would need additional dimensions to properly reflect the effects of the complex terrain in which LANL is set and to represent the transport of waterborne releases that often soak into dry stream beds before they travel very far transported in a large part by occasional high flow events washing them toward the Rio Grande A number of historical operations have been identified by LAHDRA analysts as areas that might be particularly important in terms of off-site exposures In addition critical information gaps have been identified in several areas • Early airborne releases of plutonium Plutonium was processed in crude facilities in D Building during World War II and many roof-top vents were unfiltered and unmonitored After DP West Site took over production late in 1945 there was some filtering of releases but poor monitoring practices caused releases to be underestimated DP West releases for 1948-1955 alone were over 10-times the total reported by the Lab for operations before 1973 Screening-level assessments of public exposures from plutonium releases in 1949 and 1959 indicate that airborne plutonium releases warrant further evaluation • Airborne beryllium releases Los Alamos used significant quantities of beryllium before the health hazards of the material were fully appreciated and it was processed very close to residential areas Preliminary screening indicated that early beryllium processing could have resulted in concentrations in residential areas that exceeded worker exposure limits the USEPA reference concentration and the National Emission Standard for beryllium • Public exposures from the Trinity test New Mexico residents were neither warned before the 1945 Trinity blast informed of health hazards afterward nor evacuated before during or after the test Exposure rates in public areas from the world’s first nuclear explosion were measured at levels 10 000-times higher than currently allowed Residents reported that fallout “snowed down” for days after the blast most had dairy cows and most collected rain water off their roofs for ES- 34 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary drinking All assessments of doses from the Trinity test issued to date have been incomplete in that they have not addressed internal doses received after intakes of radioactivity through inhalation or consumption of contaminated water or food products • Airborne uranium releases LANL has used uranium since its beginnings in enrichments ranging from depleted to highly enriched It has been machined and fabricated into weapon and reactor components and large quantities have been expended in explosive testing Operational airborne uranium releases warrant further investigation based on the preliminary screening calculations we performed for TA-3 and TA-21 • Tritium releases before 1967 LANL used tritium as early as 1944 and received it in increasing quantities in the decades that followed for use at ten or more areas of the Lab In spite of this LANL compilations of effluent data include no tritium releases before 1967 LAHDRA team members located scattered documents that describe numerous episodic releases within the 22year period of tritium usage for which official reports of LANL releases include no data for the radionuclide These documents call into question the release estimates reported by LANL for 1967 forward and indicate that releases before 1967 constitute a data gap that must be addressed if the health significance of LANL tritium releases is to be evaluated Based upon the findings of the LAHDRA project CDC and other interested parties will judge if the available information indicates that past releases of any materials are sufficiently high enough to warrant detailed investigation of past releases and public exposures and if it appears that sufficient information exists to support more detailed investigation if the requisite funding were to be made available Potential further investigations that could be undertaken for one or more contaminants of highest priority could range from screening level assessments of potential public exposures to more rigorous exposure assessments such as those conducted for other MED AEC DOE sites which have become known as dose reconstructions Unlike the prioritization analyses performed to date these assessments if they are undertaken would likely incorporate environmental transport modeling exposure pathway analysis and reflection of the uncertainties and variability associated with input data assumptions and models so that the ranges of exposures received by likely members of the public can be specified at a stated level of confidence Assessments of that type are often performed in an iterative fashion with uncertainty analyses focusing research on assessment components that are contributing most to the overall uncertainty of results Further refinement can be directed to those elements and the process can be repeated until the uncertainty of results is acceptable or cannot be further reduced FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary ES-35 References ICRP Age-Dependent Doses to The Members of the Public from Intake of Radionuclides Part 5 Compilation Of Ingestion And Inhalation Coefficients Vienna Austria International Commission on Radiological Protection ICRP Publication No 72 1996 ICRP The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection Stockholm The International Commission on Radiological Protection ICRP 103 2007 Ketterer ME Szechenyib SC Determination of plutonium and other transuranic elements by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry A historical perspective and new frontiers in the environmental sciences Spectrochimica Acta Part B Atomic Spectroscopy 63 719-737 2008 LANL Trinity Site Selection History at Los Alamos online Available at http www lanl gov history story php story_id 11 Maraman WJ McNeese WD Stafford RG Plutonium– health implications for man Confinement facilities for handling plutonium Health Phys 29 469-80 1975 NCRP Screening Models for Release of Radionuclides to Atmosphere Surface Water and Ground Bethesda MD National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report No 123 1996 Thompson F The Nuclear Age's Blinding Dawn - Locals Witnessed History in a Flash Albuquerque Journal 1995 ES- 36 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Executive Summary Chapter 1 Introduction to the LAHDRA Project The Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment LAHDRA project began in early 1999 It is being conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC National Center for Environmental Health Much of the work of the project was conducted by contractors to CDC namely ChemRisk L L C Shonka Research Associates Inc ENSR Corporation and Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International Inc The primary purpose of the LAHDRA project is to identify the information that is available concerning past releases of radionuclides and chemicals from the government complex at Los Alamos New Mexico Located in northern New Mexico and owned by the Department of Energy the Los Alamos facilities have been managed by the University of California since 1943 when “Project Y” was born as part of the Manhattan Project to create the first atomic weapons Project Y became known as Los Alamos Laboratory and its name changed to Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in 1947 and then to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1981 For sake of simplicity in this document we will refer to this facility as “LANL” from its initial founding to present day LANL’s responsibilities have expanded since the wartime years to include thermonuclear weapon design high explosives and ordnance development and testing weapons safety nuclear reactor research waste disposal or incineration chemistry criticality experimentation tritium handling biophysics and radiobiology LANL operations have not proceeded without health hazards or environmental impacts Approximately 30 people have been killed in incidents ranging from criticality experiments to accidents with high explosives Significant quantities of plutonium uranium and a wide variety of other toxic substances have been processed and released to the environment in quantities that in some cases are not well known The project team is investigating the materials used throughout LANL’s history of operations to identify and prioritize releases in terms of their apparent relative importance from the standpoint of potential off-site health effects Based on the project’s findings CDC will work with stakeholders to determine if more-detailed assessments of past releases are warranted Should additional investigations be warranted they might take the form of screening-level evaluations or they could progress to detailed dose reconstructions for those releases of highest priority In more specific terms CDC’s model of dose reconstruction involves a process that can be divided into as many as five phases • Retrieval and Assessment of Data FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 1-1 • Initial Source Term Development and Pathway Analysis • Screening Dose and Exposure Calculations • Development of Methods for Assessing Environmental Doses • Calculation of Environmental Exposures Doses and Risks CDC has completed various stages of this process at INEEL Savannah River and LANL Various stages of the process may overlap at times and stages may be performed iteratively All stages may not be necessary at all sites Each stage involves CDC staff contractors and the public The CDC project at Los Alamos is in the initial information-gathering phase The Products of the LAHDRA Project The products of the LAHDRA project include • this report • a database that contains bibliographic information and summaries of the content of relevant documents that were located by the project team • sets of copies of the most relevant documents to be made available by DOE in a reading room in Albuquerque • a collection of electronic document images saved as Portable Document Format PDF files of all documents for which paper copies or electronic files were obtained • a chronology of incidents and off-normal events identified in review of reports prepared by Los Alamos’ Health Division The Project Information Database A Microsoft® Access database was created to store the information reviewed and collected during this project The CDC defined the basic database structure and values of many of the fields at the onset of the project Throughout the project a few additional fields were added to the database based on analyst and staff comments these changes were mostly for administrative use A user-friendly front-end was developed for use by the project analysts for reviewing the information collected The database includes a form created for entering the information from the DSFs completed by document analysts in the field and also a form to perform searches on all the information that has been entered In the search form users can search every field on the DSF Users can choose to see the results of the search either in a report format or in HTML format HTML format provides users with hyperlinks to open the documents associated with the DSF in a scanned searchable image format called portable document format PDF 1-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 As each DSF was entered into the project database it was assigned a unique sequential Repository Number This designation was used to track the information throughout the remainder of the project Many of the reference citations in this report include repository numbers often abbreviated as “Repos No ” Note that a repository number may represent a number of related individual documents The project database has been made available to the public by placing it in the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque Users may search the bibliographic information captured on the document summary forms and perform full-text Figure 1-1 One of several sets of copies of documents selected by the LAHDRA team searches of the documents that have been scanned to PDF Copies of Documents Obtained by the Project Team The project repository contains paper copies of documents selected as relevant by the project team and released by LANL This repository currently contains over 275000 pages of documents These documents are arranged sequentially by Repository Number A duplicate set of the project’s document repository is maintained at the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque This location was selected by the U S Department of Energy as the official Public Reading Room for this Project Figure 1-2 Dan Barkley of UNM discusses project records at Zimmerman Library in Albuquerque with CDC project staff The Zimmerman Library is located on the University of New Mexico's UNM's main campus The library’s Government Information Department is a regional depository for government documents Documents can be requested at the information desk and photocopies can be made at a nominal cost using copy machines in the immediate area FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 1-3 Directions to the Public Reading Room at the University of New Mexico Head east from the Central Avenue exit from I-25 Continuing east on Central Avenue pass through the signal at University Avenue UNM will be on the left The third light after University Avenue will be Stanford Drive Take a left on Stanford Drive to enter the UNM campus Take another left at the T On the right will be Visitor Parking After parking head north and slightly west across campus Zimmerman Library is just northwest of the Student Union Building The Government Information Department is located in the basement of the library Contact Dan Barkley phone 505 277-7180 fax 505 277-6019 barkley@unm edu Document Images As the number of paper copies grew and scanning technology matured it was decided that a better way to preserve and present the reference material being collected by the LAHDRA team would be as scanned images Ultimately all of the information was scanned in as PDF files and an Adobe Acrobat full text search capability was developed Figure 1-3 depicts the progression of a document from preparation of a handwritten DSF through input into the Access database with a link to the document image file The documents have been scanned using a high-speed high-capacity scanner running at 50 pages per minute in simplex mode or 45 pages per minute in duplex mode Images may be scanned to a maximum resolution of 600 dpi however a resolution of 200 dpi is typically used This resolution provides a compromise between image quality and file size The scanning software used includes a proprietary “VirtualReScan” VRS feature that allows mixed batches of documents to be scanned without adjustments VRS technology automatically detects deskews crops and brightens images as needed regardless of document shape size and color 1-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 Figure 1-3 Original DSF Access database DSF and original document PDF FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 1-5 After the documents are scanned to optimized interim image files Adobe® Acrobat® Capture® is used to convert the images to searchable PDF files Once documents are scanned to searchable PDF files they are indexed using Adobe® Acrobat® Professional's Catalog tool The Catalog tool generates an index definition file providing efficient fulltext searching across all of the PDF files in the index Currently all documents in the project repository have been scanned to PDF files The full-text search capability across all of the documents retrieved to date provides a powerful augmentation to the bibliographic search capabilities of the Access database However due to the poor quality of some of the documents retrieved the OCR process can miss individual words or passages of text It is therefore important that both the bibliographic and full-text search capabilities be used to find information of interest Some manual verification and correction of the OCR process has been performed but this effort is limited by budget constraints Chronology of Incidents and Off-Normal Events Progress reports issues by the Los Alamos Health Division H Division are particularly useful sources of information about operations releases episodic events and accidents involving radionuclides and other toxic materials The LAHDRA team has made a concerted effort to obtain as many H-Division progress reports as possible The project information database currently contains summary data for hundreds of Health Group and H-Division progress reports At present these reports cover a date range from 1943 to 1990 Most of the reports cover a one month period though there are also annual reports and in later years quarterly reports The monthly reports were discontinued around early 1965 in favor of quarterly reports A chronology of episodic or off-normal events described in these reports will be a valuable resource for depicting historical release pathways particularly for describing mechanisms for fugitive emissions and other unmonitored pathways that might otherwise go unaccounted And for hazardous chemicals the anecdotal information contained in many H-Division reports makes up a large part of what we know about historical usage and actual or potential releases The LAHDRA project team began its review of H-Division reports in 2004 but could not complete the review before project work was suspended Now that work has resumed this effort has continued as an element of the prioritization process as document search and retrieval progresses The latest available version of a chronology of episodic or off-normal events based on reports that have been reviewed as of 1-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 the date of release of this report is presented in Appendix L Each event is described briefly and Repository Number and page number references are provided The H-Division progress reports were compiled by the Division Leader and contained information submitted by the leaders of the individual groups that made up the Health Division at a given time While the material they provide is largely of a summary nature the reports are nonetheless detailed and provide an array of information Collectively the reports provide a chronology of laboratory operations with an emphasis on experience with hazardous materials They cover the breadth of the subjects now known as health physics and industrial hygiene and provide information in a number of areas of interest to the LAHDRA Project including • materials contaminants of concern radionuclides chemicals and explosives • instrumentation issues • monitoring sampling of waste streams effluents • monitoring of special short-duration programs and experiments • unmonitored releases and fugitive emissions • environmental monitoring • episodic events and incidents involving spread of materials to private property or members of the public • facility operations including ventilation system issues modifications etc • waste disposal practices and issues Of particular note is the fact the reports provide information on various chemicals and compounds that were being utilized at various times where the materials were being used and for what purpose they were being used While this information is largely qualitative it still provides a valuable resource for prioritizing non-radioactive hazardous materials for time periods for which such information is scarce The reports also yield valuable information regarding sources of unmonitored releases and fugitive emissions that are always difficult to evaluate in retrospective assessments Beyond the specific information contained in the individual H-division progress reports the continuity of the information they provide collectively the monthly reports in particular gives insight into chronic and recurring concerns that may not have been apparent at the time Applied retrospectively this information can be used to advance both the document search tasks and the evaluation of information obtained relative to off-site releases and potential effects FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 1-7 Contents of this Report This Interim Report represents a summary of information that has been obtained by the LAHDRA project team regarding • historical operations at LANL • the materials that were used • the materials that were likely released off site • development of residential areas around LANL and • the relative importance of identified releases in terms of potential health risks The information in this report was obtained from records reviewed at LANL by the project team some books and reports that are publicly available and some interviews with past and current LANL workers Preparation of LAHDRA project reports has been an iterative process A preliminary draft report was issued in February 2002 so that interested parties could see the types of information the LAHDRA team was finding be introduced to the approaches being taken to interpret the information that was found and offer comments and criticism as to how the report could be improved as work progressed A Draft Interim Report and then an Interim Report were issued in 2004 as the first LAHDRA contract came to a close and an additional iteration of the project report was issued in January 2006 While millions of documents have been reviewed at LANL the information gathering is not complete For various reasons that will be discussed later in this report document review has taken significantly longer than Figure1-4 An early photo of the main gate into LANL expected There are now known to be significantly more documents at LANL than were originally estimated and the processes for access to classified documents and for public release of relevant documents have been more complicated and time consuming than was expected Based on the findings of the ongoing information gathering process which are summarized in this report and evidenced in the project information database the CDC will work with stake holders to evaluate 1-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 whether historical releases for radionuclides or other toxic materials from LANL operations warrant more detailed evaluation FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 1-9 This page intentionally left blank 1-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Overview of Historical Operations at LANL When the Los Alamos facility was created it had a single mission— to perfect the design and manufacture of the first atomic bombs The initial plan for the first atomic weapon was for a ―gun assembled‖ device that would use slow-burning propellants as shown in Fig 2-1 LANL 1983 Gunassembled weapons may be designed on the principle of using a propellant to drive a mass of fissile material at a target of the same material to attain a supercritical assembly To develop and build gunassembled weapons LANL personnel initially experimented with using enriched uranium 235U and plutonium as the fissionable material Other necessary materials included an explosive propellant a detonator to set off that propellant and precision machined housings to support assembly of the critical mass in the necessary configuration within the required time frame Part of the housings were cases of heavy metal such as uranium called ―tampers ‖ that confined the explosion reflected some neutrons that would otherwise escape and thereby decreased the ―critical mass‖ of fissile material required to give rise to an atomic explosion Serber et al 1992 Subcritical Masses Supercritical Mass Explosive Propellant BEFORE FIRING IMMEDIATELY AFTER FIRING THEN EXPLODES Fig 2-1 Concepts of a gun-assembled atomic weapon Early development work centered on potential use of 235U and 239Pu in gun-assembled devices Top priority was given to developing a plutonium-projectile gun device which posed more problems than the uranium design because of tighter purity specifications and the need for a faster assembly velocity In July 1944 researchers discovered that the plutonium being used at LANL would not work in gunassembled weapons because of the presence of more of the 240Pu isotope than expected amidst the desired 239 Pu The spontaneous neutron emission rate from that plutonium was several hundred times greater than allowable As a result while research on the ―certain to work‖ uranium gun device continued development of a plutonium device shifted to an implosion-assembled design A second design was needed because the delivery rate for enriched uranium would only support production of a single uranium FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 2 2-1 weapon within the imposed schedule and scientists thought that more than one weapon would be necessary Implosion-assembled weapons may be designed on the principle of squeezing compressing the fissile material to super-criticality by detonating a high-explosive implosion system The implosion type bomb is depicted in Fig 2-2 LANL 1983 Chemical Explosive Subcritical Mass Compressed Supercritical Mass Implosion BEFORE FIRING IMMEDIATELY AFTER FIRING THEN EXPLODES Fig 2-2 Concepts of the implosion-assembled atomic weapon To develop and build implosion-assembled devices much experimentation had to be done with chemical high explosives to try to precisely assemble something with great symmetry in contrast to their typical explosive uses Work on high explosives centered on achieving precise timing of detonations at the surface of the explosive and using ―lenses‖ of a different explosive to focus the resulting shock waves on the metal sphere in the center of the device Serber et al 1992 In addition to fissionable material high explosives detonators and tamper material work on implosion-assembled devices included developing ―initiators‖ that acted as strong sources of neutrons at the precise time that the supercritical masses came into position to make sure that the fission chain reaction started when it had to These initiators used materials including radium beryllium and polonium Serber et al 1992 With the successful demonstration of fission devices scientists were able to achieve the high temperatures necessary to bring about fusion of hydrogen nuclei for use in the ―Super‖ bomb that had been studied for years as a theoretical possibility Viewed by some as LANL’s second historic mission development of thermonuclear or ―hydrogen‖ devices led to the first full-scale testing in the Mike shot in the Pacific in late 1952 Thermonuclear devices rely on a two-staged process in which energy from a fission ―primary‖ is contained and used to trigger a fusion or fusion-fission reaction in a physicallyseparate ―secondary‖ portion of the device These concepts of a staged thermonuclear weapon are shown in Fig 2-3 LANL 1983 2-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 2 Many of the materials needed for thermonuclear devices were the same as those needed for a gunassembled or implosion-assembled device plus fuel for the fusion reaction The first thermonuclear devices used a liquid fuel such as deuterium that required significant developments in cryogenics in order to keep it below its boiling point of -250 Celsius Later devices used lithium deuteride fuel in solid form which ―breeds‖ tritium when exposed to neutrons Radiation Case Primary Secondary Reentry Body Fig 2-3 Concepts of a staged nuclear weapon After World War II LANL scientists and engineers were involved with developing and testing numerous nuclear design devices that were more and more powerful compact reliable dependably deployable in the field and able to be contained in a variety of delivery vehicles suited to various combat objectives LANL scientists were involved with many nuclear device tests within the continental United States the Pacific and in Alaska including some that were part of the Plowshare program which aimed to develop peaceful applications for nuclear explosives Los Alamos was the lead site for U S nuclear component fabrication until 1949 when the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant in Washington began making ―pits ‖ the central cores of the primary stages of nuclear devices USDOE 1997 In 1952 the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver began making pit components After 1949 LANL became a backup production facility and designed developed and fabricated nuclear components for test devices Pit production stopped at the Hanford facility in 1965 and the Rocky Flats Plant ceased operations in 1989 From time to time LANL was called upon to perform special functions in its backup role Because of an accident at the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant in 1984 for example plutonium was sent in oxide form to LANL to be converted to metal USDOE 1997 Special activity at LANL might also have occurred after major fires in plutonium facilities at Rocky Flats in 1957 and 1969 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 2 2-3 Operations facilities and capabilities that were needed to support developing and producing various types of nuclear devices expanded in many cases to support other missions after World War II Programs in chemistry metallurgy and low temperature physics expanded into non-military development and fundamental research LANL developed for example one of the largest experimental machine shops in the country Its Health Division grew significantly and expanded into many areas of health physics industrial hygiene medicine safety and biomedical research regarding people and radiation Early reactors that were built to confirm critical masses for fissionable materials and to study properties of fission and the behavior of resulting neutrons were the forerunners of a variety of reactors that were designed and in some cases built and operated at LANL While some of these reactors served as sources of neutrons for various types of nuclear research or for materials testing other designs were pursued for potential applications in power generation and propulsion of nuclear rockets into deep space Some of the first significant steps towards controlled nuclear fusion as a power source were taken at LANL and its plasma thermocouple program explored methods for directly converting fission energy to electricity for potential applications in spacecraft propulsion Operations at LANL occur in land divisions called Technical Areas or TAs Table 2-1 contains a listing of these TAs including some that have been abandoned some that were combined with other TAs and some that were cancelled before they ever became operational Table 2-1 also contains listings of some of the various radioactive materials that are documented to have been used at each technical area based on information reviewed to date Figures 2-4 and 2-5 show the location of LANL within New Mexico and the layout of the modern-day TAs while Fig 2-6 presents a timeline of some selected operations and activities at or related to LANL 2-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 2 Table 2-1 LANL Technical Areas TAs past and present TA Materials Involveda Name and Description TA-0 Los Alamos Townsite leased space in Los Alamos and White Rock for training support unclassified research and development community outreach museum None TA-1 Original Main Technical Area inactive 1943-65 active turned over to Los Alamos County or private interest in 1966 all contamination removed by 1975 EU DU 238 239Pu 241Am 210 Po 140Ba 140La TA-2 a k a c Omega Site Early critical assembly experiments Water Boilers 1944-1974 Pu Fast Reactor a k a Clementine 1946–1950 and Omega West Reactor 1956-1992 reactors used for critical experiments up until 1946 when experiments were moved to TA-18 Omega Site reactors operations were then centered around neutron experiments and isotope production 239 TA-3 Core Area a k a South Mesa Site active 1949 to present detonator manufacturing metallurgy burn pit firing sites from 1943-49 Listed below are brief descriptions of key TA3 operations Pu 131I 88Rb 137Cs Xe 125I 41Ar 3H 131 238 239 Pu 235 238U DU NU 210 Po TA-3-29 Chemistry and Metallurgy Research actinide chemistry and metallurgy research since 1952 to present 239 TA-3-66 Sigma materials fabrication since 1958 also –141 Rolling Mill -35 Press Bldg -159 thorium storage 235 TA-31698 Materials Science Laboratory processing mechanical research DU TA-339 102 Machine shops since 1953 Be in Bldg 39 DU in Bldg 102 DU TA-4 Alpha Site firing site until 1956 Material Disposal Area C DU TA-5 Beta Site former firing site used extensively in 1945 DU TA-6 Two-Mile Mesa Site mostly undeveloped detonator manufacturing and testing 1944-50 DU TA-7 Gomez Ranch Site former firing site used from 1944-47 for small explosive experiments with short-lived radionuclides DU unknown TA-8 GT Site a k a Anchor Site West gun firing sites 1943-45 explosives processing 1945-50 nondestructive x-ray testing 1950-present 239 TA-9 Anchor Site East a k a Anchor Ranch firing areas explosives research active DU 3H TA-10 Bayo Canyon Radioactive lanthanum test shots 1944-61 Radioactive lanthanum radiochemistry 1944-50 site removed in 1963 90 TA-11 K Site active implosion studies later drop and vibration tests dates unknown at this time DU 226Ra betatron TA-12 L Site explosives testing 1945-46 abandoned in mid-1950s DU TA-13 P Site X-ray studies of explosives later incorporated with TA-16 status unknown X-rays DU 210Po TA-14 Q Site active explosives testing 1944-present DU TA-15 R Site explosives testing eight inactive firing sites A-H R44 R45 Pulsed High-Energy Radiation Machine Emitting X-Rays PHERMEX 1962-present Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamics Test DARHT Facility 239 TA-16 S Site active former explosives casting machining operations burning ground Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility Began in the 1950s 239 TA-17 X Site canceled None TA-18 Pajarito Laboratory criticality testing 1946-present Rover 1955-73 Hydro assembly 1957 235 TA-19 East Gate Laboratory released to U S Atomic Energy Commission in 1962 None TA-20 Sandia Canyon Site former firing site abandoned in 1957 DU TA-21 DP Site former plutonium operations DP West uranium polonium operations DP East Material Disposal Areas A B T U V Tritium Systems Test Assembly Tritium Science and Fabrication Facility 1945 to 1978 239 TA-22 TD Trap Door Site detonator development shops disposal pits DU TA-23 NU Site reduced firing load at TA-9 1945-50 Unknown FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 2 Pu 238Pu 235U 238U DU U DU Pu 238Pu 235U DU Co 192Ir 137Cs X-rays 60 Sr DU NU 140La Pu DU 3H X-rays Pu DU 3H X-rays U 239Pu 240Pu 233U MFP 131I polonium neutron Pu 238Pu 240Pu 241Pu Am 235U 238U 210Po 227 Ac 3H 241 2-5 TA Materials Involveda Name and Description TA-24 T Site X-ray studies of explosives later incorporated with TA-16 X-rays DU TA-25 V Site explosives assembly later incorporated with TA-16 DU TA-26 D Site storage vault and guard building 1946-48 removed in 1966 3 TA-27 Gamma Site plutonium gun assembly 1945-47 239 TA-28 Magazine Area A active firing site 1979 explosives storage area DU TA-29 Magazine Area B explosives storage area abandoned in 1957 DU TA-30 Electronics Test Area electronics testing 1945-48 Unknown TA-31 East Receiving Yard 1948-54 warehouses W of airport removed 1954 Unknown TA-32 Medical Research Laboratory bio-research facility 1943-54 removed in 1954 incinerator use included Unknown TA-33 HP Hot Point Site 1948-56 shaft experiments High Pressure Tritium Laboratory 1970s Material Disposal Areas D E K 3 TA-34 New Laboratory Warehouse Area canceled None TA-35 Ten Site Radioactive lanthanum 1951-63 Los Alamos Power Reactor Experiment LAPRE 3H 90Sr 140Ba 140La 235U I II 1950s Los Alamos Molten Plutonium Reactor Experiment LAMPRE I 1960s laser DU 237Np Pu Po Co fusion research 1974 VFP TA-36 Kappa Site replaced TAs-9 23 12 in 1950 four active firing sites nonnuclear ordnance and DU armor TA-37 Magazine Area C active explosives storage area DU TA-38 Monterey Site canceled None TA-39 Ancho Canyon Site five firing points incinerator 1955-60 photographic study of the behavior of nonnuclear weapons NU DU thorium TA-40 DF Detonator Firing Site six firing points detonator development 3 TA-41 W Weapons Group WX Site engineering of nuclear components fabrication of test materials 3 TA-42 Incinerator Site for low-level Pu contaminated waste abandoned 1970 All TA-43 Health Research Laboratory biological research 1953-70 replaced TA-32 All TA-44 Los Angeles Shop experimental machine shop in Los Angeles CA 1949-58 abandoned in 1958 Unknown TA-45 Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Plant inactive removed majority of plutonium before discharge to Acid Canyon 238 239 TA-46 WA Site Rover batteries 1950-74 U isotope separation 1976-early 1980s photochemistry research lasers 235 TA-47 BR Site Bruns Railhe shipped materials via a railhead near Bruns Hospital in Santa Fe 1943-58 abandoned in 1958 DU unknown TA-48 Radiochemistry Site actinide chemistry and hot cell isotope production area used for analyzing samples from weapon test shots 1950s to present U TRU MAP MFP TA-49 Frijoles Mesa Site underground hydronuclear experiments 1960-61 now Hazardous Devices Team Training 3 TA-50 Waste Management Site treated liquid wastes before discharge to Mortandad Canyon replaced TA-45 -35 controlled air incinerator 1976 All TA-51 Environmental Research Site animal exposure facility 1962 now studies of impact of waste and waste storage on the environment 60 TA-52 Reactor Development Ultra-High Temperature Reactor Experiment UHTREX 235 TA-53 Los Alamos Neutron Science Center LANSCE 3 TA-54 Waste Disposal Site solid wastes Materials Disposal Areas G H J L All TA-55 Plutonium Facility Site active replaced TA-21 SNM storage 1978 to present 239 TA-56 Subterrene Basalt Site melting basalt with electrically heated penetrator abandoned in 1976 Unknown 2-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 2 H 235U 233U Pu DU thorium H H H plutonium uranium americium Pu 235 238U U 238U thorium H plutonium uranium Co strontium U 238Pu 3H VFP Kr Xe H 41Ar 7Be 11C 13N 15O U Pu 3H TA Name and Description Materials Involveda TA-57 Fenton Hill Site Hot Dry Rock geothermal project inactive Unknown TA-58 Two-Mile North Site experimental sciences for TA-3 programs Unknown TA-59 Occupational Health Site Office of Environment Safety and Health offices emergency management None TA-60 Sigma Mesa Test Fabrication Facility and Rack Assembly Alignment Complex Unknown TA-61 East Jemez Road physical support and sanitary landfill Unknown TA-62 Northwest Site reserved for experiments research buffer zones Unknown TA-63 Pajarito Service Area environmental and waste management functions Unknown TA-64 Central Guard Facility Hazardous Materials Response Team None TA-65 Not currently active or never assigned None TA-66 Central Technical Support Site industrial partnership activities Unknown TA-67 Pajarito Mesa former TA-12 dynamic testing area archeological sites DU TA-68 Water Canyon Site dynamic testing area with study areas DU TA-69 Anchor North Site undeveloped buffer for the dynamic testing area Unknown TA-70 Rio Grande Site undeveloped buffer for the high-explosives test area Unknown TA-71 Southeast Site undeveloped buffer for the high-explosives test area Unknown TA-72 East Entry Site Protective Forces Training Facility Unknown TA-73 Los Alamos Airport on-site disposal area incinerator 1950s All TA-74 Otowi Tract water wells archeological sites endangered breeding area None Miscellaneous Locations of Activities that Involved LANL Personnel Pacific Nuclear tests Marshall Islands 1945-51 All AK Nuclear tests Amchitka Long Shot Milrow Cannikin 1965 1969 1971 All NV Nevada Test Site nuclear tests Rover nuclear rocket engine program Nuclear tests non-NTS Fallon Shoal Tonopah Faultless 1968 All CO Nuclear tests Grand Valley Rulison 1970 Rifle Rio Blanco 1973 All esp 3H 85Kr NM Nuclear tests White Sands Trinity 1945 Carlsbad Gnome 1961 Farmington Gasbuggy 1967 All esp 131I 133I 135I 137Cs 140 Ba 140La MS Nuclear tests Hattiesburg Salmon and Sterling Unknown a Key for table entries All 239Pu 240Pu 238Pu 241Am 235U DU 3H 210Po 227Ac 226Ra DU depleted uranium- 238U MAP mixed activation products e g 41Ar 7Be 11C 13N 15O MFP mixed fission products NU natural uranium VFP volatile fission products Element names without number e g plutonium uranium indicate isotope not specified a k a also known as SNM Special Nuclear Material FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 2 2-7 Figure 2-4 Location of Los Alamos and LANL 2-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 2 Figure 2-5 Map of LANL Technical Areas and roads FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 2 2-9 Figure 2-6 Timeline of Selected Los Alamos Operations and Activities 1943 1945 1947 1949 1951 1953 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2009 2005 2009 D Building opens for use Main Pu processing performed in D Building mg quantities at first First gram-scale quantities of Pu arrived D Building in original Technical Area 2 500 experiments had been completed with 51 g of Pu Fire in C Shop at TA-1 DP West process buildings at TA-21 The Trinity Test First large quantity Pu shipment arrived Pu for Trinity test purified Pu for Nagasaki bomb purified Pu for second combat weapon purified Trinity Test Nagasaki bombing Pu for first composite weapon core purified D Building remained in use for metallurgical R D analytical work etc TA-55 authorized Pu processed at TA-55 Pu production conducted at DP Site TA-21 CMR Building operational at TA-3 including Pu metallurgy work Water Boiler operated in LOPO mode at TA-2 Omega Site Water Boiler operated in HYPO mode Water Boiler operated in SUPO mode LAPRE I operated LAMPRE I reactor operated Omega West reactor operated Anchor Site West casting room operational LAPRE II reactor operated Firing Sites A B operational R Site becomes main site for HE experiments Firing Sites C D E F added Omega Site at TA-2 Firing Sites G H added S Site operational high explosives casting and machining burning ground PHERMEX operational explosives testing at TA-15 L Site operational explosives testing Radioactive Lanthanum RaLa implosion tests in Bayo Canyon Radioactive Lanthanum source preparation at TA-10 Bayo Canyon site An S-Site high explosives work room RaLa Source prep at TA-35 Ten Site Untreated liquid radioactive waste discharged to Acid Canyon Polonium contaminated liquid wastes to Area U beds Area T adsorption beds used Liquid radioactive waste discharge to Acid Canyon General's Tanks used TA-45 liquid waste plant operated released to Acid Canyon TA-21-35 treatment plant into operation Area G disposal ground used TA-50 liquid waste treatment plant operated TA-21-257 treatment plant into operation TA-33 tritium handling facility operational TSTA operational at DP East Rover program active WETF tritium facility operational at TA-16 LANL Rover tests in Nevada 1943 1945 1947 1949 1951 1953 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 References LANL Nuclear Weapons Illustrations Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory Classification Bulletin No 9 1983 Serber et al The Los Alamos Primer - The First Lectures on How to Build a Bomb Contains an annotated version of report LA-1 The Los Alamos Primer 1943 Berkeley CA University of California Press 1992 USDOE Linking legacies - Connecting the cold war nuclear weapons production processes to their environmental concequences Washington DC U S Department of Energy DOE EM-0319 1997 2-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Information Gathering at LANL The goal of the information gathering process at LANL was to identify and retrieve information relevant to off-site releases of chemicals or radionuclides or potential health effects associated with LANLsponsored activities within the state of New Mexico Information gathering began with a focus on centralized records repositories and then progressed to records held by individual groups or divisions The latter were selected on a prioritized basis that is those most likely to include information of interest were reviewed first The principal method employed for information gathering at LANL was systematic document review or searching Systematic searching involves identifying the document collections that exist at a site or facility both classified and unclassified then progressing through those collections in an appropriate and orderly fashion until all potentially relevant documents have been reviewed All reviews were conducted by analysts qualified to recognize information that a Fig 3-1 Two LAHDRA analysts review records at LANL competent scientist would use to evaluate historical releases and or the potential for off-site health hazards This approach best supports the “leave no stone unturned” goal that fosters public credibility in public dose reconstruction studies Systematic document searching can be contrasted with “directed” document searching in which researchers identify specific information needs and go directly to the document locations or particular types of documents believed most likely to contain it Systematic searching directed searching and combinations of the two approaches have been applied in dose reconstruction studies in the U S over the past 15 years Some quasi-directed searching activities were conducted at LANL as the information gathering process progressed these consisted of re-visiting records collections that had been searched earlier in the project to capitalize on information garnered from initial searches These subsequent search activities were not entirely directed in nature they still maintained characteristics of systematic searching However they were not entirely systematic either since they had a narrower focus than the initial search activities Another practice employed by the project team was focused systematic searching in which subsets of records within a given collection were identified based on some defined criteria These subsets were then subjected to systematic search FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-1 Throughout this section the words “record” or “document” are used to describe a number of different types of information In this context records or documents are not limited to physical documents but also include materials such as electronic databases of information microfiche records microfilm records photographs video audio recordings and engineering drawings In addition to physical records other sources of information explored by the project team included interviews with past and current LANL staff members and tours of LANL facilities How Documents were Categorized Summarized and Catalogued When a LAHDRA analyst identified a document relevant to off-site releases or health effects he or she would then complete a Document Summary Form DSF The DSF provided a bibliographic summary of the document including its location so it could easily be retrieved again in the future if needed Copies of documents clearly relevant to estimating off-site releases or health effects were requested For other documents such as those containing supporting information or otherwise not directly applicable copies were sometimes but not always requested A DSF was completed for all relevant documents regardless of whether a copy was requested from LANL Copies of documents requested by the project team as well as all DSFs completed at LANL were required to go through a review process before they could be released to the LAHDRA team All DSFs and documents were reviewed by LANL to ensure that they did not contain classified information personal information protected under the Privacy Act or proprietary or legally privileged information If a document had been deemed Official Use Only OUO by its originator the review process expanded further to include an effort to contact the originating author or organization and have the OUO designation removed In all but a few cases such requests were accepted and the documents were released to the public One of the LAHDRA project’s aims was to place all of the material retrieved from LANL in the public domain There were a few cases however where OUO restrictions could not be removed from documents desired by the project team In these instances the documents were provided to the project team for its use but they remained subject to appropriate OUO controls After receipt from LANL each DSF and associated document if any was assigned a LAHDRA Repository Number and the information from the DSF was entered into a project information database The database fields were the same as on the DSF The Repository Number was simply a sequential number used for indexing the database entries Documents were scanned to Portable Document Format PDF files and indexed using Optical Character Recognition OCR software to provide full-text 3-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 searchable electronic versions The PDF files were linked to each database record so a user could access the document associated with an entry The project information database which will be described later was provided to a limited number of public libraries in northern New Mexico and Albuquerque It was updated periodically as information was added In addition copies of documents retrieved from LANL were made available to members of the public at the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque The LAHDRA Document Summary Form The DSF was revised several times during the information gathering process A copy of the latest version Revision 7 is shown in Fig 3-2 Most of the entries on the DSF are self-explanatory However two that are of particular interest are described here for completeness Item Number Other Identifier This field was added later in the project to be used in conjunction with creation of the Document Request Log which will be described later A separate log was created for each document collection being searched For each log sheet entries were given a sequential item number The item number was entered on the corresponding DSF so it and any associated copies could be tracked through the review process The item number allowed copies of documents to be readily associated with the corresponding DSF if the two became separated CDC Document Category Analysts selected one of three categories for a document using the criteria below Category 1 Documents that a competent scientist would use in estimating off-site releases or their health effects from operations at LANL or other LANL-sponsored operations within the state of New Mexico such as the Trinity test Examples of Category 1 documents include effluent monitoring data accident reports with estimates of releases release point information or results of environmental monitoring performed near locations where people lived or recreated Category 2 Documents that contained supporting or confirming information that could be useful for estimating off-site releases or health effects from operations at LANL or other LANL-sponsored operations within the state of New Mexico Examples of Category 2 documents include historical descriptions of site activities notebooks for relevant operations or process flow sheets FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-3 Category 3 Documents that could be used to estimate or confirm off-site releases or health effects from nuclear weapons complex sites outside of New Mexico or from operations sponsored by groups other than LANL at non-LANL sites within New Mexico such as Sandia National Laboratory Item Number Other Identifier OFFICE USE ONLY S7 Initials S7 Review Date Page Count Entry Date Initials Rep No DOCUMENT TITLE AUTHOR S DOCUMENT NO PROJECT PUBLICATION DATE Estimated ORGANIZATION S DOCUMENT TYPE DATA TIME PERIOD START Estimated TECHNICAL AREA S Box Document CDC DOCUMENT CATEGORY 1 2 Electronic 3 ORIGINAL LOCATION OF DOCUMENT File Cabinet Microform DOCUMENT REQUESTED END ___________ Notebook Complete Photo Dwg Partial Litigation Support Database ________________________________ LANL Records Center __________________________ LANL Archives ______________________________ LANL Reports Library __________________________ Other ______________________________________ POINTS OF CONTACT FOR DOCUMENT 1 KEYWORDS Atmosphere Design Ground Water Surface Water 2 Biological Effluent Operational Terrestrial Chemical Environmental Radiation Uncertainty Chronic Release Episodic Release Radionuclide Waste Disposal Other DOCUMENT ABSTRACT Original ANALYST COMMENTS ANALYST DATE REVIEWED Fig 3-2 The LAHDRA Document Summary Form DSF 3-4 None FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 In contrast documents about activities by LANL personnel that occurred beyond LANL’s boundaries but within New Mexico such as the Trinity test would fall under Category 1 or 2 Documents concerning operations at foreign nuclear weapon sites or nuclear power plants foreign or domestic were not Category 3 material since such activities did not fall within the responsibility of the U S Department of Energy or its predecessor agencies In general copies were not requested for Category 3 documents but there were cases when copies of Category 3 material were obtained Table 3-1 provides a summary of how documents were categorized based on their descriptions of activity location and sponsorship A document could only be assigned one category number Table 3-1 Assignment of document category based on activity sponsor and location Location of Activity Activity's Sponsor At LANL Within New Mexico but not at LANL Weapons Complex Site Outside of New Mexico LANL Category 1 or 2 Category 1 or 2 Category 3 Others Category 1 or 2 Category 3 Category 3 The Document Request Log Toward the later stages of the project the information gathering process was augmented to include the use of a log sheet called the document request log Its purpose was to record information about each DSF and any associated document copies generated or requested by the project team Individual log sheets were used for each specific LANL records facility or collection where review activities were performed The document request log provided a formal record of material requested by the project team It was used to track items DSFs and documents from the time they were requested until they were received The request log became necessary because of significant delays that would sometimes occur between request and receipt In some cases material would get lost in the review process so the request log provided a means for identifying and retrieving missing material A separate request log was created for each document collection or facility being searched Each entry on a given log was assigned a unique item number Item numbers were used as a reference when tracking the progress of material through the review process and for associating documents with DSFs in cases where they were not reviewed together The fields on the log sheets varied somewhat depending on the records facility where they were used but they all included fields for the document title page count location accession numbers or other identifiers and so forth A request log entry was made for each DSF FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-5 regardless of whether the underlying document was copied so that there would be a complete record of everything the project team identified as relevant within a given document collection The request log also included fields for use by the classification reviewers to indicate that they had reviewed each document and whether it had been declassified redacted etc The Project Information Database The bibliographic information from each DSF as it was received from LANL was entered into a Microsoft® Access database created for that purpose The basic structure of the database was defined by the CDC at the outset of the project As each DSF was entered into the database it was assigned a unique Repository Number a Repository Number was simply a sequential number used for reference and indexing Following data entry the DSFs and associated documents were filed by Repository Number As the size of the document collection grew and scanning technology matured a decision was made to scan all of the documents received from LANL to PDF files OCR software was used to create a full-text searchable image within the constraints of the image quality of the original The OCR process is not 100% reliable however given the poor quality of some of the documents It was also not capable of translating handwritten documents into text Fig 3-3 depicts the progression of a document from a handwritten DSF through entry of the DSF information into the information database and finally to the creation of a searchable PDF image file The project database including the searchable image files was made available to the public at three regional libraries within New Mexico the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque the Mesa Public Library in Los Alamos and the Northern New Mexico Community College library in Española Users may search the bibliographic information from the DSFs and perform full-text searches of the document images As mentioned above the OCR process can miss words or text in poor quality originals so it is recommended that users utilize both full-text searches and searches of the DSF information i e fielded or filtered searches to find information of interest In addition to the Access-based database the project team developed an additional versatile Web-based application for searching the database and scanned documents The application called DocSleuth was hosted by ChemRisk and was available over the Internet to project team members and other selected individuals DocSleuth employs sophisticated indexing technology to a flat-fielded version of the project database The database was re-indexed periodically as information was added DocSleuth allows global or fielded searches or combinations of these and provides a comprehensive tool for garnering 3-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 information from the large collection of material retrieved from LANL An image of the DocSleuth search screen in presented in Fig 3-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-7 Fig 3-3 Original DSF DSF printed from DocSleuth Original Document PDF 3-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Documents are “filtered” to those whose bibliographic data from DSFs contain terms entered in these oval fields More fields can be seen by scrolling to the right A full-text search of OCR-processed documents is performed for terms entered in this rectangular field Fig 3-4 The search screen of the LAHDRA DocSleuth database FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-9 Public Reading Room for Documents Obtained by the Project Team The LAHDRA document repository contains paper copies of documents obtained from LANL by the project team As of this writing the repository contains over 250 000 pages of documents filed under 8 000 Repository Numbers A duplicate set of the documents is available at the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque Fig 3-5 This location was selected as the official Public Reading Room for the LAHDRA project Fig 3-5 Dan Barkley of UNM discusses project records at Zimmerman Library in Albuquerque with CDC project staff The Zimmerman Library is located on the University of New Mexico’s main campus The library’s Government Information Department is a regional depository for government documents Documents can be requested at the information desk and photocopies can be made at a nominal cost using copiers located in the immediate area Directions to the Public Reading Room at the University of New Mexico Head east from the Central Avenue exit from I-25 Continuing east on Central Avenue pass through the signal at University Avenue UNM will be on the left The third light after University Avenue will be Stanford Drive Take a left on Stanford Drive to enter the UNM campus Take another left at the T On the right will be Visitor Parking After parking head north and slightly west across campus Zimmerman Library is just northwest of the Student Union Building The Government Information Department is located in the basement of the library Contact Dan Barkley phone 505 277-7180 barkley@unm edu Restrictions on the Project Team’s Access to Certain Categories of Information Accessing and reviewing documents at Los Alamos National Laboratory has been more difficult than in any similar project conducted at other DOE sites that have been subjects of dose reconstruction investigations The LAHDRA project was impacted by several events at LANL unrelated to LAHDRA activities which resulted in stand downs of Laboratory operations and the subsequent implementation of increasingly restrictive security measures Initially these developments severely impeded the team’s 3-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 ability to complete its review but over time solutions were put in place that allowed the team to complete its work in concert with increased information security measures When the project began project team members who held the requisite security clearance levels were not restricted in their access to classified information in support of systematic search activities A few years into the project however following some highly-publicized information security issues at LANL and a stand down of its operations LANL enacted new security practices that encumbered the project team’s access to classified documents These new security practices included denying the project team access to specific types of information discussed below and requiring analysts to have permission from document owners before being allowed to review classified information The latter constraint was a particular problem especially in the classified reports collection in which many reports were issued by organizations other than LANL many of which no longer existed In an effort to meet this new security requirement LANL requested that project team members review reports by their titles alone Doing so was problematic however since in many cases document titles are not a reliable means of identifying relevant content Still later LANL determined that it was not authorized to grant the project team “need to know” status for documents issued by organizations other than LANL which was a reversal from how LANL staff had been operating up until that time Additional impediments included stricter limits on the number of project team members who could work in a given location at one time and requiring that documents be pre-screened for “deniable category information” before team members could review them This new requirement presented two constraints First the requirement for pre-screening meant the project team could only work as fast as the LANL hired contractor could do the screening Second the contracted screeners counted against the total number of people the project team could have working in a given area In February 2005 after a number of iterations between DOE LANL CDC and the project team a number of the security restrictions that had been preventing the project team from conducting systematic review activities were relaxed This relaxation left the excluded categories of information and the associated requirement for pre-screening in place as the mechanism for addressing concerns over “need to know” issues that had been raised during internal and external reviews of LANL’s security practices Table 3-2 below summarizes the information categories to which project team members were denied access These restrictions meant that classified information to be reviewed by the project team first had to be reviewed by an authorized individual to ensure that no deniable information was present If deniable information was present a general description of the contents was provided to the extent practical to allow the project team to make a judgment as to whether the material potentially contained relevant FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-11 information In general this process proved to be a workable though time-consuming solution In the event that the project team felt denied documents could contain relevant information a process was available whereby an appropriately-cleared CDC employee could review the material The reason for the distinction between CDC employees and the CDC contractor the project team was unclear since all of the classified material pre-screening was being performed by LANL hired subcontractors Table 3-2 Categories of information withheld from the LAHDRA team by LANL Nuclear Weapons Design Information– documents relating to nuclear weapon design such as weapon component blue prints drawings or other schematic or graphical design information Sigma 14 Information– concerns the vulnerability of nuclear weapons to deliberate unauthorized nuclear detonation Sigma 15 Information– concerns the design and function of nuclear weapons use control systems features and their components including using control information for passive and active systems Sensitive Compartmented Information SCI – includes information determined pursuant to Executive Order 12958 or any predecessor order to require protection against unauthorized disclosure and is so designated includes conventional weapons security systems foreign relations and information regarding intelligence sources and methods Special Access Program SAP Information– deals with programs that are judged to require access limitation beyond that of the three-tiered classification system Confidential Secret and Top Secret These include programs within the Departments of Energy Defense and State For example the Congressional Emergency Relocation Site located under the Greenbriar Hotel in West Virginia built to house Congress and key staff in the event of a national emergency was designed constructed and maintained as a SAP for over 30 years until declassified in 1994 Foreign Government Information FGI – includes information provided to the U S Government by a foreign government or governments an international organization of government or any element thereof with the expectation that the information the source of the information or both are to be held in confidence Unclassified Sensitive Vendor Proprietary Information– includes information that is deemed “sensitive unclassified ” and touches on areas such as trade secrets and privileged or confidential commercial or financial information Summary of Information Gathering Activities for Specific Document Collections Document review activities began with an emphasis on LANL’s large centralized records repositories and then progressed to include records held within specific divisions or groups Systematic searching was the predominant method used for all information gathering activities at LANL For the larger centralized repositories systematic search activities generally occurred over multiple stages After an initial 3-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 systematic review follow-up review activities were performed as needed to evaluate information accessioned since completing the initial review Centralized Repositories The LANL Records Center The LANL Records Center was a principal focus of the information gathering task at LANL This facility initially was housed in Building 1001 in Technical Area 21 TA-21-1001 Later in the project the Records Center was relocated to the National Security Sciences Building NSSB The project team performed records review activities in both locations In addition to the Records Center the LANL Archives was also housed in Building TA-21-1001 until the time it too was relocated to the NSSB The Archives collection was stored maintained and managed separately from the Records Center’s holdings and review of that facility was conducted separately from that for the Records Center The systematic review of the Archives is discussed later in this chapter The original LANL Records Center was a 15 000 square foot building located at 180 6th Street in Los Alamos The Records Center’s function is to receive and catalog records from the various LANL groups and divisions place and maintain them in retrievable storage and disposition them in accordance with DOE retention and disposition guidelines and other associated requirements such as the moratorium on destruction of records deemed pertinent to epidemiological studies Building TA-21-1001 the original Records Center was sub-divided into six “bays” denoted A through F It also included a seventh bay denoted G-Bay located in a separate building TA-21-1002 behind the primary facility The primary facility Building TA-21-1001 was a designated Vault-Type Room and included classified holdings The records stored in G-Bay were considered unclassified for access control purposes The Records Center holdings were stored in bays B C E F and G Each bay contained a number of rows consisting of either tall 10-drawer filing cabinets or shelving Shelving and file drawers from the original Records Center are shown in Fig 3-6 through Fig 3-9 The file drawers were used primarily to store paper records The shelving was used to hold records contained in standard one cubic foot storage boxes A number of mobile storage units were also used to house media such as microfiche and microfilm Fig 3-10 and Fig 3-11 show storage and review of microfilm records in the original Records Center Each bay typically contained a mix of different types formats of records and records storage media containers The tops of the rows of file cabinets for example were used to store boxes and large-sized media such as drawings and blueprints FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-13 Fig 3-6 Boxes of documents on shelves in the LANL Records Center in 2005 Fig 3-7 Document review in the LANL Records Center 3-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Fig 3-8 File drawers used for document storage in the LANL Records Center in 2005 Fig 3-9 Review of notebooks in a Records Center drawer FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-15 Fig 3-10 One of numerous drawers of microfilm in the LANL Records Center in 2005 Fig 3-11 Review of microfilm in the LANL Records Center in 2005 3-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 All materials accessioned by the LANL Records Center are assigned a Transfer Record TR Number TR Numbers are assigned sequentially and are the principal means of identifying locating and tracking material in the center Locations of records in the original Records Center were referenced using a “bayrow-shelf” nomenclature where “shelf” could have been any number of storage locations such as a file drawer or a specific box in a vertical stack of boxes Thus the location “B-1-2” would refer to material location in B-Bay Row 1 Location 2 The LANL Records Center had been operating near its storage capacity for some time and the space shortage resulted in records frequently being relocated reconsolidated transferred to Federal Records Centers or otherwise dispositioned to free up space to accommodate newly-accessioned material In 2005 the Records Center began the process of relocating to the NSSB Many of the records were relocated to the NSSB and many others were transferred to Federal Records Centers The layout of the Records Center in the NSSB is similar to that in the previous facility though without the individual bays Otherwise the storage systems were similar and in fact the file drawer storage units were physically moved from the old facility to the new one The systematic search of the Records Center may be described as having occurred in four distinct phases initial search activities up to the work stoppage in 2003 prompted by LANL security issues an interim period resumption of systematic search activities following the work stoppage and follow-up review activities after the Records Center relocation to the NSSB Initial Systematic Searches of the Records Center February 1999 – October 2003 – The initial systematic search for relevant material in the LANL Records Center began in February 1999 and continued until October 2003 To facilitate identifying what had and had not been reviewed records were marked with one of two rubber stamps One stamp was used to identify records that contained no information pertinent to off-site releases or health effects Fig 3-12 CDC NCEH REVIEWED in green ink The other stamp was used to identify boxes or drawers that did contain relevant information that is at least one document deemed to fall under Category 1 2 or 3 Fig 3-13 CDC NCEH DO NOT DESTROY in red ink FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-17 Fig 3-12 A Records Center drawer with a green “CDC Reviewed” stamp affixed Fig 3-13 A Records Center box marked with red “Do Not Destroy” stamps 3-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 For records stored in boxes the outside of the box was stamped For records stored in drawers an adhesive label was stamped and affixed to the drawer Originally a log entry was made identifying everything that was reviewed These logs referred to as “box logs ” included the document category assigned to the material i e Category 1 2 3 or 4 its TR Number location the name of the analyst who performed the review and the review date This information was recorded for all material regardless of whether it contained relevant information If material was selected for copying an additional entry was made in a separate log identifying the material by its TR Number and location The purpose of this “review log ” as it was known was to provide the classification reviewers a current listing of what they needed to review and where it was located This “review log” was a predecessor to the formal document request log initiated later in the project Material to be copied was flagged using selfstick notes or the equivalent to make it easier for the classification reviewers or others to find later Once material was either confirmed to be unclassified or properly redacted it was copied and forwarded for an additional series of reviews to confirm that it could be released to the public The purpose of this subsequent review was to screen for information protected under the Privacy Act proprietary and or attorney-client privileged etc The review log served as a tool to identify material that still needed to be copied was in need of classification review including or had been forwarded for the second part of the review process Early in the initial review it became apparent the tools and methods originally specified for tracking progress and identifying material that had and had not been reviewed were inappropriate for a facility like the Records Center The large volume of the material coupled with its dynamic nature i e high turnover meant handwritten logs were of little use Boxes and drawers that had been stamped by the project team were often re-used to store material that had not been reviewed The presence or lack of one of the stamps then was of limited value Further the ever-changing number of storage locations and constant in-flux of new material made estimating a completion percentage problematic and presented a task that was open-ended A more reliable method was thus needed to keep track of the systematic review of the Records Center An electronic database of the Records Center’s holdings was created to allow tracking of what had and had not been reviewed by TR Numbers The project team adapted the database used by the Records Center staff to track its holdings Tables fields and LAHDRA-specific search criteria were added as needed including an electronic version of the box log The box logs and accession turnover information provided by the Records Center staff provided the two sources of data used to maintain the database As long as the database was kept current in terms of records locations and TR Numbers any discrepancies FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-19 between it and the handwritten box logs gave an immediate indication of either an error in the log or of material that had been moved or otherwise dispositioned This process greatly simplified the task of tracking material that had and had not been reviewed even for cases where the same locations required review multiple times because of records turnover In conjunction with implementing the database for tracking progress a cutoff accession date was established to define a fixed end point for the initial systematic review of the Records Center The cutoff accession date chosen was December 31 1999 The last Transfer Record assigned prior to this date was TR Number 13779 Materials in the Records Center with a TR Number of 13779 or less were thus targeted for review under the initial systematic review Records accessioned after January 1 2000 were addressed in subsequent review activities The cutoff accession date was only applied to hardcopy records The database used to manage and track the initial systematic review of the LANL Records Center was not used for microform records that is microfilm or microfiche These materials did not suffer from the turnover problems that hindered the review of the hardcopy records so the review of the microform records was managed and tracked in a manner more consistent with what was originally conceived Small red or green adhesive dots were applied to microfilm cassettes in lieu of the rubber stamps to indicate material that had been reviewed For microfiche records the rubber stamps were applied to either the sleeve storing the media for individual microfiche records or to the storage container such as the front of a drawer if the volume of records was large Interim Search and Retrieval Activities September 2004 to March 2005 – A work stoppage prompted by security issues at LANL halted systematic search activities at LANL in October 2003 A large backlog of material selected by the project team for copying and release to the public had accumulated An interim task to get this material copied reviewed and released began in September 2004 A listing of outstanding material from the initial systematic review was compiled so it could be located and placed into the review process By the end of March 2005 all of this material had been located and submitted for review By the middle of May 2005 all of the outstanding material selected by the project team during its initial review activities in the LANL Records Center was in the project’s repository Paralleling the task to close out the backlog material during this interim period a CDC staff member made several trips to the LANL Records Center and the LANL Reports Library to close out some other outstanding items from the initial search activities Specifically the review of hardcopy i e non- 3-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 microform records at the Records Center and a subset of classified reports in the Reports Library were completed Resumption of Systematic Search Activities February 2005 – Systematic search activities at the LANL Records Center and for the project as a whole resumed in February 2005 Review of hardcopy records accessioned through 1999 had been completed so the focus upon resumption of systematic searching was completion of the microform records i e microfilm and microfiche Time was of the essence given the pending relocation of the Records Center to the NSSB When work resumed there were approximately 4 100 cards of microfiche and 2 700 rolls of microfilm in the Records Center remaining to be reviewed Systematic review of the microfiche was completed by mid-March 2005 Systematic review of the microfilm and thus the LANL Records Center itself for the time being was completed in early June 2005 The resumption of systematic review activities saw a significant improvement in throughput over that experienced previously This improvement was due to a number of important changes that were made to the document review and release process including analysts being allowed to disposition non-relevant material by title alone and to copy relevant documentation as it was identified Being able to copy the material as it was identified and attach it to the DSF eliminated problems suffered previously with obtaining copies of what the analysts had selected Another important but unfortunately short-lived change was the near-full-time availability of a contractor who could not only perform the requisite classification reviews but also authorizethe declassification of material when appropriate These changes led to improved throughput of systematic review activities including short turnaround times between when relevant material was identified and when it was received by the project team Further adopting the document request log during this time made it easier to confirm that everything the project team had requested was received and to resolve any discrepancies Follow-up Reviews in the NSSB – Review of records accessioned after December 31 1999 took place after the Records Center had completed its relocation to the NSSB This review was performed by reviewing the information on the individual TRs and identifying records of interest The scope of this review was limited to records that were stored at LANL that is it did not include records that had been transferred to the Federal Records Center The LANL Archives Initially the LANL Archives was housed primarily in A-Bay of Building TA-21-1001 Some materials motion picture reels for instance wre housed in B-Bay and additional materials including some that FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-21 had not yet been formally accessioned were stored in G-Bay in Building TA-21-1002 These locations are where the Archives records were maintained when the project team completed its initial systematic review with the exception of film motion picture and video records in early May 2006 Subsequently the Archives were relocated to the new NSSB in TA-3 Once operating in its new location the project team performed follow-up activities to revisit document collections previously reviewed and reviewed any records accessioned since the completion of the initial systematic review The second look at documents previously reviewed was prompted by insights gained from the study of the information obtained from the initial review In general the Archives records were organized into individual folders which were stored in boxes see Fig 3-14 through Fig 3-17 The boxes and folders were constructed of acid-free paper making them suitable for archival storage Most of the boxes were of a clamshell design allowing easy access to the folders inside Other types and sizes of boxes were used for some large or odd-sized media microform records etc Some non-paper records were stored in cases or cans on Archives shelves see Fig 3-18 and Fig 3-19 Archives records were organized into collections with a collection consisting of records covering a common subject area e g an individual’s memoirs the records of a particular facility or group etc A collection could be one box or could span hundreds of boxes Each collection was assigned a unique collection number consisting of the year the material was accessioned and a sequential number starting with 001 for each year Boxes were numbered sequentially within each collection and folders were numbered sequentially within each box Each collection had an inventory listing that gave a brief description of the contents of each folder The LANL Archives was a largely static well-organized collection of records That fact plus the availability of inventory listings provided a framework for systematic document searching that did not exist at other centralized repositories The project team began systematic review of records in the LANL Archives in June 2005 The first step in the review process was to obtain the inventory listings for each collection The Archives staff provided these listings to the LAHDRA project office which broke them up into “Pages ” The complete listings were broken up into 52 Pages with a given Page consisting generally of hundreds of pages of inventory LANL’s choice of “Page” as its nomenclature for the inventory listings was sometimes a source of confusion for those not yet familiar with it A “Page” of inventory listings covered many different collections and was by no means just a single page of information 3-22 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Fig 3-14 Moveable shelving units in the LANL Archives in 2005 Fig 3-15 Boxes used to store LANL Archives materials FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-23 Fig 3-16 Boxes used for storage of archived material Fig 3-17 A classification officer preparing to review documents selected by LAHDRA analysts 3-24 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Fig 3-18 The LANL Archives contain paper documents audio tapes video tapes and microfilm FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-25 Fig 3-19 The LANL Archives includes classified and unclassified motion picture films and videos The inventory listings were placed in three ring binders and provided to the project team Project analysts then went through the listings and selected material for review based on the descriptions given The detail in the inventory listings allowed this selection process to be performed at the folder level rather than the box level The selection process was rather broad as often the inventory list description did not make it immediately apparent what the material actually was In such cases the material in question was always selected for review Once this selection process was completed approximately 28 235 folders had been selected for review which equalled approximately 25% of the total folders in the Archives at that time In addition to the records selected by the project team for review a random sampling of 1% of the folders in the Archives was also performed The purpose of this sampling was to select material to be reviewed by the analysts to act as a check on both the project team’s document selection process and on the accuracy of the Archives inventory listings The 1% sampling process did not indicate any problems with the material selection process or the Archives’ inventories The review of the material selected by the project team in general proceeded one page at a time A set of boxes from a given collection was pulled and each folder selected from within those boxes either by the analysts or via the random selection process was reviewed Once the review was completed the appropriate stamp red or green was applied to the box and the analyst indicated that the material had been reviewed by initialing and dating the inventory listing for that folder This process continued until the Page was completed Deviations from this process were made as needed such as advance review of excluded material discussed below or completing the review for all material in G-Bay regardless of its Page listing In the latter case a priority was made to complete the review of material stored in G-Bay under favorable weather conditions G-Bay was a seldom-used facility with limited climate control so both LANL and the project team wanted these reviews completed after the summer and before the winter Review of Archives material in G-Bay including material not yet accessioned was completed around the middle of October 2005 Prior to review by the project team all of the material selected either directly or through random sampling had to be pre-screened for excluded categories of information by authorized individuals For the Archives information determined to be excluded by LANL’s reviewers was dispositioned by an interactive discussion between the reviewer and a project analyst information was excluded at the folder level The reviewer gave the analyst a basic description of the contents of the folder and the reason for withholding the material from detailed review This process gave the analysts enough information to make an informed decision as to the relevance of the material for the LAHDRA project Little of the 3-26 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 material selected for review in the Archives was excluded and none of the material that was was thought to contain relevant information Much of the excluded material came out of the random selection process and was not material selected by the project team The project team went through and addressed most of the excluded material in advance so it did not impede the progress of the systematic review As previously discussed follow-up review activities were completed for hardcopy Archives records following the Archives relocation to the NSSB In 2007 the project team was provided a listing several hundreds of pages in length of films and video tapes held in the Archives collection This listing was reviewed during 2007 and 2008 and potentially relevant titles were selected for review In early 2009 a list of 84 titles was submitted to LANL with a request that they be made available for review It was determined that there was significant duplication within the list that some of the films were old and brittle and that viewing would be problematic for some of the requested titles A plan was devised to review as many films as possible during the remaining visits to LANL in 2009 budget permitting The LANL Reports Collection and Research Library Initially the LANL Reports Collection was housed in a vault facility located beneath the LANL Research Library Along with the Records Center Archives and other collections it too was eventually relocated to the NSSB Since this move took place after the project team had completed its systematic review however this section describes the center as it existed prior to being relocated The Reports Collection contained both classified and unclassified reports published by LANL and numerous other entities in paper and microfiche formats The Reports Collection maintained its holdings in three principal collections classified reports unclassified reports and unclassified microfiche The project team’s systematic review of the Reports Collection approached each of these three collections individually Fig 3-20 through Fig 3-23 illustrates some of the stationary shelving movable shelving units and Lektriever units that were used in the Reports Collection As with the other systematic document search activities that began early in the project initially logs were kept of everything reviewed in the Reports Collection regardless of whether it contained relevant information This practice of formally documenting every item that was reviewed was eventually found to be unnecessary and was thus discontinued when document search activities resumed in February 2005 following the security stand down This change plus that of dispositioning material by title greatly improved the efficiency of the systematic review of the Reports Collection without compromising its effectiveness FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-27 Fig 3-20 Reports on stationary shelving in the LANL Reports Collection vault Fig 3-21 Reports on moveable shelving in the LANL Reports Collection vault 3-28 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Fig 3-22 Review of technical reports in the LANL Reports Collection Fig 3-23 Microfiche copies of reports are stored in “Lektriever” units such as this in the LANL Report Collection vault FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-29 Since there were no complete or reliable finding aides for the Reports Collection holdings the systematic review of the Reports Collection was performed by reviewing documents shelf by shelf The largely static nature of the Reports Collection holdings made this procedure effective Review of the Classified Reports Collection – The classified reports collection consisted of reports that were classified at the time of their publication The reports were published by LANL and numerous other entities including other weapons complex sites military organizations and contractors The majority of the reports pertained to weapons program activities testing in particular and other large defense programs such as Rover The reports published by LANL included those in the LA-series and those generated by various groups such as SS material accountability W-division X-division etc The reports were stored on collapsible shelving in alphabetical order The classified reports collection included approximately 3 000 classified report titles issued by LANL as LA- or LAMS- reports Quantities are reported as titles rather than as individual documents since there can be multiple copies of a given report in the collection In addition the classified reports collection contained approximately 32 000 titles from organizations such as other weapons complex sites other defense-related agencies academic institutions and private corporations that conducted research on behalf of DOE or its predecessor agencies To address the issue of excluded material ultimately classified reports were reviewed by a LAHDRA analyst working in tandem with a reviewer authorized by LANL to pre-screen material for excluded information This arrangement worked well and the systematic review of the classified reports collection was completed in June 2005 Additional ad hoc reviews of some of the holdings in the classified reports collection were subsequently performed to follow-up on information learned from the earlier reviews Review of the Unclassified Reports Collection – The unclassified reports collection was similar to the classified collection but contained only unclassified documents As such the subject areas covered were more broad than those in the classified reports and tended to yield more material of interest to the LAHDRA project The Reports Collection contained approximately 10 000 unclassified report titles issued by LANL as LAor LAMS- reports In addition images of approximately 25 000 unclassified LA- LA-MS- LA-UR and LA-PR reports were available as PDF files in the LANL electronic library catalog Unclassified reports with limited distribution categories such as those marked OUO Official Use Only were not available electronically and had to be reviewed in the vault 3-30 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Prior to the heightening of security measures following the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 the unclassified “LA” reports were available to the public on LANL’s web site Subsequently those files could only be accessed from a computer with a LANL IP address or by certain other government computer users The project team reviewed 100% of the unclassified “LA” reports that were formerly available without restriction on the Internet Most of these reports were reviewed using LANL computers at an office made available to the project team at TA-35 In addition to those issued by LANL there were approximately 90 000 unclassified reports in the Report Library vault issued by non-LANL entities including • DOE sites other than LANL • academic institutions • private corporations that conducted research on behalf of DOE and • other defense-related agencies Systematic review of the hard copy holdings of the unclassified reports collection was completed in November 2006 Review of the Unclassified Microfiche Collection – Historically LANL subscribed to multiple UC University of California distribution codes for DOE-related reports When the Office of Scientific and Technical Information OSTI took over the distribution of DOE-related reports it began distributing the reports on microfiche instead of paper As a result the LANL Reports Collection contained approximately 1 5 million documents on microfiche In 1999 the LANL Research Library converted to an electronic subscription service so documents were no longer added to the microfiche collection Instead library staff accessed reports via online databases not hosted by LANL upon request All of the microfiche reports were unclassified but some were marked for limited distribution Journals were not included in the microfiche collection because of copyright laws Many of the reports in the microfiche collection were conference proceedings The fiche cards were stored in Lektriever™ power filing units in alphabetical order by document number The documents in this collection included approximately 22 225 LA reports according to the Library Catalog Duplicates of these reports existed between the paper and microfiche collections so the reports on microfiche did not need to be reviewed again if a paper copy of the same report had already been reviewed Of the non-LANL agencies represented in the microfiche collection the three largest in terms of number of reports were DOE Energy 500 000 reports from 1969 to the present Nuclear Science Abstracts NSA 100 000 reports from 1949 through 1976 and NASA 20 000 reports FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-31 The Research Library subscribed to two electronic databases DOE Energy and NSA and until recently had also subscribed to the NASA electronic database A search of the DOE Energy and NSA databases showed that LANL was the authoring institution for approximately 11 000 NSA reports and 53 000 DOE Energy reports or about 10% of the titles in each database Like the other collections in the LANL Reports Library there was no complete finding aide available to allow searching the microfiche collection The project team and LANL staff members therefore performed a cataloging mapping of the numerous entities represented in the millions of pages of reports contained in the microfiche collection resulting in an estimate of approximately 600 000 cards of microfiche in the six Lektrievers The submitting organizations represented in these cards were differentiated into three broad categories to facilitate developing a search plan for this material For each category of material a fraction was reviewed for information relevant to the LAHDRA project The categories of information and their associated review fractions are given in Table 3-3 below Table 3-3 Review fractions for categories of unclassified microfiche in the LANL Report Collection Category Description Review Fraction A Reports from DOE or DOE sites LANL-originated reports and New Mexico-related documents Reports from DOD NASA other U S Govt organizations U S businesses or U S universities Reports from foreign non-U S organizations 100% B C 1% None beyond that performed in the mapping process The decision not to review the material from non-U S entities any further was based on the sampling of the documents in the microfiche collection intrinsic to the mapping process Formal review of the microfiche collection was completed in March 2006 All relevant material identified from the Lektriever collection was received from LANL and entered into the LAHDRA database The majority of this material was Category 3 information i e pertinent to sites other than LANL Review of the LANL Research Library – LANL’s central research library in general did not serve as a central repository for records It did however contain some public domain records such as those associated with the “human radiation experiments” initiative and LANL’s annual environmental summary reports The project team searched these collections and retrieved a number of records from them In particular a number of Health Division records were obtained from the Research Library as they were included among documents associated with DOE’s human radiation experiments project 3-32 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 The ES H Records Center and Other ES H Records The initial systematic reviews of the holdings in the Environment Safety and Health ES H Records Center were completed earlier in the LAHDRA project More recently the holdings of the ES H Records Center were relocated to the NSSB and housed in the same area as the primary Records Center After the documents were relocated the project team completed follow-up review activities of those accessioned since the prior review activities were completed In all there were three systematic reviews of the holdings of the ES H Records Center to ensure that material accessioned since the prior review was evaluated This summary of document review activities for the ES H Records Center reflects group and organization names that were in use at the time review activities began Since that time LANL went through numerous organizational changes making the group and organization designations below largely obsolete The previous organizational designations have been retained however in order to preserve the summary of the review activities in sufficient detail Description of the ES H Records Center – Prior to its relocation to the NSSB the ES H Records Center was located in Building 46 at TA-35 The center began operating in 1998 Its purpose was to receive records from the various ES H Groups catalogue and consolidate them and eventually forward them to the LANL Records Center Many of the records stored at the ES H Records Center were recent i e from the 1990s forward but older records were found as well In Building TA-35-46 the records were stored in a combination of 25 rows of shelving and 9 file cabinets The shelving units were used to store standard one cubic foot boxes The file cabinets were used to store a combination of boxes and other items or containers Often there would also be numerous boxes staged in various areas of the center that had not yet been accessioned Some of these unaccessioned records would also be placed in the shelving units At the time contents of records stored at the ES H Records Center were described on CIC Form 170 the Records Transfer Request Form This form defined a unique transfer record TR number for each set of records submitted to the center The format of the TR numbers used for materials accessioned by the ES H Records Center differed from those used by the primary Records Center The ES H format was TR-120-xxxx where “xxxx” was a sequential number The TR numbers were used to track records in a database maintained for that purpose Hardcopies of the TR forms were kept in binders with a different binder used for each group Following its relocation to the NSSB the holdings of the ES H Records Center were stored on collapsible shelving units within the main Records Center FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-33 Other ES H Records – Some ES H groups held records that had not yet been sent to the ES H Records Center or the main Records Center Group ESH-17 Air Quality for example kept records in file drawers organized by year They kept records for the three most recent years and sent those for prior years to the ES H Records Center Group ESH-20 Ecology stored their records in files organized by topics such as Biology Contaminate Monitoring and Cultural Resources In general these types of record collections were considered to be active records rather than part of a formal collection Table 3-4 shows the groups that existed within the ES H Division when systematic review activities began and whether they held records independent of the ES H Records Center Table 3-4 Additional records held within ES H Groups ES H Group Additional Records ESH-1 Health Physics Operations No ESH-2 Occupational Medicine No ESH-3 Integrated Risk Analysis Management and Communication No ESH-4 Health Physics Measurements No ESH-5 Industrial Hygiene and Safety Yes ESH-6 Nuclear Criticality Safety Yes ESH-7 Occurrence Investigation Yes ESH-10 Hazardous Materials Response No ESH-12 Radiation Protection Services Yes ESH-13 ES H Training Yes ESH-14 Quality Management No ESH-17 Air Quality Yes ESH-18 Water Quality and Hydrology Yes ESH-19 Hazardous and Solid Waste No ESH-20 Ecology Yes Because these additional records were considered to be “active ” a detailed review was not performed as part of the initial systematic review for the ES H Records Center Instead the project team generated descriptions of these additional records to identify those to be reviewed in the future These reviews were performed under the review of records held by the ENV Division described later in this chapter These reviews took place following a number of reorganizations and consolidations within LANL so the groups described later in this report do not necessarily reflect those above Review of the ES H Records Center – The bulk of the systematic review of the ES H Records Center took place between January and October 2000 Records were reviewed at their storage location 3-34 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Following review records were marked using one of the two rubber stamps described earlier based on whether they contained any Category 1 2 or 3 documents A log entry was made identifying the material reviewed by its location and its TR number The log entry included the document category assigned to the material the analyst who performed the review and the review date A DSF was completed for any document identified as Category 1 2 or 3 On several occasions records that had been reviewed were subsequently replaced with newly accessioned records In general these new records were also reviewed meaning that several locations were reviewed two and even three times as new material displaced older material in the Center Since the ES H Records Center was an active staging area for records a cutoff accession date of October 31 2000 was established as a stopping point for the initial review The rationale for choosing this date was the fact that all of the accessioned material in the Center had been reviewed by then and the rate at which new material was being accessioned was too slow to justify a continuing effort Instead material accessioned after October 2000 would be reviewed at some point in the future A total of 1 187 boxes were reviewed during the initial systematic review of the ES H Records Center Of these 227 19% were found to contain relevant material The majority of the relevant materials wre designated as Category 2 as they were primarily records from the 1990s that were already readily available in published reports Examples include AIRNET NESHAPS data used in periodic reports required to document exposures to the public from LANL operations and airborne effluent data reported in annual environmental surveillance reports One of the most useful finds from the initial systematic review of the ES H Records Center were two notebooks of working notes and document excerpts that contained data on LANL’s historical site-wide radionuclide releases Andrews ca 1973 The first notebook Volume 1 – Repos No 1733 contained data from 1948 to 1972 The second Volume 2 – Repos No 1734 contained data from 1972 to 1996 These compilations had been assembled by LANL as an element of its response to a request from headquarters to assess its historical radionuclide releases In July 2003 the ES H Records Center was revisited to review material that had been accessioned since the initial systematic review Copies of all Transfer Requests generated since October 2000 TR Numbers 120-186 11 14 00 through 120-358 6 20 2003 were obtained and the records descriptions were examined to identify any potentially relevant material Ten boxes were selected for further review but no additional relevant documents were identified In early 2009 another follow-up review was performed for material accessioned by the ES H Records Center since the previous review This review FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-35 was carried out in the same manner as that conducted in July 2003 and generated the same result no additional relevant material was identified The Engineering Drawings Facility In February 2006 the project team began reviewing documents held by the LANL Engineering Drawings Facility at TA-63 This facility housed engineering drawings and associated documents memos letters specifications etc dating back to the 1940s The documents which were all on microfilm included topics such as engineering studies and bases for facility modifications Modifications were often performed to correct issues encountered after a facility began operating such as ventilation problems The documents in the TA-63 facility therefore included information on such problems and their impacts they also included such information as radionuclide concentrations in soil in the vicinity of release points The project team’s review of the TA-63 drawings facility was conducted in a focused but still systematic fashion The goal was to obtain material to support the prioritization of radionuclide and chemical releases from the early LANL facilities The initial searching therefore was for drawings pertinent to Original Technical Area buildings especially D Building Omega Site facilities and associated stacks DP Site facilities and ventilation systems and the Los Alamos town site The TA-63 facility maintained a database of their drawings inventory The database included fields for TA Number keywords titles etc Drawings were searched by reviewing titles to identify those of interest The selected drawings were then physically reviewed and copies were requested of those deemed relevant to the LAHDRA project The database was also used to search for drawings by TA Numbers including residential areas as these were designated as TA-0 Approximately 1 000 historical drawings were selected as relevant to the LAHDRA project obtained from LANL and scanned to make them available via DocSleuth The project team also completed systematic review of the TA-63 microfilm records As for the drawings their review was conducted in a focused systematic fashion emphasisizing documents related to the original Technical Area Omega Site DP Site or the Los Alamos town site The TA-21 Library The TA-21 library was a collection of material housed in a portable building at DP West Its purpose was to be a resource for individuals involved in decommissioning activities there The facility included binders of memoranda remediation investigation reports and drawings Much of this material had already been collected by the project team from its review activities in the Records Center and elsewhere 3-36 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Nonetheless a systematic review of this facility was completed and some documents and drawings of interest were retrieved The Records Processing Facility The Records Processing Facility RPF managed records of what was formerly the Environmental Restoration ER group at LANL Most of the holdings of the LANL Records Processing Facility located at the Pueblo School Complex had been scanned to PDF files and were available through an electronic document management utility Review of this material is discussed later in this report In addition to these electronic records the project team also reviewed some hardcopy records that existed at the RPF earlier in the project as well as records that had recently been acquired and not yet scanned Division or Group Records and Electronic Databases As the project team completed its systematic review activities for LANL’s centralized records collections it migrated its focus to records held within division or group offices These were records that for whatever reason were maintained by their custodial organizations rather than one of the centralized records centers These records included electronic databases It was not the goal of the project team to review the records held by every LANL division or group rather the project team selected a subset of LANL’s numerous divisions that it felt had the greatest potential for providing information of interest In general this selection process focused on divisions responsible for core Laboratory functions eliminating those that served in only administrative capacities The initial focus of the review of division and group records was the Environmental Stewardship ENV Division As before the discussions in this section reflect the organization of LANL’s divisions and groups that existed when records review activities took place The division or group titles may not reflect the current organizational structure due to frequent reorganizations The ENV Division consisted of a large number of groups many of which held records of interest to the project team Review of these records was therefore a substantial part of the team’s activities once reviews at the centralized collections had largely drawn to an interim close Review of records within the ENV Division is discussed later in this chapter Beyond the ENV Division project team members also met with representatives of a number of other LANL divisions and groups to inquire about their activities and any records they held The groups and divisions represented included • • Associate Directorate for Security and Safeguards Chemistry FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-37 • • • • • • • • • • Dynamic and Energetic Materials Earth and Environmental Science Environmental Protection Hydrodynamic Experiments Industrial Hygiene and Safety Materials Science and Technology Plutonium Manufacturing and Technology Radiation Protection Weapons Component Manufacturing Weapons Engineering Technology Review activities that resulted from these discussions are described in the subsections that follow ENV Division Records In May 2006 the project team obtained a summary of records and databases generated by the groups and programs within the LANL Environmental Stewardship ENV Division There were approximately 50 groups and programs listed along with a number of electronic databases The function of most of the groups and programs was to collect data needed to demonstrate compliance with state and federal regulations or those that were otherwise required by the Compliance Order on Consent in place between LANL and the NMED At the time the Consent Order was the principal driver of LANL’s environmental remediation and surveillance programs Numerous databases had been created within the ENV Division to store and manage the data collected by these groups and programs The project team met with numerous individuals representing various groups and programs within the ENV Division Team members spoke with these individuals about the types of information collected and maintained by the groups and the programs they represented These discussions were the basis for the team’s approach to selecting which records to review within the ENV Division and for prioritizing these reviews The groups and programs represented in these discussions included • • • • • • • • • • 3-38 Ambient air sampling Cultural Resources Direct Penetrating Radiation network ambient monitoring Environmental surveillance Geographic Information Systems Meteorological monitoring and data NEPA Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Statement records NESHAP compliance radioactive emissions Non-radioactive regulated air emissions and air quality permits Clean Air Act NPDES pesticides and sanitary waste FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 • • • • • • • RCRA permits and records Records Processing Facility environmental restoration and related records Sample Management Office sampling and analysis files Soil and biota monitoring program including DARHT Storm water data Clean Water Act TA-54 performance assessment TSCA PCBs solid waste and underground storage tanks The Domino and PRS Databases – Of the document collections and other information sources identified within the ENV Division the largest by far was the Records Processing Facility’s Domino database The Domino database was an electronic storehouse for historical and current RPF records i e environmental restoration files These included environmental project case files remediation management records regulatory compliance records and decontamination and decommissioning records The records were stored as PDF files and managed using the IBM Lotus Domino application Domino is actually a business collaboration package rather than a database application but as applied to management of the environmental restoration documents it functioned similar to a database and thus was referred to as such in the vernacular The Domino application was accessed using a web-based front end that included provisions for searching Records in the Domino application were indexed using a unique identifier known as an ERID number The system contained approximately 100 000 ERIDs amounting to approximately 250 000 documents a record could contain multiple documents Systematic review of the Domino records was performed by looking at them sequentially by ERID number and reviewing those with titles that were either of interest or too ambiguous to allow a judgment Documents deemed relevant to the LAHDRA project were printed and a DSF was completed The RPF maintained another database called the Potential Release Sites PRS database The PRS database contained documents related to historical activities at so-called “potential release sites” i e solid waste management units or other areas of concern This database contained far fewer records than the Domino database Review was performed in the same manner as for the Domino database a listing of titles was reviewed to select records of interest for examination Few records were selected but some information of interest was obtained Other ENV Division Records – Below are other records collection identified within the ENV Division that were reviewed by the project team FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-39 NEPA Records Records pertinent to compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act NEPA and associated environmental impact assessments were stored in boxes and file drawers at TA-59 These records included documents associated with LANL’s environmental impact statements and environmental assessments for LANL projects They also included projects that were not required to have any NEPA documentation beyond a Department Environmental Checklist DEC or an Action Declaration Memorandum ADM upon which category exclusion declarations were based MAQ Records The LANL Meteorology and Air Quality MAQ group maintained air quality and related records at its offices in White Rock NM pertaining to open burning activities beryllium operations and other laboratory activities involving hazardous air pollutants In general these were recent records going back no more than five years Nonetheless a number of relevant documents were identified and retrieved The review of MAQ records also included meeting with LANL staff responsible for the RADAIR radioactive air emissions STACKS stack parameters and RMUS radioactive material usage survey databases to gain an understanding of the information these resources contained Meteorological Data Project team members met with LANL staff responsible for acquiring and managing meteorological data Data were gathered from meteorological towers at several locations across the LANL site and from local weather monitors Several reports were obtained by the project team on subjects such as atmospheric dispersion modeling for the Los Alamos area local precipitation data and other local climatologic data Cultural Resources Group Reports Project team members met with representatives from the LANL Cultural Resources group and reviewed a collection of their reports Copies were subsequently requested of a number of these as they included historical information about operations at LANL facilities The Litigation Support Database In early 2000 the LAHDRA project team became aware of a number of small databases created for the Laboratory Counsel’s office These databases were known collectively as the Legal Counsel Litigation Support Database LCLSD Creation of the LCLSD began around 1990 with the scanning of numerous historical documents to image files The documents selected were those potentially pertinent to the LANL Lab Counsel’s activities Many of the scanned documents were also subjected to Optical 3-40 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Character Recognition OCR creating a searchable file of the text The database contained approximately 500 000 pages of documents During the early stages of the LAHDRA project team members made several attempts to gain access to the LCLSD While the database itself was not made available in 2003 the LAHDRA team received a hardcopy listing of the scanned documents available in five of the LCLSD’s sub-databases For each document the listing provided a document number subject title author addressee copyee date status and page count The five sub-databases and the number of scanned documents available in each were H-Division Human Studies Project Team Central Records Management Others Records Processing Facility Total 1 442 documents 4 767 documents 11 198 documents 10 395 documents 47 922 documents 75 724 documents A description of the information contained in each of these five sub-databases is provided in the following section Sub-databases within the Litigation Support Database H-Division The H-Division sub-database of the LCLSD primarily included monthly 1943-1944 1947-1964 quarterly 1965-1975 1978-1990 and annual 1943 1947 1949-1953 1957 19871990 Health Division progress reports It also contained progress reports from groups within the former Health Division such as H-1 Radiological Monitoring formerly H-6 and CMR-12 and H4 Biological and Medical Research Both of these groups were responsible for monitoring the use of radiological and non-radiological hazardous materials at LANL Although the H-Division subdatabase contained 1 442 documents this number was a bit inflated given that it typically included three versions of each H-Division progress report a complete report a version redacted for Privacy Act information and an abstract of the complete report Human Studies Project Team The 4 767 documents listed in the Human Studies Project Team HSPT sub-database consisted primarily of weekly status reports fact sheets press releases news articles procedures phone logs and other administrative documents generated during the HSPT’s document review activities at LANL The majority of these documents were generated between 1991 and 1995 however there were also some historical documents from the 1940s 1950s and FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-41 1960s There were also a large number of documents from the 1970s related to the Karen Silkwood case pion radiotherapy studies and the 1958 Cecil Kelley fatality Documents in the HSPT sub-database that were of interest to the LAHDRA project were the weekly bibliographies of documents released to the public inventories of documents in LANL records collections reports from the LANL autopsy tissue program and H-Division monthly progress reports The HSPT sub-database used a classification system for the H-Division reports that it contained These classification categories were 001 Bayo Canyon activities 002 DOD-related activities 003 human tissue studies 004 non-Bayo Canyon releases 005 other DOE contractor human studies 006 tracer studies plutonium uranium radioiodine tritium radium other 007 history general 008 atmospheric testing programs and 009 pion radiotherapy Central Records Management The 11 198 documents in the Central Records Management subdatabase covered the years 1943 to 1965 These documents included • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Monthly hazard and accident reports for month year 1946-1954 Weekly health test data 1950-1956 Neutron exposure reports 1946-1958 Personnel exposure reports 1957-1958 Monthly and weekly reports 1951-1958 Monitoring results 1945-1957 Minutes from weekly Section Head meetings 1945-1955 Air Counts pencil and ink originals 1950-1962 Hand head shoe and nose counts 1944-1956 Urinalysis urine counts 1944-1957 Film badge exposures 1957-1958 Protective Equipment- respirators clothing 1947-1962 Safety meetings 1961-1962 Experimental shots at TA-33 1948-1955 Tritium exposures at TA-33 SL-1 accident DP Site explosion 1-14-1947 Pajarito accident 1-8-1953 Others The 10 395 “Other” documents were primarily administrative records covering the period from 1943 to 1989 Examples of these records are • • • • 3-42 Contracts and contract modifications Reimbursement authorizations Personnel policies regarding overtime moving expenses employee benefits Personnel administrative panel meetings FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 • • • • Organization charts 1945-1989 Telephone directories 1944-1989 The Atom 1964-1975 Annual reports to Congress of the AEC 1948-1973 However several other types of documents were also included such as • • • • • • • Annual environmental monitoring reports 1970-1992 H-Division progress reports 1943-1980 RFI work plans for operable units 1989-1990 Glenn Neely Notes Dept of Labor log and summary of occupational injuries and illnesses 1989-1992 Occurrence reports Newspaper articles Records Processing Facility As previously discussed RPF documents were records from the Environmental Restoration program at LANL The 47 922 documents in the LCLSD sub-database were also part of the Domino database discussed earlier in this chapter The smaller number of documents reflects the fact the LCLSD sub-database only contained a subset of the total number of environmental restoration documents The project team’s review of the RPF sub-database predated its review of the Domino collection Review of the Litigation Support Database Project team analysts reviewed the hardcopy listings of the document titles in each sub-database and selected documents for review Ultimately only 5% of the documents available in the five sub-databases were selected The remainder were either clearly non-relevant or had already been captured by the project team from other collections A breakdown of the number of documents selected from each subdatabase is shown below H-Division Human Studies Project Team Central Records Management Others Records Processing Facility Total 86 documents 155 documents 1 706 documents 764 documents 1 102 documents 3 813 documents Project team analysts reviewed the selected documents electronically using commercial information retrieval and viewing software provided by LANL The software allowed analysts to review the documents in a given sub-database one at a time establish bookmarks where they left off or jump to specific documents Relevant documents were printed using a dedicated printer and attached to the FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-43 corresponding DSF Analysts also checked the LAHDRA project database to determine if a selected document had already been retrieved Systematic review of the scanned documents in the five LCLSD sub-databases began in May 2005 and was completed in September 2005 Approximately 400 documents 10% of the 3 813 selected for review were selected and retrieved Weapons Engineering and Manufacturing and Weapons Physics Records Systematic records reviews completed by the project team earlier in the project included a review of records held by the Weapons Engineering and Manufacturing WEM and Weapons Physics WP divisions The nature of these records though combined with the information security restrictions imposed on project team analysts at that time meant only a limited review was possible The reviews were conducted in accordance with a Special Security Plan that was issued in June 2001 The reviews focused on the contents of the WEM and WP vault-type room VTR located in the Administration Building at TA-3 Most of the documents held by these two divisions were classified and contained nuclear weapon design and testing information All of the classified documents reviewed in the VTR were published after 1962 the Special Security Plan in place at that time meant then that the reviews had to be performed on a restricted-access basis In other words project team analysts had to review the documents by title alone and were prohibited from reviewing its contents At the time of the review the WEM and WP division records consisted of approximately 18 876 classified documents and 1126 classified photographs There were also classified video media of various formats e g VHS The project team was not allowed to review the videos Based on their titles two documents were identified by the project team as potentially relevant An appeal was made to DOE for a team member to be able to review the contents of these documents to determine of they were indeed relevant but it was denied Thirty-six classified safes were also reviewed for potentially relevant information The safes contained 7 056 classified documents Review of these documents by title alone did not identify any items relevant to LAHDRA LANSCE Records Earlier in the project team members performed a systematic review of records held at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center LANSCE located within TA-53 The reviews focused on files within the Main Administration Building TA-53-1 and the Radiological Air Monitoring Records Archive located in 3-44 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Sector R Building 3 Room 3R-4 TA-53-3 Approximately 10 000 documents were reviewed in the Main Administration Building Of these approximately 2 500 were identified as potentially relevant and underwent detailed review Ultimately 36 of these documents were retrieved they included shift supervisor logbooks that contained daily beam current and beam-hour data from as far back as 1971 Forty-five boxes of documents 3 375 documents located at the Radiological Air Monitoring Records Archive Building 3R were reviewed Approximately 20% of these were identified as duplicates The documents contained detailed information on radiological monitoring techniques and results from 1971 to the present Most of them pertained to airborne releases from LANSCE Ninety-seven documents were retrieved by the project team Beryllium-Related Records The project team reviewed records held by the Industrial Hygiene and Safety IH S group at TA-59 The focus of this review was older records from the former H-5 industrial hygiene group H-5 was responsible for monitoring beryllium and other hazardous materials used in LANL operations A number of relevant documents were identified On several occasions project team members met with the LANL beryllium program coordinator to discuss beryllium operations releases and records This individual provided the project team with a number of useful reports pertaining to beryllium operations and releases at LANL On recommendation from other LANL staff members the project team reviewed reference material used in preparing the environmental impact statement for the DARHT facility Several documents were retrieved addressing subjects including releases of aerosolized uranium and beryllium from dynamic experiments and concentrations of these materials in local soils Hydrodynamic Testing Records The project team visited a classified vault in TA-22 that contained records from hydrodynamic testing activities conducted by several LANL groups and divisions At the time the vault contained approximately 10 rows of collapsible shelving plus a number of flat-file cabinets used to store drawings and radiographs The hardcopy records stored on the collapsible shelves included chronological files sequential memos and reports by date correspondence files and shot folders The shot folders included shot summary reports and other detailed information Sometimes information on materials included in a shot were given in detail e g the mass of a specific material and in other cases only part numbers were given along with their mass FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-45 It was not the goal of the project team to perform a systematic review of this material rather the intent was to conduct a preliminary review of the types of information contained in the shot records and prepare a summary for future reference Nonetheless one document was selected for retrieval by the project team during its visit It was redacted as required to make it unclassified and released Several other documents pertaining to materials expended in shot activities in the early 1990s were noted By this time security restrictions had been relaxed such that appropriately cleared project team members were allowed to access the records in the TA-22 vault as long as they did not contain any Sigma 14 or Sigma 15 information On several occasions project team members met with representatives from the LANL Hydrodynamic Experiments HX Division to discuss their activities and records These discussions led to the compilation of a box documents describing materials expended in shot activities and its subsequent receipt at the LANL Records Center where it was reviewed by the project team A number of useful documents akin to some of those seen in the TA-22 vault were identified and requested These documents were unclassified though several of them had to remain OUO status given their content Other Sources of Information Project team members searched the photographic records of the Los Alamos Historical Society and obtained prints of photographs and maps of interest More than 50 photographs were obtained primarily aerial views of LANL facilities and surrounding areas from the 1940s and 1950s The project team also obtained a title listing of photographic records held by the LANL Environmental Stewardship Division Prints were obtained of numerous photographs from the early years of LANL operations at TA-1 TA-2 and TA-21 Numerous other photographs were also obtained through records review activities at LANL The project team also obtained several videotape records from the Broadcast Media Gallery of the LANL Public Affairs Office As the LAHDRA project progressed the CDC also supported and benefited from a series of interviews conducted by Peter Malmgren as part of his Los Alamos Revisited oral history project Trained and experienced in anthropology and related fields Mr Malmgren was involved in several oral history projects in New Mexico over a span of many years In his Los Alamos Revisited project the 30-year Chimayo NM resident set out to offer a special perspective on the lives and concerns of retired LANL workers During the December 2000 to March 2003 period that the CDC supported his project Mr Malmgren conducted over 100 interviews Interviews numbered 1 thru 116 the number 76 was skipped are summarized briefly with full names not identified in Repos No 4081 of the LAHDRA document collection Malmgren 2003 The interviews cover a very wide spectrum of jobs and life experiences of 3-46 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 people who worked at LANL and or who lived in the general area Detailed transcripts were produced by Mr Malmgren and the interviews were audio taped Interviews with Past and Current LANL Staff or Other Individuals Interviews of current and retired LANL workers and other individuals were conducted by the LAHDRA team to assist in identifying and describing operations possibly associated with off-site releases identifying relevant record collections and developing an understanding of historical operations Workers sometimes helped the document analysts assemble the “big picture” with regard to site operations Interviewees also identified additional interview candidates with knowledge about specific subject areas assisted with interpreting information from documents or other interviews and describing record-keeping practices of years gone by Interview candidates were identified from author or distribution lists on key documents from division rosters or progress reports or from other interviews While interviews were typically conducted with individuals group interviews allowed participants to jog each others memories yielding more information than may otherwise have been provided All interviews were voluntary and interviewees had the option to remain anonymous In these cases names were excluded from our records In some cases people who held security clearances in the past received special authorization to speak freely during an interview provided it was conducted in an appropriate facility and according to all regulations and guidelines related to handling potentially sensitive content Summaries of interviews conducted by the project team are included in the project’s information database The database also includes transcripts and summaries of interviews with relevant LANL staff that were performed by LANL These records were obtained from the project team’s systematic search activities and from the Archives in particular Some of the individuals who were interviewed by the LAHDRA team included • • • • • • • • Scott Hughes graduate student doing research on the evolution of the ES H program at LANL J W Nyhan LANL staff member re stack emissions from DP West Jim McInroy LANL staff member re human tissue analysis program John Miglio LANL analytical chemist Jim Lawrence LANL health physicist Bill Moss LANL staff member health physics and industrial hygiene Jay Wechsler LANL staff member radionuclides in soils Ron Stafford LANL staff member re plutonium handling and releases FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-47 • • • • Scott Miller LANL staff member monitoring for airborne releases Gary Whitney LANL beryllium program coordinator Tom Newton LANL chemist retired worked in D Building starting in 1949 then moved to CMR Building Helen Cowan Former chemist at the Manhattan Project’s “Met Lab” in D Building at during World War II and later in the CMR Building D Building Roundtable Discussion LAHDRA team members worked with LANL personnel to set up a roundtable meeting with current and former LANL workers who were reported to have knowledge of operations and activities at D Building D Building part of the original Technical Area was LANL’s original plutonium processing facility The meeting was held on July 25 2006 at LANL to coincide with key project team members who were already in Los Alamos for a public meeting the following day Attendance was limited to individuals with the required level of security clearance so that classified information could be discussed freely The meeting was videotaped however and an unclassified version has been made available to the public Meeting attendees included • • • • • • • • • • Charles D Blackwell General Monitoring Section H-1 retired Carl W Buckland Leader General Monitoring Section H-1 retired W Clarence Courtwright explosives safety engineer 1955-1991 retired Raymond Garde LANL retired Donald R Gibbons LANL retired Joe Vigil LANL retired Jack Buddenbaum LAHDRA team member Bob Burns LAHDRA team member Joe Shonka LAHDRA team member Tom Widner LAHDRA Project Director Plutonium release estimates were not located for D Building so the project team strived to learn as much as possible about the processing performed there The goal was to determine methods for estimating how much plutonium could have been released At the roundtable meeting LAHDRA team members described what they had learned about D Building and the activities there Attendees were asked if they could address specific questions that remained such as details of key steps in early plutonium processing airborne contamination ventilation system and filter design and environmental contamination indicators Unfortunately though the participants knew very little about D Building but the project team did learn some useful information about other historic LANL operations 3-48 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Summary Statistics Over the course of the LAHDRA project team members reviewed millions of pages of information resulting in the retrieval of approximately 264 000 pages of material relevant to the estimation of offsite releases of chemical or radionuclides from LANL or their associated health effects This information is summarized in the 8 372 records that make up the project’s information database Table 3-5 through Table 3-7 below show the breakdown of documents retrieved by the LAHDRA project team by document category by original document location and by decade of publication It should be emphasized these statistics reflect the documents identified by the project team as relevant to the goals of the LAHDRA project during its review activities By no means do these statistics reflect the overall distribution of documents at LANL especially where publication dates are concerned Table 3-5 Breakdown of LAHDRA documents by assigned category Document Category Fraction Category 1 information directly applicable to estimation of offsite releases or health effects from LANL operations within New Mexico Category 2 supporting or confirming information useful for estimating offsite releases or health effects from LANL operations within New Mexico Category 3 information relevant to estimating offsite releases or health effects for other DOE or predecessor agency sites 44% FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 46% 10% 3-49 Table 3-6 Breakdown of LAHDRA documents by location of origin Document Location Fraction LANL Records Center 37% LANL Reports Collection 19% LANL Archives 13% Domino Database 10% LANL Research Library 5% Litigation Support Database 4% ES H Records Center 3% Engineering Drawings Facility 2% All other locations 6% Table 3-7 Breakdown of LAHDRA documents by publication date 3-50 Decade of Publication Fraction 1940s 14% 1950s 16% 1960s 17% 1970s 20% 1980s 14% 1990s 16% 2000s 2% Unknown 0 1% FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 References Andrews LL Los Alamos National Laboratory site releases up to 1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory ca 1973 Malmgren P Brief Summaries of 115 Interviews Performed under the Los Alamos Revisited Oral History Project 2000-2003 2003 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 3-51 This page intentionally left blank 3-52 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Plutonium Processing at LANL One of LANL’s important early roles was to process the newly created and largely unknown material called plutonium Hammel 1998 The assignments taken on by LANL scientists in the mid-1940s were to • Perform the final purification of plutonium received at LANL • Reduce the plutonium to its metallic state • Determine the metal’s relevant physical and metallurgical properties and • Develop the necessary weapon component fabrication technologies Los Alamos was the first site in the world to receive quantities of plutonium large enough to manufacture weapon components Initial plutonium processing was performed in the Original Technical Area which was located near Ashley Pond and later became known as Technical Area 1 TA-1 see Fig 4-1 Key to Selected Buildings C- Shops D- Plutonium Plant E- Theoretical Division Offices G- Graphite Fabrication J- Research Laboratories Q- Medical Offices R- Laboratories S- Stockroom Med Lab Medical Laboratory U- Chemistry and Physics Labs V- Shops W- Van de Graaff Machines X- Cyclotron Y- Cryogenics Laboratory Z- Cockcroft-Walton Generator Gamma- Research for M Division Sigma- Metals Plastics Ceramic Fabrication Fig 4-1 Map of the Original Technical Area later called TA-1 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-1 Early Plutonium Processing at D-Building The initial plutonium handling and processing that took place at the original technical areas involved the following main facilities • D-Building- housed plutonium chemistry metallurgy and processing • D-2 Building- housed contaminated laundry and glassware decontamination • D-5 Sigma Vault- storage facility for 239Pu and 235U • ML Building- Housed the Medical laboratory site of human uptake and excretion • studies by H-4 and H-5 groups and urine assay D-Building see Fig 4-2 in LANL’s Original Technical Area was the first site in the world in which plutonium was handled in visible quantities purified converted to metal and used to fabricate atomic weapon parts Because plutonium was a newly discovered element available only in milligram quantities there was a great deal of pressure on scientists to perform the necessary metallurgical experiments as quickly as possible once gram-scale quantities of plutonium became available At the time impurities were of great concern because α-particles are emitted from plutonium at a rate that is over 1 000 times greater than that of uranium Upon colliding with light-element impurities these α-particles release neutrons greatly increasing the chance of a premature fission reaction occurring before much of the plutonium reaches a super-critical state A premature ignition known as a “fizzle ” would greatly diminish the explosive power of the weapon Fig 4-2 D-Building in the original Technical Area on December 4 1946 looking north Photo courtesy Los Alamos Historical Society from LAHM-P1990-40-1-3029 4-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 D-Building was constructed as an answer to this impurity problem in December 1943 To mitigate lightelement dust from settling onto experimental surfaces D-Building was built with a state-of-the-art air conditioning and ventilation system that provided laboratory conditions that were as dust-free and clean as possible The building’s air intakes were filtered but its exhaust vents were not Starting in late 1943 scientists and engineers in D-Building used equipment and procedures considered extremely crude by modern-day standards to process plutonium a new and largely unknown element under demanding schedules and extreme wartime pressures Progress reports indicate that D-Building and its roof became highly contaminated and about 85 rooftop vents released contaminated air without monitoring and for the most part with no filtration A former LANL plutonium worker wrote that “during the War years partly because of ignorance and partly because of the stress of wartime conditions operations with plutonium in D-Building were conducted with greater laxity than has ever been tolerated since ” and that “D-Building was known to be hotter than a firecracker” Coffinberry 1961 There are no records or LANL estimates of airborne plutonium releases from D- Building which ceased main plutonium production functions when the DP West site became operational in late 1945 but remained active until around 1953 Flow of Plutonium Operations within D Building Operations within D Building can be considered a chemical process the key objective wasto convert plutonium nitrate into the highly purified metallic hemispheres used in the Trinity and Nagasaki devices While many other supporting projects were conducted within D-Building including uranium chemistry and metallurgy tamper and polonium initiator design and various refractory materials development this report focuses specifically on the numerous stages of plutonium processing These stages are represented generally by the flow diagram shown in Fig 4-3 which most accurately represents plutonium processing from about December 1944 until D-Building was decommissioned in September 1945 These production-scale processes in operation for only about nine months were refined from many months of prior chemical and metallurgical research starting in December 1943 when construction of D-Building was completed It is most likely however that the vast majority of plutonium contamination was a direct result of these production-scale operations as the first few milligrams of plutonium did not arrive on site until January 1944 and gram quantities did not arrive until March 1944 Hammel 1998 Moreover by late April 1945 D-Building had produced only about 1 kg of plutonium see Fig 4-4 yet would receive about 26 kg of additional plutonium from the Hanford site in Washington Site W by the end of August 1945 as shown in Fig 4-5 Site Y 1945 Because of this trend this report focuses mainly on the production-scale processes FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-3 “Wet Chemistry” PuNO3 paste from W Pu III oxalate CM-5 Purification PuNO3 → Pu III oxalate 3-5% Supernatants containing Pu “Dry Chemistry” PuNO3 syrup 95-97% CM-5 CM-5 Fluorination PuO2 PuO2 → PuF4 Pu III oxalate → PuO2 Residues small Residues small CM-8 Reduction PuF4 PuF4 → metallic Pu 1-5% Slag contaminated crucibles etc 95% -99% CM-10 Recovery Oxides scrap metal Pu → PuNO3 2 × 50 000 gallon Waste tanks at DP site Various Pu solutions and suspensions CM-11 Fabrication remelting casting cold forging rolling drilling shearing CM-11 Used metallic Pu samples CM-11 Metallurgical experiments Metallic Pu for research Surface protection coating electroplating etc Combat hemispheres Fig 4-3 Flow chart of plutonium operations in D-Building 4-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Fig 4-4 Monthly amounts of plutonium produced from plutonium nitrate in D-Building This graph is not cumulative by September 1 1945 purification operations were producing just over 9 kg of purified plutonium per month roughly ten times what the rate had been on April 1 1945 Hammel 1998 Fig 4-5 Cumulative amounts of plutonium received from Hanford in 1945 LANL Site Y 1945 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-5 The bulk of plutonium arrived at D-Building in the form of relatively impure plutonium nitrate manufactured at the Hanford site Fig 4-6 shows one of the shipping “bombs” that were used to transport the material known as “49” or “product ” A relatively small amount of the nitrate also arrived from the Clinton pile at Oak Ride TN Site X though this material was used mainly for research purposes As shown in Fig 4-3 these nitrates were first converted into plutonium III oxalate by wet chemical techniques This oxalate slurry was then underwent dry chemistry or dry conversion processes whereby the oxalate was first thermally converted into plutonium oxide PuO2 and then fluorinated using a mixture of hydrogen fluoride HF and oxygen to form plutonium tetrafluoride PuF4 This plutonium halide was then reduced in the presence of a more electropositive metal such as calcium resulting in the formation of plutonium metal The metal was then remelted and fabricated into a variety of shapes for metallurgical experiments and coated to protect the surface from oxidation After each metallurgical experiment the plutonium specimen was returned to the recovery group converted back to plutonium nitrate and sent to the purification group who repurified re-reduced remelted recast and refabricated it In this way a very large amount of data was collected using the relatively small amounts of plutonium available at the time A more detailed description of plutonium processing in D-Building prepared by the LAHDRA team is available elsewhere Knutsen and Widner 2007 By August 31 1944 J Robert Oppenheimer stated in a letter that a total of only 51 g of plutonium had been received at LANL Site Y Remarkably Oppenheimer noted that this material had been used in “approximately 2500 separate experiments ” and “the overall loss per experiment has been about one per cent” Hammel 1998 An open hood that was used in D-Building for production-scale purification is shown in Fig 4-7 The associated apparatus most of which was made of glass is depicted in Fig 4-8 Wahl 1946 Irradiation of glassware caused it to become brittle and the ether used in the processing was a recognized fire hazard A furnace used for fluorination and oxidation reactions is shown in Fig 49 The manual transfer of dry powders from one step to the next in platinum “boats” was problematic and led to some dispersal of material in the building Stationary “bomb” reductions of plutonium tetrafluoride to plutonium metal were conducted in induction furnaces like the one shown in Fig 4-10 and cylinders of plutonium metal were pressed into hemispheres using heated presses like the one shown in Fig 4-11 Between each stage in the process plutonium compounds were stored in vaults and monitored by the Quantity Control group to prevent critical masses of plutonium from accumulating Fig 4-12 documents the processing of plutonium for four weapon cores in D-Building during 1945 one for the Trinity test the first combat bomb used in Nagasaki a second combat bomb not needed in Japan and the first “composite” core that used active material in addition to plutonium Wahl 1947 4-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Fig 4-6 Plutonium was received from Hanford in 80 g and 160 g batches in shipping bombs right as a slurry of plutonium nitrate Shipping bombs were transported in protective cases shown on the left Photo IM-9 1831 courtesy of LANL Fig 4-7 Production-scale purification was conducted in hoods that could be flooded with carbon dioxide in the event of an ether fire Photo IM-9 1829 courtesy of LANL FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-7 Fig 4-8 Production-scale 160 g purification apparatus from Wahl 1946 4-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Fig 4-9 A furnace that was used for fluorination and oxidation reactions Photo IM-9 1832 courtesy of LANL Fig 4-10 This induction furnace powered by a 20 kW high frequency converter inside a fume hood was used to fire large-scale bomb reductions Photo IM-9 1824 courtesy of LANL FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-9 Fig 4-11 Evacuated hot presses like this were used to form hemispheres of plutonium Photo IM-9 5090 courtesy of LANL Fig 4-12 Graph that documents purification of plutonium for four weapon cores in D-Building during 1945 from Wahl 1947 4-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Release Estimates for D-Building Plutonium Processing Because of the lack of effluent measurements for operations in D-Building during World War II plutonium releases were estimated for each plutonium processing step using heuristics and experimental results compiled by the US Department of Energy in a document entitled “DOE Handbook – Airborne Release Fractions Rates and Respirable Fractions for Nonreactor Nuclear Facilities” USDOE 1994 Although the Handbook is primarily intended to characterize accidental airborne radionuclide releases experimental results presented therein lend themselves well to the characterization of releases within DBuilding as many plutonium processing operations were conducted in an open environment under similar conditions The Handbook is broken into a number of sections characterizing releases of plutonium compounds through a number of mechanisms To estimate plutonium releases from D-Building each processing step was divided into a number of conceptual release mechanisms based on process descriptions contained in original LANL documents For each conceptual release mechanism an analogous experiment was identified in the Handbook providing estimates of airborne release fractions ARF and respirable fractions RF These estimates were used to calculate the source term which is the mass or activity of a radionuclide released during each conceptual release mechanism While details of this assessment are documented elsewhere Knutsen 2007 methods and results are summarized below Within the release estimation process adopted by USDOE 1994 the source term is a product of a number of parameters Source Term MAR × DR × ARF × RF × LPF The material at risk MAR is defined as the mass of plutonium present at each conceptual release For example fluorination operations were carried out at a nominal scale of 160 g which represents the MAR for this operation The Handbook defines the damage ratio DR as the “fraction of the MAR impacted by the accident-generated conditions ” and notes that a degree of interdependence exists between the DR and MAR as some analysts choose to exclude radionuclides from the MAR that would not be affected by a given event In this analysis the MAR is defined to include only plutonium available for release in each process step and the DR is set to unity in all cases The airborne release fraction ARF is the fraction of plutonium aerosolized during each conceptual release mechanism This parameter is highly dependant on the release mechanism and ranges in this analysis from 1 3×10-7 for air blowing slowly over a solution of plutonium nitrate to 2×10-3 representing a bounding estimate for liquid entrainment resulting from rapidly boiling solutions of plutonium nitrate The respirable fraction RF represents the fraction of particles in a released aerosol small enough to be inhaled into the human respiratory system The RF also FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-11 provides a method of estimating the fraction of aerosolized plutonium that could potentially reach the rooftop of D-Building via its ventilation system The leak-path factor LPF is the fraction of aerosolized particles that could be transported through a containment mechanism In this analysis the LPF is used as a means to estimate plutonium released from apparatuses with methods for containment in place For example production-scale purification and reduction processes were designed to mitigate aerosolized releases and the LPFs for these processes were set to a small value based on professional judgment The authors recognize that a high degree of uncertainty is associated with each of these parameters a Monte Carlo simulation was therefore conducted to assess the sensitivity of each parameter to the overall D-Building source term While the Handbook notes that estimated parameter ranges “should not be used as a basis for an ARF statistical distribution” and “specifically rejects citation as a defensible basis for such attempts ” a Monte Carlo approach was used in this analysis as a means to assess parameter sensitivity and to provide some context to the range and uncertainty associated with release estimates Shown in Table 4-1 are source terms estimated for various plutonium processing steps including purification dry chemistry and reduction in addition to the recovery of plutonium from residues generated by each process Note that source terms presented in Table 4-1 are calculated from nominal values of ARF and RF for conceptual release mechanisms presented in the Handbook The total estimated source term of roughly 0 3 Ci is thus a nominal estimate and a distribution of estimates shown in Fig 4-13 reveals a fairly large uncertainty with a 95%-ile estimate of over 1 Ci The details of release estimates from one of the main plutonium process plutonium recovery are discussed below to illustrate the process that was used Releases from Plutonium Recovery Recovery operations Recovery involved some open-air processing steps and it was one of the most contaminated groups in D-Building Duffy et al 1945 Hemplemann et al 1973 Recovery was conducted without effective containment mechanisms because of the large variety of plutoniumcontaining residues that Recovery received This large variety of residues also made it exceedingly difficult in this analysis to characterize releases from all Recovery operations as such releases associated with more routine and well-documented recovery processes were emphasized instead As shown in Table 4-2 the bulk of the plutonium-containing residues received for recovery were purification supernatants metallurgical samples plutonium metal alloy skulls scrap and materials from reduction remelting of crucibles and slag Garner et al 1945 4-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Table 4-1 Summary of conceptual release mechanisms and source terms for several plutonium processes conducted from 1943 through 1945 Number of runs Process Conceptual release mechanism Purification processes 160 g nominal scale 1 Transfer releases Evaporation releases Recovery of process A purification supernatants2 Transfer releases Steam releases simmering Liquid entrainment from sparging Filtration releases Recovery of process B and C purification supernatants1 2 Transfer releases Steam releases simmering Filtration releases Dry Chemistry and Reduction Dry ignition release Transfer of plutonium oxide powder into fluorination reactor Fluorination of plutonium oxide powder Transfer of plutonium fluoride into glove box Transfer of plutonium fluoride within glove box Removal of plutonium button and transfer of MgO liner to Recovery Recovery of reduction crucibles Transfer of pulverized crucibles Transfer of solutions Steam releases simmering Filtration releases Peroxide recovery step Transfer Releases Steam releases simmering Steam releases boiling Filtration Releases Total source term Total source term Curies 1 2 Mass of Pu Mass of Pu entering processed each run g kg 207 151 31 130 16 2 1 77 16 1 2 Number of releases per nominal run Release Fraction 6 5 1 18 12 2 1 3 16 12 1 3 7 1 1 1 1 2 1 13 1 8 2 2 8 5 0 2 1 6 4E-07 6 4E-07 4 2E-09 5 6E-05 2 2E-05 2 9E-06 2 5E-05 6 2E-06 3 0E-05 2 2E-05 2 6E-06 6 1E-06 2 9E-05 4 6E-07 2 8E-05 3 9E-08 3 9E-07 7 8E-08 2 0E-08 3 2E-05 3 9E-07 1 9E-05 5 8E-06 6 3E-06 6 1E-04 1 3E-05 0 0E 00 6 0E-04 3 2E-06 29 16 0 7 7 6 Release Fraction ppm Source term by mass mg 0 6 0 6 0 0 56 3 22 0 2 9 25 2 6 2 30 4 21 7 2 6 6 1 29 0 0 5 28 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 0 31 6 0 4 19 1 5 8 6 3 614 0 12 8 0 0 598 0 3 2 20 20 0 13 116 45 6 52 13 37 27 3 7 845 13 816 1 11 2 1 22 0 13 4 4 4680 97 0 4559 24 5721 0 35 Processes combined due to similar release mechanisms Not including peroxide recovery step FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-13 Table 4-2 Types of residues submitted for recovery April–September 1945 Garner et al 1945 Type of Residue Purification supernatants Reduction liners slag and remelt crucibles Metal alloy skulls scrap Pickling and plating residues Analytical and misc residues Total Pu mass g Fraction of Total Pu 3297 43% 684 9% 3334 44% 130 2% 178 2% 7623 100% 8% Fraction of Estimates 7% 6% 5% 95th percentile 4% 3% 2% 50th percentile 1% 0% 0 0 5 1 Source Term Ci Fig 4-13 A distribution of release estimates based on a sum of distributions associated with individual release mechanisms 4-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 1 5 As shown in Table 4-1 and depicted graphically in Fig 4-14 the recovery of plutonium from the “A” purification supernatants consisted of 18 conceptual releases Twelve of these releases consisted of “transfer” releases Abbreviated “T” which describe releases resulting from the entrainment of solutions into air while they are pumped from one process step to the next using a centrifugal pump or a steam jet Duffy et al 1945 For lack of more representative experimental data this release was modeled as a liquid spill from a height of 1 m ARF values for this release were based on experimental results Sutter et al 1981 In these experiments ARF values from 1×10-6 to 1 6×10-5 were measured For the purposes of this analysis a log-normal distribution was selected with 1% and 99%-ile values set to represent the range of experimental values for ARF The recommended RF value of 0 8 was chosen to reflect experimental results As shown in Fig 4-14 there were three filtration steps abbreviated “F” with release mechanisms assumed to be similar to transfer releases Some of the most hazardous steps in Recovery involved adding solid sodium hydroxide to solutions of plutonium salts Because the dissolution of sodium hydroxide is highly exothermic “considerable steam was released during the neutralization resulting in a contamination hazard” Duffy et al 1945 p 17 This release mechanism labeled “Simmer” on Fig 414 was modeled using data from experiments Mishima et al 1968 in which the fraction of boiling and simmering solutions entrained in flowing air was measured Mishima et al 1968 measured ARF values of 1 3×10-6 to 4 5×10-6 For this analysis a uniform distribution across this range was chosen An RF value of unity was selected based on experimental results published in 2003 that include measurements of size distributions of entrained liquid droplets above boiling solutions and found that over 99% of entrained droplets were smaller than 10 µm Cosandey et al 2003 A fourth release mechanism occurs when plutonium solutions were sparged with sulfur dioxide gas for 15-20 minutes labeled “Sparge” on Fig 4-14 This release mechanism was modeled using experimental results published in 1986 that summarize liquid entrainment across a range of superficial gas velocities Borkowski et al 1986 The bulk of ARF measurements appear to be log-normally distributed and fall between 10-5 and 10-4 To capture these results qualitatively a log-normal distribution with the 1%-ile and 99%-ile values of 2×10-6 and 1×10-3 respectively was selected for this analysis The conceptual release mechanisms for recovery of plutonium from residual supernatants from the “B” and “C” purification processes were similar but contained only one “simmering” release and no releases from sparging since the sulfur dioxide step was not needed for these residues DRAFT FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-15 As shown in Table 4-1 and Fig 4-15 releases from the recovery of plutonium from reduction slag and crucibles are characterized by 13 release points consisting of eight liquid transfer releases two releases from simmering two releases from filtration and one release associated with the transfer of crushed crucibles and slag A final step in all recovery processes peroxide precipitation was used to separate plutonium from a number of rare earth elements Release mechanisms in this processing step shown in Fig 4-16 are associated with five liquid transfer operations one filtration and two boilings There were two significant release mechanisms that occurred during the peroxide process The first occurred when a 30% solution of hydrogen peroxide was added to a solution of plutonium nitrate Upon addition the hydrogen peroxide would effervesce an effect that scientists tried to mitigate by cooling the mixture to 4°C In 1945 it was documented that “the spray from the ‘peroxiding’ operation as carried out in Building-D was a major source of contamination” Duffy et al 1945 p 34 An additional source of contamination presumably occurred in the final Recovery step which involved boiling solutions of plutonium nitrate over a steam bath in 600 mL beakers concentrating them into a “thick syrup” Duffy et al 1945 p 32 Release Summary Heuristics and experimental results compiled by the USDOE characterizing the accidental release of plutonium compounds were used to estimate the source term associated with plutonium production operations within D-Building from 1943-1945 The scope of this estimate was limited to releases from the Purification Dry Chemistry Reduction and Recovery groups during documented plutonium production operations Concurring with anecdotal evidence in several LANL documents this analysis suggests that the bulk of plutonium releases occurred from the Recovery group as a result of open-air processing with minimal protection Emissions resulting from the addition of hydrogen peroxide and from boiling of plutonium nitrate solutions were likely to have been particularly severe This work resulted in a preliminary source term estimate of about 0 4 Ci median from processes that were included This estimate is associated with a high degree of uncertainty and true releases may have been in excess of 1 to 1 5 Ci The preliminary 95th percentile value is about 1 05 Ci The uncertainty in these estimates is mainly due to the relatively sparse and marginally relevant experimental data If further work estimating early airborne plutonium releases from LANL operations is undertaken a portion of the work should be aimed at obtaining additional experimental data to support this estimate and reducing its uncertainty 4-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Simmer F NaOH T T T Purification Supernatants 1 4 6 To Waste Tank Hydroxide Precipitation Sparge Purification Supernatants 2 3 Acetate F Acetate T T HNO3 T F 1 Dissolved in nitric acid 2 Precipitated with acetate Filtrate Recycled To Peroxide Process T T Simmer NaOH T HNO3 Acetate Wash T Dissolved in HNO3 T T SO2 To Waste Tank T “Transfer” Release F “Filtration” Release 1 Sulfate Reduction 2 Hydroxide Precipitation Fig 4-14 Flow diagram of recovery release mechanisms during recovery of plutonium from residual purification supernatants FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-17 HNO3 Simmer HNO3 TS Crushed MgO crucible and reduction slag NH4NO3 NH4OH T Simmer NaOH F T T F T T Dissolved in 16 N refluxing nitric acid no condenser for first 30 min HNO3 T T To Waste 1 Dissolved in HNO3 To Waste 2 Precipitated with NaOH Tank Tank Precipitation in two 30 L battery jars To Peroxide Process T Dissolved in HNO3 Fig 4-15 Release mechanisms associated with plutonium recovery from reduction slag and crucibles “T” “Transfer” release mechanism liquid “TS” “Transfer” release mechanism solid powder “F” “Filtration” release mechanism “Simmer” “Simmering” release mechanism 30% HOOH Boiling HNO3 F T Plutonium nitrate solutions from all other recovery processes T T T Peroxide Precipitation effervescence To Waste Tank Boiling T Concentrated plutonium nitrate “syrup” sent to Purification Dissolved in HNO3 Plutonium nitrate solutions boiled over steam bath to reduce volume Fig 4-16 Release mechanisms associated with the final recovery processes involving precipitation of plutonium nitrate with hydrogen peroxide 4-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Indoor Measurements of Airborne Radioactivity as a Source of Information about Plutonium Releases from D-Building during World War II One of the major operational areas from which plutonium releases were unmonitored was D-Building from 1943 until 1954 D-Building was the site of the process development and production of the plutonium components of the early nuclear weapons analytical chemistry operations and metallurgical research and development Although major plutonium component production activities were transferred to new processing facilities at DP West Site in late 1945 D-Building continued to be an active and expanding facility until the Chemistry and Metallurgical Research CMR Building at TA-3 became operational around 1953 Because D-Building was the first facility to process plutonium in visible quantities and fabricate weapon components many of the environmental safety and health practices considered routine today had not yet been developed Work that today would be carried out in glove boxes with multiple stages of HEPA filtration on the exhaust was instead conducted in open hoods or on laboratory benches The working conditions present after multi-gram quantities of plutonium began to arrive at LANL in late 1944 rapidly deteriorated In May 1945 Wright Langham made a trip to Chicago to describe what steps were being taken at LANL to protect workers including the recently developed monitoring methods utilizing bioassay The push to develop and test the implosion device was considerable until the war was successfully concluded Although LAHDRA team members were unable to locate any stack monitoring records for D-Building for any portions of its operational period workers frequently took measurements of the airborne concentrations of plutonium in various rooms and locations around D-Building A lower bound estimate of plutonium releases can be made by using these concentrations estimated room volumes ventilation rates and some other assumptions Such an estimate though must be considered lower bound for several reasons A large portion of releases apparently occurred from operational activities conducted in hoods glove boxes and other enclosures Releases of the contaminated air in laboratories would be expected to be small compared to the unmonitored releases from work performed in laboratory hoods and other primitive confinement devices that exhausted directly to the environment via roof-top vents Those releases are the subject of a separate analysis Also no measurements were made during the highly problematic startup period that used larger quantities of plutonium roughly from December 1944 to August 1945 The measurements that were reported were made after the end of the war and after efforts were made to improve operational conditions within D-Building Finally the rooms that had plutonium measurements reported had results for less than 14% of all months and many had only a few measurements during the entire period FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-19 The monthly reports listed average and at times maximum values recorded over the month The reporting of data clearly separated rooms that housed enriched uranium activities from those that housed plutonium operations and the room assignments do not appear to have been interchanged significantly over time This separation of uranium and plutonium operations must have been intended to simplify the control and measurement of contamination and was later continued at DP Site Measurements were made in 116 unique areas within D-Building some were rooms with the same number but differing letters such as D-116 and D-116A and others were hallways change rooms attics and conference rooms A total of 11 832 room-months of measurements 102 months times 116 rooms could have been taken however a total of only 1 616 monthly measurements were reported for the entire time period that started in August 1945 The release of plutonium over time for the room air exhausted was calculated by the LAHDRA team using the following assumptions • 25% of room air volume is contaminated heuristic estimate • 30 air changes per h based on interview with LANL staff • Room Height 10 ft for all rooms • Detector intrinsic efficiency of 80% • Filter Burial Factor of 1 602 • Counting Geometry Factor of 2 The last three assumptions result in a total factor of 4 005 for the conversion of air sample counting results from counts per minute per liter “c m l” or c min L to disintegrations per minute per liter “d m l” or d min L The following equations were used to estimate the total release in a month for a given room d min L c min L × 4 005 d min h d min L × room volume × 0 25 of room air contaminated × 30 air changes h-1 d min released in a month d min h × d month × 24 h d-1 Ci released d min released 3 7×1010 d s-1 Ci-1 × 60 s min-1 Room air concentration data were compiled from the CMR-12 monthly reports into a spreadsheet Room volumes were calculated based on LANL drawings of D-Building For areas with no defined volume such as hallways the volume of the section of hallway immediately adjacent to a laboratory was used 4-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 with a further reduction associated with the assumption that only 25% of that volume is contaminated At present the limitation of the contamination to 25% of the room air and also to a small section of hallway is considered non-conservative and produces a lower bound for the calculated releases To emphasize the degree of non-conservatism in this estimate in 1948 LANL began to better understand the nature of releases from D-Building and glove boxes In a study published in 1948 three rooms in DBuilding were subjected to air sampling for a little more than one year Kennedy 1948 These rooms were used for processes that are not considered in the earlier section of this Chapter entitled “Release Estimates for D-Building Plutonium Processing ” They included Room 134 which was used in 1947 for preparation of plutonium alloys and samples The air in this room would have released 1 5 mCi of plutonium in 1947 using the room air model assumptions given above The releases to room air comprise a small fraction of the total plutonium released since many of the operations were conducted in dryboxes The plutonium released to room air largely came from transfers of material through the room to other boxes and from handling the material in the open Releases from the dryboxes during grinding and polishing to prepare metallurgical samples for analysis were unmeasured and were another significant source of releases As mentioned above the monthly reports yielded a total of 1 616 data points from 116 rooms over 102 months meaning that over 14% of the cells in the spreadsheet have values All the data in a given year was compiled into a distribution and tested The data for each year followed a log-normal distribution with no year showing a smaller residual than 0 93 These distributions could be used if further evaluation of D-Building releases is undertaken to stochastically estimate air concentrations for rooms each month for which no measurements were reported The sum of estimated releases over all months with reported measurements is 0 0109 Ci of alpha emitting radioactivity Recall that this calculation is a partial representation of D-Building releases In order to account for the rooms each month that have no results reported additional assumptions must be made This memo considers two possible approaches • One method would be to simply assume that the unmeasured rooms have the same average contamination as the average measured room Using this assumption a value of 0 08 Ci is obtained This method essentially increases the total estimated for sampled rooms by a factor of the total of 11 832 room-months divided by 1 616 reported room-months • Many rooms had reports of low concentrations An alternate approach is to assume that the average measured concentration in a given room is constant for that room Under this FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-21 assumption a total room air release of 6 12 Ci is obtained There are rooms with high concentrations and few measurements that result in the larger release estimate under this approach which assigns higher values to unmeasured periods than the average of measurements across all rooms This range of estimates from 0 08 to 6 12 Ci does not include the troublesome startup period of DBuilding operations Although this startup period represented 8% of the 102 months for which limited monitoring data are available improvements in confinement devices might easily have afforded a factor of 10 reduction in air concentrations in a given laboratory by the time monitoring began Thus the early 8-month period during which multi-gram quantities of plutonium was being processed might have been an important period for environmental releases that this preliminary assessment does not address TA-21 DP Site Historical Plutonium Processing — DP West In January 1945 a serious fire that broke out in C-Building within the Original Technical Area raised concerns about the possibility of a fire in D-Building This scare plus a dramatic increase in the amounts of plutonium handled in D-Building and concerns about the need to house plutonium and polonium safely led to planning of new facility to be called DP Site and later TA-21 DP West took over the plutonium production functions of D-Building Most DP Site facilities were constructed in 1944-1945 and the necessary process equipment was installed during this time as well Operations appeared to have started near the end of November 1945 Meyer and Schulte 1944-1956 The primary functions of DP West were to 1 produce metal and alloys of plutonium and other transuranic elements from nitrate solution feedstock 2 fabricate these metals into precision shapes 3 provide and install protective claddings 4 measure the chemical and physical properties of these metals and alloys and 5 recycle scrap or materials used in experiments Valentine et al 1982 Fig 4-17 shows the early layout of DP West Christenson and Maraman 1969 Photos of DP West are shown as Fig 4-18 and Fig 4-19 Buildings 2 and 3 housed wet chemistry processes and Buildings 4 and 5 housed dry chemistry processes Building 12 was the main filter building for exhausted air 4-22 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Fig 4-17 Early DP West Site Building Layout and Main Functions East entrance road to Los Alamos townsite DP Canyon 1 Building 12 Exhaust ductwork 2 filter building Manifold Main stacks 4 3 4 5 Los Alamos Canyon Fig 4-18 DP West site looking north date unknown Plutonium process buildings 2 3 4 and 5 are labeled as are the filter building 12 and associated ductwork manifold and stacks From photo IM-9 15926 courtesy of LANL FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-23 Fig 4-19 Primary buildings of DP West on 16 May 1947 Photo courtesy of LANL IM-9 05426 Fig 4-20 presents a flow diagram of the process used in early DP West Site operations for processing plutonium and producing atomic weapon components Kennedy 1947 Following are summaries of the activities performed in each major building at DP West • Building 2 TA-21-2 – housed gloveboxes for dissolution and recovery of plutonium and storage of 241Am wastes The building housed a scrap incinerator solvent extraction columns and a liquid-waste loading area On December 30 1958 a criticality accident occurred in Building 2 South involving separated phases in a plutonium process tank The operator Cecil Kelley died 36 hours later • Building 3 TA-21-3 – housed the oxalate precipitation operations • Building 4 TA-21-4 – housed some development laboratories for plutonium research from 1945 to 1948 at which point the laboratories were converted to production areas for enriched uranium hydride In 1960 the hydride equipment was removed so that a hot cell could be added for examining irradiated plutonium and enriched uranium fuel elements In 1965 two glovebox lines were added to support the 238Pu metal production The above programs were part of Rooms 401 and 401E on the north end of the building Valentine et al 1982 Rooms 403 404 405 406 and 407 also had gloveboxes that were used for 239Pu and 238Pu metal preparation during these early years 4-24 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Fig 4-20 A flowchart of early plutonium processing operations at DP West Site from Kennedy 1947 DRAFT FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-25 • Building 21 TA-21-21 – was a vault for storing uranium and plutonium metal • Building 33 TA-21-33 – housed research efforts regarding collecting additional plutonium from waste streams • Building 150 TA-21-150 – was built in 1963 as a plutonium fuels development building Repos No 2344 This building was built next to Building 5 Some of the programs the building supported included 1 the development of 238Pu heat sources for space electric power applications 2 investigations of various ceramic materials containing plutonium for use in the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor LMFBR program and 3 the development of 238Pu fuels for isotopic powered heat sources for powering artificial organs Valentine et al 1982 In an incident in DP West Building 150 on October 7 1970 a sealed capillary broke resulting in the release of a reported 10 ug of 238Pu up a vent Resulting concentrations were estimated to be 2 800 times the AEC maximum permissible concentration MPC for insoluble 238Pu Air samples were analyzed from the DP fence line near private housing just west of the west end of the airport runway and at the airport terminal air particulate sampler Maximum reported air concentrations were 1 27×10-14 μCi mL-1 238Pu at housing near the airport runway and 0 29×10-14 μCi mL-1 239Pu at the DP Site fence Kennedy 1970 Meyer 1970 • Building 210 TA-21-210 – housed additional research activities on the properties and uses of plutonium DP West Air Handling and Stack Air Sampling Buildings 2 3 4 and 5 each had an intake air fan The air was filtered and then distributed by a system of ducts that entered the rooms of the buildings at the ceiling The exhaust air left the rooms by another system of ducts that lead into a large common duct located on the roof of each building All dryboxes and hoods for each building were vented into this common exhaust duct LAB-CMR-12-60 These common ducts converged into a large manifold in Building 12 where the air was supposed to mix to a uniform concentration The air then passed through the precipitrons The precipitrons were electrostatic units that used electric fields to ionize and capture particles The air then passed through a single bank of American Air Filter Company type PL-24 filters Christensen et al 1975 The air was finally discharged by exhaust fans out of four stacks that were approximately 57 feet tall In the early days of DP West the exhaust air was sampled in the common exhaust ducts the Building 12 manifold 4-26 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 and in each stack Modified “Filter Queen” vacuum cleaners were used to sample the exhaust air at these locations Maraman et al 1975 The DP West Site exhaust treatment systems were improved over decades of site operations Maraman et al 1975 A single bank of HEPA filters was installed in the DP West Site’s combined process exhaust system in 1959 The process exhaust system was separated from the plant exhaust system at that time As part of the 1959 work a cleaning of the room exhaust plenum resulted in a spike in measured airborne releases The room exhaust plenum was again cleaned in 1973 leading to another spike in releases Two banks of HEPA filters were installed in the process exhaust system in 1973 the same year in which a single bank of HEPA filters was installed in the room air exhaust system More Recent Plutonium Processing In 1969 the decision was made to build a new facility TA-55 called the Plutonium Facility Site Plutonium processing and plutonium metallurgy research are done at this site which is also known as “PF Site ” Operations at TA-55 include processing and recovery of 239Pu from scrap materials recycle metal production metal fabrication and research development This facility was also the site of special isotope separation research The SIS-III was designed to provide special plutonium isotopes for LANL weapons research The site also had responsibility for manufacturing heat sources for weapons-related programs Cochran et al 1987 Plutonium has also been processed at TA-3 the new Core Area a k a “South Mesa Site” The Lab’s main technical facilities moved here from TA-1 in 1953 Areas at TA-3 that likely involved plutonium processing include • • • • • • • • • • • • • TA-3-29 TA-3-32 TA-3-34 TA-3-35 TA-3-39 TA-3-40 TA-3-65 TA-3-66 TA-3-102 TA-3-141 TA-3-184 TA-3-216 TA-3-700 Chemical and Metallurgical Research SM-29 has Wings 1-9 Cryogenics Cryogenics Press Building Technical Shops Physics Source Storage SM-65 Sigma Complex Tech Shops handles beryllium uranium lithium per Repos No 225 Rolling Mill Occupational Health Weapons Test Support Acid Neutralization and Pump Bldg also known as SM-700 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-27 As of 1969 the CMR Bldg except for its Wing 9 was used for laboratory work on small quantities of uranium and plutonium Effluents were filtered through Aerosolve 95 filters Wing 9 contained hot cells handling irradiated uranium and sometimes plutonium Effluents may also have contained mixed fission products including iodine HEPA and charcoal filters were reportedly used for treatment Filters were counted for both alpha and beta radiation Stack FE-19 of the CMR Building serves the glove box processes and rooms on the south side of Wing 3 As of March 1980 the exhaust treatment system had a demister one stage of M-80 prefilters and one stage of American Air Filter Continental 2000 filters that is bag filters with published 85% efficiency for 0 3 μm DOP Prior to July 1976 the system included Aerosolve 95 filters Since early 1974 FE-19 has been major source of plutonium at LANL up to 99% of the total in 1980 Releases from FE-19 began to increase during February 1979 when two filters tore During filter change-out flow reversal sent 143 μCi of Pu up FE-20 stack Stafford et al 1979-1982 Testing in February 1980 revealed that FE-19 filters were only 29 3% efficient The release from FE-19 between January 19 and January 26 1979 was 91 μCi which was greater than the total release for this stack in 1978 Alpha activity in liquids flowing into the TA-50 waste treatment plant rose sharply in the years leading up to 1973 because of increased use of 238Pu at the SM 29 building in TA-3 Concentrations at times reached 0 001 μCi cc pages from microfiche TR7831 Envelope 51 dated 5 9 73 References Borkowski R Bunz H Schoeck W Resuspension of Fission Products During Severe Accidents in LightWater Reactors KfK 3987 Karlsruhe Germany Kernforschungszentrum EUR 10391 EN 1986 Christensen E Garde R Valentine A Demolition of Building 12 an old plutonium filter facility Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-5755 1975 Christenson CW Maraman WJ Plutonium Processing at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-3542 1969 Cochran TB Arkin WM Norris RS Hoenig MM Nuclear Weapons Databook Series Volume III U S Nuclear Warhead Facility Profiles New York NY National Resources Defense Council 1987 Coffinberry AS Later plutonium metallurgical research at Los Alamos The Metal Plutonium 1961 4-28 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Cosandey JO Gunther A von Rohr R Transport of salts and micron-sized particles entrained form a boiling water pool Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 27 877-889 2003 Duffy D Fleming GB Garner CS Wolfe DL Building D Plutonium Recovery Processes 11 2 1945 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-443 1945 Garner CS Duffy D Wolfe DL Fleming GB D-Building Plutonium Recovery Processes Los Alamos NM Project Y LA-443 1945 Hammel EF Plutonium metallurgy at Los Alamos 1943-1945 Recollections of Edward F Hammel Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Historical Society 1998 Hemplemann LH Richmond CR Voelz GL A Twenty-Seven Year Study of Selected Los Alamos Plutonium Workers 1 01 1973 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-5148-MS 1973 Kennedy J Volume 8 Chemistry of Uranium and Plutonium Chapters 5 through 7 Section B Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-1017 1947 Kennedy WR Studies of Air-borne Contamination Resulting from Operations Handling Plutonium Metal and Plutonium Alloys Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMS-725 1948 Kennedy WR Memo dated 14 October 1970 Detailing Incident at DP West on 7 October 1970 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1970 Knutsen JS Release Estimates for D-Building Plutonium Processing LAHDRA project draft work product ChemRisk Inc 2007 Knutsen JS Widner TE Description of Plutonium Processing Apparatus and Procedures in D Building during World War II LAHDRA project draft work product ChemRisk Inc 2007 Maraman WJ McNeese WD Stafford RG Plutonium– health implications for man Confinement facilities for handling plutonium Health Phys 29 469-80 1975 Meyer DD Memorandum dated 16 October 1970 entitled Report on Radioactivity Release October 7 1970 at DP West 1970 Meyer DD Schulte HF CMR-12 Monthly Reports Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1944-1956 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 4-29 Mishima J Schwendiman LC Radasch CA Plutonium Release Studies III Release from Heated Plutonium Bearing Powders Richland WA Pacific Northwewst Laboratory BNWL-931 1968 Site Y 49 Interim Processing Program Reports 9 11 1945 Los Alamos NM Site Y 1945 Stafford RG Ahlquist AJ Dummer JE Ortiz J Cucchiara AL Stoker AK Information on plutonium emissions from CMR Building FE-19 stack ambient concentrations and resulting doses Memoranda Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1979-1982 Sutter SL Johnson LJ Mishima J Aerosols Generated by Free Fall Spills of Powders and Solutions in Static Air Richland WA Pacific Northwest Laboratories NUREG CR-2139 PNL-3786 1981 USDOE DOE Handbook - Airborne Release Fractions Rates and Respirable Fractions for Nonreactor Nuclear Facilities Volumes I and II Washington DC U S Department of Energy DOE-HDBK-301094 1994 Valentine AM Garde R Cox EJ Los Alamos DP West Plutonium Facility Decontamination Project 1978-1981 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-9513-MS 1982 Wahl AC Plutonium Purification in D-Building 2 22 1946 Los Alamos CA Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1946 Wahl AC Chemical purification of plutonium Chapter 3 of Los Alamos Technical Series Volume 8 Chemistry of uranium and plutonium Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-1016 1947 4-30 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Reactor Development and Operations at LANL When it was first established Technical Area 2 TA-2 also known as Omega Site was used for both nuclear criticality experiments and as the location for the Water Boiler reactor Assembly of the first Water Boiler the LOPO model began in late 1943 In April 1946 nuclear criticality experimentation was relocated from TA-2 to TA-18 Pajarito Site Construction of the plutonium fast reactor Clementine began in August of that year and from then on Omega Site was used primarily as the location for reactors used for neutronics experiments and isotope production Over its history TA-2 has housed the operations of three reactors the Water Boilers three different versions the plutonium fast reactor Clementine and the Omega West Reactor OWR No reactors have operated at TA-2 since the OWR shutdown in December 1992 The Water Boiler was deactivated in June 1974 and the Clementine reactor was deactivated in December 1950 following four years of problematic operation The Water Boiler Reactors Much of the following was adapted from “Early Reactors” by Merle E Bunker Bunker 1983 Other references are as cited During the Manhattan Project a reactor was needed for confirming critical mass calculations measuring fission crosssections and determining the neutron scattering and absorption properties for materials being considered for moderators and reflectors in the first atomic bombs Enrico Fermi advocated constructing a homogeneous liquid-fueled reactor using Fig 5-1 A view of Omega Site TA-2 from above enriched uranium Three versions were eventually built all based on this concept For security reasons these reactors were all referred to as “water boilers ” The name was appropriate since dissociation of the fuel solution would occur in the higher-power versions giving an appearance of boiling The first water boiler was assembled in late 1943 at Omega Site At that time the fuel for this reactor 14%-enriched uranium consumed the nation’s total supply of enriched uranium Two machine gun posts were therefore placed at the site to ensure its security The first water boiler was called LOPO for FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 5-1 low-power because its power output was virtually zero allowing for a simple design and eliminating the need for shielding The fuel for the LOPO was an aqueous solution of enriched uranyl sulfate The fuel was contained in a one-foot diameter spherical shell of stainless steel surrounded by a reflector consisting of beryllium blocks on a graphite base Control and safety rods passed through the reflector assembly The fuel solution known as the “soup” was pumped into the steel shell from a conical storage basin located beneath it Since the system was intended for low power no provisions for cooling were included The LOPO achieved initial criticality in May 1944 The purpose of the LOPO was to determine the critical mass of a simple fuel configuration and to test the water boiler concept With these goals met the LOPO was dismantled to make way for a second design that could be operated at a power level of up to 5 5 kW and thus serve as a neutron source needed for cross-section measurements and other studies This second version was called the HYPO for high power The fuel solution was changed from uranyl sulfate to uranyl nitrate and cooling coils were added within the shell A tube passing through the shell called the Glory Hole was also added to allow for placing samples in the region of maximum neutron flux The reactor was surrounded with a concrete shield The HYPO began operation in December 1944 and was used for many of the key neutron measurements needed in the early days of atomic bomb design In March 1951 significant modifications to the HYPO were completed in response to demands for higher neutron flux and more research capability These modifications allowed the water boiler to operate at power levels up to 35 kW This modified version of the HYPO was dubbed the SUPO Modifications made in the conversion of the HYPO to the SUPO included • Installation of additional cooling coils within the fuel vessel for greater cooling capacity • A significant increase in the enrichment of the uranyl nitrate fuel solution from 14% 235U to 88 7% 235U • The beryllium oxide portion of the reflector was replaced with graphite to allow for more rapid shutdown • A gas recombination system was connected to the reactor vessel to eliminate the explosion hazard posed by the radiolytic dissociation of hydrogen and oxygen from the fuel solution The water formed in the recombination chamber of this system was returned to the fuel vessel To reduce the emission of short-lived radioactive gasses from the Water Boiler a delay line was installed Before the installation of the delay line it reportedly could not be determined how much 131I was present 5-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 because of masking by Rb-88 Charcoal samples reportedly showed that essentially no 131I was present before or after the delay line was installed 3 98 memo J Margo Clark to Ken Silver The SUPO Water Boiler experienced a water leak into its moderator shield and had to shut down in 1973 Its stack was found to be contaminated with 137Cs Personal communication LANL Site Tour 1998 Contamination in the reactor had migrated to the bioshield SUPO was operated almost daily until its deactivation in 1974 Like its predecessors it was used extensively for cross-section studies and other neutron measurements However it was also used for studying reactor physics perturbation effects and for biological research Planning for Decontamination and Decommissioning D D of the SUPO facility began in July 1988 The physical decommissioning process was completed in April 1990 with the facility TA-2-1-122 subsequently being released to the Isotope and Nuclear Chemistry division Montoya 1991 Paternoster and Kirk 1991 The Plutonium Fast Reactor Clementine Much of the following was adapted from “Early Reactors” by Merle E Bunker Los Alamos Science Winter Spring 1983 Other references are as cited The plutonium fast reactor was proposed and approved in 1945 as a high-intensity fission neutron source that could also be used to assess the suitability of plutonium as a reactor fuel Since a fast reactor requires no moderating material the reactor could be of small size The site chosen for the fast reactor was adjacent to the water boiler building at Omega Site Construction began in August 1946 during which time the reactor was dubbed Clementine after the song “My Darling Clementine ” The fuel for the fast reactor was in the form of small rods clad in steel jackets The rods were installed in a steel cage through which the coolant liquid mercury flowed at a rate of approximately nine liters per minute Flow was maintained via an electromagnetic pump The fuel cage was surrounded with a six inch thick natural uranium reflector most of which was plated with silver to reduce corrosion The uranium reflector was surrounded by an additional steel reflector six inches thick and finally by a four inch thick lead shield Reactor reactivity control was achieved by inserting uranium fuel rods into the cage – a positive reactivity control method as opposed to the negative reactivity control method typically used in reactors Initial criticality of the fast reactor was achieved in late 1946 though its design power of 25 kW was not reached until March 1949 During this interim period measurements were made at low power including determining the neutron energy spectrum reactivity effects cross sections etc Changes in the control system were also made during this time as more experience operating a fast reactor was gained In FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 5-3 March 1950 following nearly a full year of operation the fast reactor was shut down to correct a malfunction in the control and shim rod operation During this shutdown a ruptured uranium rod was discovered and replaced Operation resumed in September 1950 and continued until late in December when it was determined that a plutonium fuel rod had ruptured and released plutonium into the mercury coolant The hazard created by this condition and the identification of serious abnormalities in the uranium reflector prompted the decision to permanently shut down and disassemble the reactor One of the lessons learned from experiences with the fast reactor was that mercury was unacceptable as a coolant because of its poor heat transfer properties and other concerns When Clementine was decommissioned its parts were stored in a hutment at Area C and are believed to have been subsequently buried there LANL 1993 The disposal location of the mercury coolant is not known LANL 1993 The Omega West Reactor OWR Much of the following was adapted from “Early Reactors” by Merle E Bunker Los Alamos Science Winter Spring 1983 Other references are as cited With the early demise of the plutonium fast reactor a replacement was needed for neutron measurements in various laboratory activities After evaluating the options available at that time LANL officials concluded that a design patterned after the Materials Test Reactor MTR at the Idaho National Laboratory would be most effective A reactor designed to use the MTR’s plate-type fuel elements which had already undergone extensive testing meant core design and licensing could be expedited The conceptual design for the new reactor was completed by the end of 1953 The core was to sit at the bottom of a water tank eight feet in diameter and 24 feet high The reactor would be cooled by water flowing at 3500 gpm The proposed power level was five MW but the shield was designed so that a power level of 10 MW could be tolerated To save time and money the reactor was built in the same room that had previously housed the plutonium fast reactor The OWR reportedly got an exemption from 10 CFR 100 reactor-siting criteria The OWR was a small low pressure low temperature research reactor Natural convective circulation of the reactor pool water was reportedly sufficient to cool the reactor The maximum credible accident that was assessed would release 822 Ci of 131I to the air along with 10 900 Ci of other iodines 168 Ci of 131Xe and 153 000 Ci of other rare gases Doses were calculated at a Residential Area 0 4 mi cross canyon Skating Rink 1 9 mi up canyon and State Road 4 4 0 mi Down Canyon Maximum doses calculated by LANL personnel for this accident were reportedly 57 rem to thyroid and 22 rem whole body at State Road 4 LASL 1993 5-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 Construction of the new reactor began in mid 1954 Initial criticality was achieved in July 1956 and a few months later the Omega West Reactor as it became known was operating at 1 to 2 megawatts LASL 1956 In May 1966 new operating limits were established that allowed the maximum operating power level to be increased to 6 5 MW Thomas et al 1993 A modification to the OWR’s cooling system allowed its maximum operating power level to be increased to eight MW in August 1967 The technical specifications for the OWR prescribed a Limiting Safety System Setting LSSS of 11 MW The OWR’s safety limit was 14 MW Thomas et al 1993 The OWR reportedly had an iodine-125 production loop and at times the reactor operated essentially around the clock on an “Iodine Production Loop schedule ” “OWREX” capsules were placed in the reactor e g OWREX-5 insert OWREX-8 insert around 1966 These capsules evidently contained fuel and sodium Fission gas traps and sweep-gas monitor detected leaks of capsules on several occasions LASL 1967a In December 1992 the combination of an unusual occurrence resulting in a challenge to a safety system and the discovery of underground piping coolant leaks prompted the shutdown of the OWR The unusual occurrence took place on December 11 1992 when human error resulted in the reactor power rising to an administrative control limit of 9 6 MW prompting an automatic shutdown of the reactor The investigation report compiled for this event identified three root causes for the incident but concluded overall that conduct of operations at the OWR facility was inadequate Thomas et al 1993 The three root causes specifically identified in the report were task performance errors on the part of various personnel inadequate procedures for removing samples from the reactor and inadequate procedures and policies for ensuring reactor control would not be compromised in the event of off-normal conditions Thomas et al 1993 In 1994 all of the fuel and control blades were removed from the OWR and the facility was placed in a safe shutdown mode Burns et al 1996 Inspection of the fuel elements conducted during the defueling operation showed that no fuel damage had occurred All coolant was drained from the reactor vessel A preliminary characterization in support of planning decommissioning activities was conducted in 1995 Burns et al 1996 OWR operated routinely operated 120 hours a week during its first 16 years Usage dropped off to around 40 hours per week thereafter until the reactor was permanently shut down Research conducted at the OWR included cross-section studies measurement of weapon yields via comparison fission counting neutron radiography condensed matter studies via neutron scattering testing of power FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 5-5 reactor components testing of power reactor fuels tests of plasma thermocouples neutron activation analyses and radioisotope production The Omega Stack A memo from Hornberger to Hoffman dated May 25 1945 Hornberger 1945 describes the off-gas line from the Water Boiler HYPO and reports exposure rate readings made beneath and to the sides of the line These readings are given in terms of the time in hours a worker would need to be at a location to receive an exposure equal to the daily limit at that time The first part of the line see Figure 5-2 is described as being hung on tree supports and ascending the canyon wall The last half of the line had four points at which it sagged to the ground Breaks in the line were noted at 75 yards and 25 yards from its exhaust end There is no mention of a stack The memo includes a hand-drawn figure Figure 5-2 showing the off-gas line relative to the Water Boiler building and the mesas north and south of Los Alamos Canyon LANL document LASL 1947 “Manhattan District History Volume II ” states that “External radiation hazards at LANL were for the most part well controlled However arrangements for discharge of fission products from the Water Boiler were most unsatisfactory and represented a potential and serious health hazard The gaseous materials were merely discharged near ground level at the top of the mesa just to the south of Los Alamos Canyon Warning signs were inadequate and the area was accessible to any casual visitor Intensities in excess of 50 r hr were repeatedly measured near the discharge point when the boiler was in operation ” 5-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 Fig 5-2 Sketch of the Omega Site off-gas line A memo from Blackwell and Littlejohn to Hempelmann dated April 24 1947 reporting their discovery that the offgas line from the Water Boiler HYPO was “shattered” at about 100 feet prior to the “outlet” stack which was located in the top of a pine tree Hornberger 1945 The memo surmises that the line became brittle from the off- gas and was broken due to swinging caused by recent high winds In later years a 150-ft tall stack on South Mesa was used to ventilate the OWR thermal column region and experiment The flow rate in this stack was reportedly 880 ft3 min-1 Approximately 600 Ci of 41Ar was reportedly discharged per year Unknown 1973 In 1968 a charcoal filter was added in the vent line from the OWR surge tank to the 150-ft stack Warner 1972 The original stack for OWR effluents was also described as a “flexible pipeline” that ran up the mesa and was attached to a tree Exposures to a nearby “Trailer Village” were a concern Hornberger 1945 This original effluent line was Tygon tubing that was laid on the ground or draped on trees It led to a pipe that was fastened to a pine tree Eventually a buried stainless steel line and a stack were put into place On June 11 1957 a memo from D D Meyer to D Ritter ENG-4 requesting removal of the barbed wire exclusion fence that kept people 50 feet or so away from the Omega stack Meyer 1957b It also states that the “old” Omega stack is still located in the top of a dead tree just outside the fence FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 5-7 surrounding the current stack is the memo requests that the old stack be taken down and sent to the “contaminated waste pit ” A second memo prepared by Mr Meyer also dated June 11 1957 states that P-2 plans to connect the off-gas system for the OWR to the existing system for the Water Boiler SUPO Meyer 1957a This action was completed between September 20 1957 and October 20 1957 LASL 1957 A charcoal filter was installed in the vent line for the OWR surge tank air space in 1968 Warner 1972 The filter was installed as a precaution against a large radioiodine release that might otherwise have occurred in the event of a fuel element or experiment failure Hankins 1963 describes the Omega stack as being 150 feet long and having an inside diameter of eight inches Hankins 1963 The two inch inside diameter vent pipe from the reactor to the stack was 1100 ft long The vent pipe included a settling tank and two water traps to collect water that condensed out of the effluent The delay time of gas in the vent pipe was originally 2 3 d but the addition of the vent line from the OWR cut this time to about 8 to 10 hours The effluent in the vent pipe flowed to the stack at a rate of about 100 to 200 cm3 min-1 resulting in a dilution factor of about 100 000 in the stack The stack flow rate was measured to be 845 ft3 min-1 at a velocity of 2400 ft min-1 Per Hankins 1963 the combination of the recombiner the long length of the vent pipe and the low flow rates resulted in the particulate component of the effluent consisting of very small particles It is reported that 65% were less than 0 05 µm 93% were less than 0 1 µm and none were larger than 1 0 µm A timeline of events of operational significance for Omega Site reactors is presented as Figure 5-3 5-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 5-9 LAPRE I and LAPRE II The Los Alamos Power Reactor Experiment LAPRE explored the use of a homogeneous reactor fuel consisting of highly-enriched UO2 93 5% 235U dissolved in 95% phosphoric acid Such a reactor system was thought to show promise for portable power sources for military applications if a method for containing the highly-corrosive fuel solution could be found Consequently two test reactors LAPRE I and LAPRE II were constructed and operated at Ten Site TA-35 by K-division personnel between 1955 and 1960 LAPRE I was located in one of the hot cells of the main laboratory building LAPRE II was located outside the main building in an underground enclosure tank The purpose of the LAPRE I reactor experiment was to study the use of phosphoric acid solutions of uranium for a high-temperature reactor fuel in a simple compact design in which the reactor core and the heat exchanger were contained in a single vessel Peterson 1959 Protecting the reactor internals from the highly-corrosive fuel solution was supposed to have been achieved by coating the exposed surfaces with a thin layer of gold While it was known that the problem of pinholes in the gold plating could not be completely eliminated despite the use of multiple layers of gold it was thought that the corrosion rate of the stainless steel under a pinhole in the plating would be tolerable Peterson 1959 The first critical experiments with LAPRE I began on February 15 1956 Peterson 1959 The reactor power was raised to a level of 20 kW and held there for five hours Radioactivity was then detected in the steam line and shortly thereafter criticality could not be maintained without dropping the temperature The experiment was terminated with the fuel being transferred to an external tank After nine days the reactor was disassembled to determine the cause of the failure Inspectors found that some of the gold plating on the heat exchanger tubes had been damaged during assembly of the reactor thus allowing the hot fuel solution to come into direct contact with the stainless steel tubing The fuel solution corroded several of the tubes prompting failure The corrosion rate observed was unexpectedly high relative to what had been predicted on the basis of laboratory tests Peterson 1959 Chemical attack was also noted at imperfections in the plating of the vessel and the boron poison can Peterson 1959 Since the failure of LAPRE I was not due to the reactor itself components were repaired or replaced as deemed necessary and a second attempt at operating the reactor was made Peterson 1959 This second experiment was conducted on October 15 1956 The reactor reached a power level of 160 kW and held there for approximately two hours when radioactivity was detected in the feed water and steam systems prompting a shutdown Activity in the steam line rose rapidly resulting in dose rates of 300 mR h-1 in the control room probably because of gaseous activity released from the end of the steam line and drawn into the building ventilation system Post-mortem inspection of the reactor determined that the failure was 5-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 again due to the heat exchanger tubes eaten away by the fuel solution Since construction of LAPRE II was already underway at this time further work with LAPRE I was abandoned Peterson 1959 LAPRE II utilized a different fuel solution than LAPRE I This new solution had a lower vapor pressure than the LAPRE I fuel at the expense of less uranium solubility and thus required a larger vessel to achieve a critical mass LAPRE II was also designed to use bonded components in hopes of solving the failures associated with the protective gold plating Construction of LAPRE II began in February 1956 Clark 1960 The reactor was located in an underground enclosure tank on the south side of the main laboratory building at TA-35 This arrangement proved prudent for providing the necessary radiation shielding The design thermal power of the reactor was 800 kW The primary purpose of the LAPRE II experiment was to demonstrate containment of phosphate fuels through suitable corrosion protection techniques Operation of LAPRE II began in February 1959 and continued into May 1959 Clark 1960 Full power operation was achieved on April 22 1959 The fuel solution was kept in the reactor vessel at a temperature above 200 F for 46 days A maximum temperature of 826 F was achieved Like LAPRE I LAPRE II experienced problems with volatile fission products leaking into the steam system At full power dose rates of several thousand R h-1 were present adjacent to the feed water heater Clark 1960 Though never determined for certain the leakage was suspected to have occurred because of containment problems with the heat exchanger ala LAMPRE I Dismantlement of LAPRE II began on May 8 1959 with the transfer of the fuel solution back to the storage tanks Clark 1960 The LAPRE program was terminated in 1960 LAMPRE I The following was adapted from “Early Reactors” by Merle E Bunker Los Alamos Science Winter Spring 1983 except where otherwise noted The purpose of the LAMPRE program was to explore the issues associated with using plutonium fuel in fast breeder reactors using a reactor fueled with molten plutonium and cooled by molten sodium While the original design of the LAMPRE I reactor called for a design power level of 20 MW the researchers concluded that the knowledge base required to develop such a system was not yet sufficient The design of LAMPRE I therefore underwent substantial changes moving from a 20 megawatt system down to a 1 megawatt test reactor The LAMPRE I core matrix was such that it could accommodate up to 199 separate fuel elements Each element consisted of plutonium-iron fuel material in a tantalum thimble The core matrix allowed several fuel element designs to be tested simultaneously FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 5-11 The 1 megawatt design power for the LAMPRE I allowed it to be placed in an existing building at Ten Site TA-35 A gas-fired 2-megawatt sodium cooling loop was also included to provide experience with high-temperature sodium-to-water heat exchangers LAMPRE I achieved initial criticality in early 1961 and operated for several thousand hours thereafter One of the problems encountered with it was tantalum fuel thimble corrosion from both the fuel and the coolant By mid 1963 LAMPRE I had achieved its intended purpose and was shut down LAMPRE II which was to be the 20 megawatt system first conceptualized for LAMPRE I was never funded with the AEC instead opting to pursue uranium-oxide-fueled reactors rather than plutonium-fueled systems LAMPRE was in the Ten-Site cell adjacent to the one used for 140La separation It used molten plutonium contained within dozens of tantalum capsules located within a sodium-cooled cylindrical core region about 40 cm high by 44 cm diameter The LAMPRE fuel was transferred to Wing 9 at TA-3 Wilson et al 1979 LAMPRE experienced three separate fuel failures during operation official reports say that these fuel failures did not cause any operational problems Clark 1962 The Rover Program In 1955 the United States initiated a program to develop a nuclear rocket engine to be used in defense systems and space exploration Koenig 1986 The plan was to carry large payloads into deep space essentially by passing hydrogen through a very high temperature nuclear reactor which would expand it and blast it out of the reactor at high velocity Conducted with NASA this program was called Project Rover LANL was assigned the tasks of establishing the basic reactor design and leading the fuel development effort Koenig 1986 A series of test reactors were designed and built at LANL prior to being tested at the Nevada Test Site These reactors were intended to first demonstrate proof of principle then to establish and test the requisite design considerations In 1962 Rover was the second largest program at LANL The Rover program was cancelled in January 1973 The Rover reactors were developed by the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Group using the facilities at the Pajarito Site TA-18 In general each new Rover reactor was developed following the same basic progression First parametric studies were performed using the Honeycomb assembly to establish the appropriate dimensions The design then proceeded to the mockup phase where details for controls and internal structures were worked out Finally the completed reactors were assembled and inspected prior to being sent to NTS for testing Adjustments were made if any deviations from specifications were noted during inspection Paternoster and Kirk 1991 Each Rover program reactor developed at LANL is listed in Table 5-1 below along with the date the reactor was tested at NTS Paxton 1983 5-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 Table 5-1 Rover Program reactors developed at Los Alamos Reactor Date s Tested at Nevada Test Site Kiwi-A Kiwi-A′ Kiwi-A3 Kiwi-B1A Kiwi-B1B Kiwi-B2A Kiwi-B4A Kiwi-B4D Kiwi-B4E Kiwi-TNT Phoebus-1A Phoebus-1B Phoebus-2A Pewee-1 Pewee-2 NF-1 Nuclear Fuel Furnace July 1 1959 July 8 1960 October 19 1960 December 7 1961 September 1 1962 test cancelled November 30 1962 May13 1964 August 28 and September 11 1964 January 13 1965 June 25 1965 June 26 1968 June 26 1968 November 21 1968 test cancelled June 29 and July 12 21 and 27 1972 Before shipment to NTS the Kiwi-TNT reactor was operated at Pajarito Site beside the PARKA reactor essentially a Phoebus 1 reactor set up as a critical assembly to measure their interactions at various separating distances A 1969 waste management plan indicated that the DP East facility processed new Rover fuel elements containing enriched uranium Air from the exhaust systems handling radioactive materials was reportedly passed through HEPA filters All four stacks from these systems were monitored but concentrations were below detectable levels LANL 1969 UHTREX The Ultra-High Temperature Reactor Experiment UHTREX involved constructing and operating a test reactor to advance the technology of high-temperature graphite-moderated gas-cooled reactors The reactor was constructed in the late 1960s at Technical Area 52 and operated for approximately one year before being shut down in February 1970 Salazar and Elder 1993 The UHTREX was cooled by helium gas in a system consisting of a primary and a secondary loop and a single heat exchanger Gas pressure in the two loops ranged from 475 psi to 545 psi with the secondary loop kept at higher pressure than the primary in case leakage occurred within the main heat exchanger LASL 1967b Under maximum conditions the gas temperature at the core inlet was 1600 F and the exit temperature was 2400 F Salazar and Elder 1993 The secondary loop coolant entered the heat exchanger at 200 F and exited at 1000 F Salazar and Elder 1993 A regenerative heat exchanger called the recuperator was used to reFINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 5-13 heat the primary coolant on its way back to the core The recuperator also served to lower the primary coolant temperature from 2400 F to 1400 F prior to it reaching the main heat exchanger The secondary loop rejected heat to the atmosphere in a building outside the main reactor building This heat dump building housed finned tubes cooled by large fans The reactor produced no power The UHTREX utilized 93%-enriched uranium fuel in the form of small spheres of UO2 coated with three layers of pyrolytic carbon and bound in a graphite matrix LASL 1967b Fuel for the UHTREX was fabricated at the CMR Building LASL 1967b The UHTREX was designed with a rotating core that allowed the reactor to be fueled while operating The design thermal power for the UHTREX was three MW The UHTREX utilized a gas cleanup system on the primary coolant loop to remove fission products and outgases from the unclad fuel The UHTREX reactor primary cooling system and the gas cleanup system were contained in a gas-tight secondary containment provided by the main reactor building Salazar and Elder 1993 The gas cleanup system consisted of metallic filters to remove particulate matter a copper oxide bed to oxidize reducing agents molecular sieve beds to adsorb carbon dioxide and water and water-cooled beds of activated carbon to either trap volatile fission products or to delay fission gases to allow for radioactive decay LASL 1967b Delay times for the carbon bed were 1 2 h for krypton and 20 h for xenon Under maximum conditions 13 kW of decay heat were produced in the charcoal bed Tritium produced in the primary coolant via the 3He n p 3H reaction accumulated in the cleanup system in the copper oxide bed and in the molecular sieve beds This tritium was eventually discharged up the 100 ft high main stack during regeneration of the sieve beds LASL 1967b This process also resulted in the discharge of entrained fission gases LASL 1967b Air from the secondary containment the fuel handling and gas sampling areas and the change rooms and other such potentially contaminated areas passed through absolute HEPA and activated charcoal filters prior to being exhausted up the main stack LASL 1967b Stack releases were monitored via a Tracerlab model MAP-1B MGP-1A combination gas and particulate monitor LASL 1967b The particulate monitor utilized a moving filter and a plastic scintillation detector The gas monitor utilized a sodium-iodide detector A removable charcoal filter was located between the particulate and gas monitors to allow for periodic assay of radioiodine concentrations via gamma-ray spectrometry The stack monitor did not provide for “real-time” radioiodine monitoring Air from the control room offices laboratories equipment rooms and other such “clean” areas was exhausted through rooftop vents The UHTREX facility was designed so that air flowed from clean areas to potentially contaminated areas Spent fuel from the UHTREX was loaded into casks and transported by truck to Wing 9 of the CMR Building where it was evaluated utilizing the hot cell facilities available there LASL 1967b Liquid 5-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 radioactive wastes were carried by contaminated waste lines to the TA-50 treatment facility Decontamination and Decontamination D D of the UHTREX site and facilities began in the late 1980s All radioactively-contaminated solid waste was buried at the laboratory’s central waste disposal facility TA-54 Salazar and Elder 1993 References Bunker ME Early reactors Los Alamos Science 124-131 1983 Burns ML Hartnett SL Sequin NR Waste Minimization Value Engineering Workshop for the Los Alamos National Laboratory Omega West Reactor Decommissioning Project Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-95-4294 1996 Clark RA Los Alamos Power Reactor Experiment No II LAPRE II Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-2465 1960 Clark RA OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE AND DEVELOPMENTAL ACTIVITIES IN LASL SODIUM SYSTEMS CONF-258-1 LADC-5936 United StatesTue Feb 05 16 06 40 EST 2008LANL NSA-18-001245English 1962 Hankins DE Radioactive Gaseous Effluents from a Homogeneous Reactor Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMS-2937 1963 Hornberger CS Extent of radiation hazard due to exhaust gas at Omega Memorandum to Joseph G Hoffman dated May 25 1945 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1945 Koenig DR Experience Gained from the Space Nuclear Rocket Program Rover Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-100672-H 1986 LANL Radioactive Waste Management - Outline of Waste Management Plans TR 4499 1969 LANL TA-39 Operations and Environmental Setting Draft Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1993 LASL Manhattan District History Supplement to Book VIII LA Project Y Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMD-155-I 1947 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 5-15 LASL H-Division Progress Report H-239 June 20-July 20 1956 Los Alamos Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Human Studies Project Team HSPT-REL-94-518 1956 LASL H-Division Progress Report H-268 September 20 - October 20 1957 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory HSTP-REL-94-898 1957 LASL Quarterly Status Report on Advance Reactor Technology ART for Period Ending January 31 1967 Part II Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1967a LASL Ultra High Temperature Reactor Experiment UHTREX Facility Description and Safety Analysis Report Los Alamos NM K-Division Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-3556 Revised 1967b LASL Potential Environmental Issues at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1993 Meyer D H-1 Omega Stack Memo to Carl Buckland dated June 11 1957 1957a Meyer DD H-1 Omega Stack Memo to Daniel Ritter dated June 11 1957 1957b Montoya GM Final Project Report TA-2 Water Boiler Reactor Decommissioning Project Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12049 1991 Paternoster RR Kirk WL Critical Experiments and Reactor Testing in Support of the Rover Program Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12049 1991 Paxton HC A History of Critical Experiments at Pajarito Site Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-9685-H 1983 Peterson RE Los Alamos Power Reactor Experiment Number One LAPRE I Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-2292 1959 Salazar M Elder J Decommissioning the UHTREX Reactor Facility at Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12356 1993 Thomas D Graf JM Bowidowicz M Bodenstein S Investigation Report Investigation of the Omega West Reactor Scram December 11 1992 LA-UR-93-579 1993 Unknown Summary of Wastes and Effluents at Omega Site TA-2 Chromium Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1973 5-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 Warner CL Summary of Previous Radioactive Effluent Reductions Omega West Reactor Memorandum to Leo G Chelius dated March 22 1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1972 Wilson M Wood W Barnes J HIstory of Remote Handling at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-UR-79-3091 dated November 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1979 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 5-17 This page intentionally left blank 5-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Accelerator Operations at LANL During World War II accelerators were used to determine the critical mass for each proposed atomic bomb design Two Van de Graaff accelerators were acquired from the University of Wisconsin a Cockcroft-Walton accelerator was “borrowed” from the University of Illinois and a cyclotron was purchased from Harvard Hoddeson et al 1993 These machines supplied neutrons for studying the neutron interactions involved in an explosive fission chain reaction Such study was important because these interactions had not been studied at all of the neutron energies relevant to a nuclear explosion no moderation or slowing down of fast neutrons emitted from the explosion occurs This is contrary to previous neutron studies from early graphite reactors where moderation in the core occurred The accelerators also supported the effort to find a way of preventing a “fizzle ” or predetonation in the gun-assembled plutonium bomb A circular electron accelerator called a betatron was later procured to obtain sequences of images of spheres of mock fission fuel as they were being imploded by surrounding high explosives Reichelt 1993 During the postwar years LANL’s emphasis was on building a foundation of basic scientific research with weapons applications Three wartime accelerators were purchased and retained by the government– the Short Tank the Cockroft-Walton and the cyclotron The Long Tank was returned to the University of Wisconsin but was replaced by a high-energy Van de Graaff accelerator with a vertical configuration The neutrons from that device and the Cockroft-Walton were used to study neutron interactions relevant to nuclear fusion The old Harvard cyclotron was upgraded into a variable-energy cyclotron that was used to study the angular distributions of accelerated particles after they scattered off the nuclear of various target elements Reichelt 1993 Two electron linear accelerators linacs were later built to provide radiographs of the implosion process in work that led to the 1963 construction of PHERMEX pulsed high-energy radiographic machine emitting x rays PHERMEX generates x rays by accelerating an electron beam onto a tungsten target and the x-ray bursts are sent through model weapons at a remote blasting site to provide threedimensional images of imploding spheres Reichelt 1993 Relatively small accelerators that have been used at Los Alamos include • W Building at TA-1 housed a Van de Graaff accelerator Building W had 2 high-voltage electrostatic generators used to produce variable energy neutrons for cross-section measurements FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 6 6-1 Protons were accelerated and would strike a target usually lithium at which point neutrons and X-rays would be produced Hazards from neutrons and X- rays were also generated • TA-3 Building 16 housed a Van de Graaff accelerator a k a SM-16 On May 24 1977 the Van De Graaff accelerator released up to 800 Ci of tritium Alquist and Ganderson 1970 Alquist et al 1977 Accelerator Operations at Technical Area 53 TA-53 houses the largest accelerator facility at LANL Following is a list of acronyms that are used in the discussion of TA-53 LAMPF Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility WNR Weapons Neutron Research Facility LANSCE Los Alamos Neutron Science Center PSR Proton Storage Ring MeV Million Electron Volt energy unit MAP Mixed Activation Products The primary facility at TA-53 is a large accelerator complex originally called the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility LAMPF The original sections of LAMPF were later renamed the Clinton P Anderson Meson Physics Facility LAMPF is a nominal 800 MeV 1-milliampere intensity proton linear accelerator Construction on LAMPF began in 1968 On June 12 1972 LAMPF first obtained a full energy beam Originally constructed to study sub-atomic particles LAMPF today serves as an accelerator generating intense pulses of neutrons by sending the protons into targets of high atomic number such as uranium for scattering research at the WNR and LANSCE facilities The PSR is used to accumulate protons and provide a short duration pulse of protons for targeting onto uranium and other high atomic number targets for neutron production at WNR Today the complex is called the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center and includes the linear proton accelerator the Manuel Lujan Jr Neutron Scattering Center and a medical isotope production facility In addition the Accelerator Production of Tritium Project Office including the Low-Energy Demonstration Accelerator and R D activities in accelerator technology and high-power microwaves are located at TA-53 LANSCE Release Summary LANSCE airborne radionuclide releases consist of short-lived radioactive materials that have been activated from air These radioactive materials are composed of particulates from activated dust in air and gaseous activation products from air constituent gases Another source of LANSCE radionuclide 6-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 6 releases is the cooling water used for cooling accelerator components Non-radioactive releases at accelerators include solvents which are used in large volumes for cleaning vacuum components LANL documents refer to the mix of short-lived materials as Mixed Activation Products MAP Some other acronyms seen in documents are “G MAP” for Gaseous Mixed Activation Products and “P VAP ” which stands for Particulate Various Activation Products These radioactive materials are produced when the proton beam from LAMPF is sent through air or when a fraction of the proton beam is lost through interactions with accelerator components such as targets These interactions generate neutrons which subsequently activate the air gases and the dust in air Radionuclide releases from LANSCE occur in two ways 1 from the four stacks located in the facility which are monitored both for particulates with filters and for gases with Kanne chambers and 2 via unintentional pathways of diffuse release via doors and other exit points For some periods of time these combined emissions have been the source of the highest priority releases to the environment The radionuclide releases reported at LANSCE are among the highest of all DOE operations nation-wide The amount of radioactivity released from LANSCE increases proportionally as the power levels and beam-on time increase Principal gaseous radionuclides constituents released were 11C 20 min 13N 10 min 15 O 2 min A trace amount of 41Ar 1 8 h was also released The particulate releases are too numerous to mention and are only present in trace levels since they consist of activation products from dust in air or disintegrated target material Cooling water that services accelerator components including targets also becomes radioactive and also accumulates corrosion products from the target and magnet systems This water has been released by the site after decay in concrete walled cooling water ponds that have bentonite clay on the bottom The cooling water is held until no short-lived radionuclides are observed in the water after confirmation measurements the cooling water from these ponds is then released and becomes surface water Prioritization of LANSCE Releases The releases from LANSCE have been cataloged in detail by the LAHDRA team in two calculations O'Brien and Burmeister 2004a 2004b Results of the prioritization assessment for airborne radionuclides are presented in Chapter 17 The calculation of Priority Indices PI involves dividing the reported annual release by the maximum effluent concentration from 10 CFR Part 20 The result represents the volume of air required to dilute the releases to the maximum permitted value and therefore permits comparisons for varying amounts of radioactive material from year to year based on the total quantities of air required to dilute the effluent The maximum effluent concentration value used for MAP FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 6 6-3 comes from the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA 1979 and was 2 0×10-7 μCi mL-1 The prioritization shows that LAMPF dominates site releases to air since the mid-1970s Detailed LANSCE Release Data The LAHDRA project team has spent many hours finding and reviewing LANSCE records The project team has identified two key document resource centers within TA-53 that provide substantial quantities of historical effluent monitoring data for LANSCE Those records cover operations from the early 1970s to the present The locations are • Building 3 Room 3R-4 TA-53-3 - Radiological records that contain mostly exhaust stack and water monitoring data for radionuclides • Another location for useful records is the operations group in Building 53 Management staff at the accelerator facility generally opted to retain large portions of their records for historical and operational purposes and has stored these records on-site at TA-53 Monthly and annual air emission reports from 1976 to the present have been located by the LAHDRA team These reports also present backup information pertaining to how LANL staff performed and collected stack monitoring data and calculated air releases In related reports methods for calibrating Kanne “flow-through” ionization chambers and stack measurements are presented Probably the most appropriate method of estimating releases is to use the accelerator operation logs to obtain the milliampere-hours mA-h of beam operation Periods of accelerator operation are called “cycles ” and each cycle is given a sequence number These data included operations during cycles 3 through 61 Data for cycle 1 and 2 were not found Data for cycles above 61 are available but were not captured In the LANSCE Effluents spreadsheet beam current was multiplied by beam-on time to calculate mA-hrs for the beam These values were summed to yield annual values of beam time in mA-h see Table 6-1 Curies per mA-h are plotted in Fig 6-1 6-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 6 Table 6-1 Compiled annual beam current data for LANSCE Year 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 mA-h from log books 202 66 702 27 1 259 80 1 834 57 2 180 00 1 010 79 2 151 52 1 593 71 2 420 37 3 004 61 2 600 06 2 534 84 1 929 32 2 128 43 1 966 90 721 56 744 83 Annual Activity in Curies Curies per mA-h 1 00E-08 1 00E-08 6 06E 03 4 79E 04 1 17E 05 1 19E 05 1 46E 05 3 53E 05 2 51E 05 4 64E 05 7 37E 05 1 26E 05 1 12E 05 1 50E 05 1 21E 05 1 56E 05 5 00E 02 5 75E 04 7 19E 04 2 11E 02 5 04E 04 4 37E 04 1 14E 04 2 99E 01 6 82E 01 9 29E 01 6 49E 01 6 70E 01 3 49E 02 1 17E 02 2 91E 02 3 04E 02 4 19E 01 4 31E 01 5 92E 01 6 27E 01 7 33E 01 2 54E-01 7 97E 01 9 65E 01 4 00E 02 C i m A - h r 3 50E 02 3 00E 02 2 50E 02 2 00E 02 1 50E 02 1 00E 02 5 00E 01 0 00E 00 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 Fig 6-1 Ci mA-h for LANSCE operations 1975-1993 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 6 6-5 There were some columns in the beam operation logs that were not used in these informal calculations since it was not known how to apply them One column was for “Duty Factor ” and two contained additional beam information “Beam Current 2” and “Beam Hours 2 ” From verbal conversations with LANL employees LAHDRA staff found that the “Beam Current 2” and “Beam Hours 2” were used only when the beam was run at one current for a certain amount of time and then was run for a second amount of time at a different beam current Since there were few instances of this information being supplied it was ignored for this informal calculation “Duty Factor” was explained as having something to do with the pulsed nature of the output used sometimes during the operation Since it was not know how to apply a correction factor for “Duty Factor ” this column also was not used In addition to point release estimates i e exhaust stack releases LANL began estimating non-point diffuse emissions in its annual release and dose estimates Documents were found for 1993 1995 1996 and 1997 The estimates of diffuse releases were 1 418 Ci 716 Ci 221 Ci and 866 Ci for the years listed respectively These quantities are approximately less than 10% of the annual airborne release values as shown in Table 6-1 The vast majority of these releases were estimated to be 11C Documentation regarding sampling indicates that short-lived activation gases were not reported at LAMPF for the 1974 to 1978 time frame LANL 1974-1978 One of the documents abstracted Cochran 1970 refers to a letter to the AEC concerning LAMPF airborne emission in 1970 thus indicating that limited operations may also have occurred prior to 1972 The TA-53 data suggest that there are at least four stacks for which data are available These stack designations include FE-3 North Stack also called main stack in 1981 FE-4 South Stack FE-16 and FE-2 The FE-3 fan serviced the main accelerator tunnel and was terminated in 1980 The FE-4 fan was added in 1977 FE-3 and FE-4 have reported emissions primarily of short-lived air activation products such as 11C 13N 15O 41Ar and 7Be FE-2 services the WNR and was added in 1981 FE-16 services TA-53-1 D-wing with releases reported for other longer-lived radionuclides such as 7Be Cooling water was released to floor drains that fed two 2 500-gal carbon steel tanks These tanks were discharged to the cooling water ponds LANL 1981 The magnitude of releases at LANSCE resulted in continuing studies to estimate the off-site impact such as 1987 study that documented the releases and modeling of the releases for 1985 Bowen et al 1987 Laboratory measurements have been found for lagoon and cooling pond waters and for long-lived activity that can be collected on filtering media The short-lived MAP was assessed with on-line monitoring and through TLDs located at various locations 6-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 6 Repos No 1556 discusses the diffuse releases from LAMPF for 1990 which were 0 21 Ci just a small fraction of the 120 000 Ci of short-lived gases that were reported Hecker 1991 The diffuse emissions were comprised of longer lived nuclides since the diffuse emissions are completely unfiltered and a comparison of curies alone might be misleading but the magnitude of diffuse emissions is clearly less significant than that of the primary release points The LANL assessment of radioactive release impact from TA-53 has changed in many ways over the years Prior to 1991 LANL assessed the releases by taking credit for estimated occupancy and the inherent shielding provided by residences In 1992 however LANL was told by the USEPA that no credit should be taken for shielding and residency time factors Brown et al 1992 This instruction resulted in a change of methodology for projecting impacts from the releases and thus care should be taken when comparing LANL assessments for different periods Conclusions Regarding LANSCE Operations LANSCE is an important major scientific system at LANL its operation is important both to LANL scientists and researchers and to visiting organizations Since its inception LANSCE has been one of the major contributors to airborne releases to the environment Fortunately the radionuclides released are short-lived gases or trace amounts of particulates from diffuse emissions Future projects that attempt to create an accurate source term for LANSCE should concentrate on applying the additional beam time corrections applying the duty factor corrections locating early operation info cycle 1 and 2 and ensuring that the curie quantities in the OSR Database are complete and accurate so that the Ci mA-h can be calculated accurately for LANSCE References Alquist AJ Ganderson T Environmental Tritium Measurements after Van De Graaff Release of 5 25 77 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1970 Alquist AJ Stoker AK Trocki LK Radiological Survey and Decontamination of the Former Main Technical Area TA-1 at Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-6887-MS 1977 Bowen BM Olsen CE Van Etten DM Chen I Measurement and Modeling of External Radiation During 1985 from LAMPF Emissions Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1987 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 6 6-7 Brown R Perkins RB Hecker SS Gunderson TC Memos on LAMPF Emissions 1992 Cochran D Letter on LAMPF Radionuclide Emissions 1970 Hecker SS Letter Regarding Notice of Non-compliance with National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants 1991 Hoddeson L P W H Meade R Westfall C Critical assembly - A technical history of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer years 1943-1945 Cambridge University Press 1993 IAEA Safety Series 49 Radiological surveillance of airborne contaminants in the working environment Vienna Austria International Atomic Energy Agency 1979 LANL Monthly Stack Releases Quarterly Reports H-1 Division 1974-1978 LANL Radioactive Effluent and Discharge Monitoring for Calendar Year Los Alamos Los Alamos National Laboratory 1981 O'Brien JM Burmeister RE Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment LAHDRA Project Task 5 – Prioritization of Releases Prioritization of Airborne Releases LAHDRA Project Calculation 2004a O'Brien JM Burmeister RE Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment LAHDRA Project Task 5 – Prioritization of Releases Prioritization of Liquid-borne Releases Shonka Research Associates Inc 2004b Reichelt Probing the Structure of Matter Los Alamos Science 93-106 1993 6-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Tritium Processing at LANL and a Screening Assessment of Public Exposures The benefits of incorporating tritium into nuclear weapons design was recognized early in the Manhattan Project Facilities and processes for tritium production were a topic of discussion at LANL at least as early as 1944 Allison 1944 By this time tritium production efforts had already begun at the X-10 site now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and there were discussions about large-scale tritium production taking place at Hanford As of late 1945 LANL had installed equipment for purifying and assaying tritium LANL’s CMR Division began using this equipment to supply tritium to groups within P Division and M Division in early 1946 A tritium collection system was being installed in the laboratories of Group P-4 as of March 1946 LASL 1946 It is unclear where these operations took place but small quantities of tritium are reported to have been used in Buildings U W and Z in the Original Technical Area TA-1 As LANL operations matured significant quantities of tritium were released to the atmosphere from facilities in TAs 3 21 33 35 and 41 In addition tritium was used in some firing site dynamic testing activities at TA-15 for example Tritium Facilities at TA-3 The three facilities responsible for the majority of atmospheric tritium releases from TA-3 were the Cryogenics Laboratory Building SM-34 the Ion Beam Facility Building SM-16 and the CMR Building Building SM-29 Both the Cryogenics Laboratory and the IBF used tritium gas generated from uranium tritide a beds The LANL Cryogenics Laboratory opened in 1955 and reportedly released 28 000 Ci of tritium from 1976 to 1985 Morgenstern and Hueske 1995 The Ion Beam Facility IBF which housed two Van de Graaff accelerators began operating in 1951 Loomis et al 2005 The accelerators produced neutrons by bombarding tritium gas targets with charged particles Atmospheric tritium releases for the IBF are reported to have been 14 000 Ci from the 1960s through 1992 Morgenstern and Hueske 1995 Morgenstern and Hueske 1995 also report a release of 11 000 Ci of tritium from the CMR Building from the time its operations began in 1953 The reported releases for these three facilities total 53 000 Ci a A tritide is a hydride a binary compound formed by the union of hydrogen and one other element in which hydrogen is in the form of its 3H isotope FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 7-1 Tritium Facilities at TA-21 TA-21 has housed the LANL Tritium Handling Facility THF and the Tritium Systems Test Assembly TSTA as well as earlier tritium operations The THF was also known as the Tritium Salt Facility TSF It was expanded in 1984 and subsequently became known as the Tritium Science Fabrication Facility TSFF The THF was activated December 5 1974 as a replacement for obsolete tritide salt processing facilities at TA-35 It was located at DP East Site in Building TA-21-209 The THF consisted of a large dry box system and a gas purification system Its purpose was to house processes involving metal tritides and specifically tritium-bearing lithium salts As of December 12 1979 the THF had reportedly processed 3 8 million curies of tritium and had released 704 5 Ci to the atmosphere via its local stack Nasise 1980 TSTA was a facility for the integrated testing in full scale of the processes and safety systems required for the reprocessing and recycling of plasma exhaust gas from a tokamak fusion reactor The primary material handled was deuterium-tritium DT gas Tritium was first introduced at TSTA on June 25 1984 Jalbert 1985 Tritium appears to have been in use at DP West since at least the early 1950s In 1952 J B Webber of LANL described sampling of effluent streams for tritium oxide from a beaker of tritiated water placed in various locations in DP West Room 326 Webber 1952 By 1971 a tritium stack monitor had been installed for DP West Room 513 Johnson 1971 Tritium Facilities at TA-33 TA-33 was established in 1947 primarily as a test site for atomic bomb initiators Garcia et al 2004 Dynamic testing activities took place there involving polonium and other materials Shots were fired in underground chambers and at the surface Large guns were used to fire test projectiles into berms In the early 1950s facilities were designed and built at TA-33 for processing tritium gas Coffin 1971 The high pressure tritium gas facilities were housed in Building HP-86 and operated there until late 1990 Garcia et al 2004 In addition to its function as a high pressure tritium pumping station Building HP86 also had laboratory areas for testing tritium gas systems and for studying material compatibility Tuggle 1983 Building HP-86 had a 75-foot stack as of late 1962 though apparently the stack height had increased from its original design Deinken 1962 On an activity basis Building HP-86 is believed to be the largest source of atmospheric releases of tritium at LANL Coffin 1971 stated that routine releases to the atmosphere were 2 000 to 6 000 Ci annually and that 60 000 Ci of gas had been released in ten separate incidents dating back 15 years These 7-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 accidental releases were in addition to routine releases associated with the evacuation of lines and vessels containing tritium gas and leakage from the gas system overall The gas system consisted of a process system and a filling system with the former used to mix and prepare gases for introduction into the latter Holmes 1965 The filling system was used to fill a desired container with tritium gas at a desired pressure Coffin 1971 estimated the contributions from routine and accidental releases to the total atmospheric source term to be approximately equal The LAHDRA document collection contains numerous references documenting accidental releases of large quantities of tritium gas at TA-33 Tritium Facilities at TA-35 The original tritium salt facility was located in the basement of Building 2 at TA-35 It was constructed in 1953 Harper and Garde 1981 and was in use until 1974 when the tritium salt operations moved to DP East Site The TA-35 tritium salt facility was decommissioned in 1979 The facility was used to handle lithium tritide salts containing kilocurie quantities of tritium and consisted of two glovebox lines associated equipment and its own exhaust stack Harper and Garde 1981 Tritium operations began in 1955 Storm 1972 and ended in 1979 with the decommissioning of the facility Tritium releases from the TA-35-2 facility did not end when operations were relocated to DP East Site Releases continued to be monitored and reported through the decommissioning process The lithium tritide salts were received from Mound Laboratory in a powdered form and were processed and packaged at TA-35 for transfer to Group W-1 Storm 1972 As of 1972 the frequency of the operation was six to 24 weeks per year Water reacting with the salt compound resulted in the release of tritium This condition was exacerbated by the high moisture content of the glovebox cover gas and the use of water to clean some of the process equipment Storm 1972 The fact the tritium was released through a water-salt reaction prompted Ellery Storm of LANL to conclude it was probably released in the oxide form Tritium Facilities at TA-41 TA-41 was constructed in the early 1950s for weapons development activities LANL 1988 It was built at the bottom of Los Alamos Canyon approximately 300 feet below the mesa tops A central exhaust system and stack were added in 1962 Prior to that time process effluents were ventilated by local stacks and exhausts serving individual laboratories TA-41 consists of a number of structures including an underground vault for storing explosives and special nuclear material The vault designated Building W1 is a reinforced concrete structure constructed by tunneling into the north wall of Los Alamos Canyon FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 7-3 It was built in May 1949 LANL 1991 Materials stored in the W-1 vault included pressure vessels containing tritium gas It is unclear when tritium operations first began at TA-41 LANL’s 1973 estimates of atmospheric tritium releases included estimates for TA-41 dating back to 1967 LASL 1973 In 1976 LANL was evaluating locating a new tritium handling facility at TA-41 Barnes 1976 to replace operations at the HP-86 facility at TA-33 It is not clear when these activities began but it appears they continued until approximately the early 1990s As of 1983 one of the primary activities at TA-41 was building and testing equipment and systems for storing and transferring high pressure gases including tritium Tuggle 1983 In 1992 LANL determined that the cost associated with upgrading the TA-41 facilities to allow for resuming programmatic tritium operations involving quantities greater than 1 000 Ci was not justified Erickson 1993 Those operations were to be transferred to the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility at TA-16 TA-41 was also used for plutonium operations dating back to at least 1957 Buckland 1957 and uranium operations As of 1983 plutonium and uranium were handled only in sealed containers Experiments with the containers were conducted inside double containment Tuggle 1983 Other Tritium Facilities As of 2001 the largest tritium inventory at LANL was held at the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility WETF at TA-16 Originally constructed as a replacement for the tritium gas facilities at TA-33 LANL 1990 the WETF houses research and development activities that support nuclear weapons programs and inertial confinement fusion DNFSB 2001 Consolidation efforts were underway at the time to relocate all of LANL’s tritium processing operations to the WETF The WETF is a more modern facility than its predecessors and its tritium releases to the atmosphere are relatively small Other LANL facilities that contribute to atmospheric tritium releases are waste treatment operations at TA-50 and operations involving tritium-contaminated weapons components at TA-55 There have also been limited tritium operations conducted at a gas boosting test facility housed at TA-9 Tuggle 1983 With respect to environmental levels a significant source of atmospheric releases of tritium oxide has been LANL’s central waste disposal facility at TA-54 Buried tritium-bearing waste materials result in atmospheric releases of tritiated water vapor via evaporation from the soil These releases are evident in the measurements from the local ambient air monitoring stations 7-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 Atmospheric Effluent Data for Tritium LANL did not begin monitoring tritium stack releases until 1971 In 1973 LANL prepared estimates of atmospheric releases for 1967 through 1970 based on accountability data LASL 1973 There are no formal estimates of total tritium releases prior to 1967 though the LAHDRA document collection contains effluent monitoring and other tritium release data for some tritium facilities prior to 1967 How complete a picture this information might represent with regard to LANL’s total atmospheric tritium releases for the pre-1967 period though is currently unknown Table 7-1 shows annual releases of tritium to the atmospheric reported by LANL for the period 1967 through 1996 The releases are given in microcuries µCi for Technical Areas 3 15 21 33 35 and 41 The data for 1967 – 1970 are from the estimates LANL prepared from accountability data LASL 1973 For 1971 forward the data came from LANL’s environmental surveillance reports with the exception of the TA-15 data which still came from the accountability data for 1971 and 1972 After 1972 all of the reported releases came from the annual environmental surveillance reports All of the values in Table 7-1 are as-reported by LANL No adjustments have been applied by the LAHDRA team and no independent verification has been performed Entries of “--” in the table mean no data were reported by LANL for that TA for that period Table 16-1 of this report presents a partial chronology of accidents incidents and important events that occurred at LANL over its history Table 7-2 shows events from Table 16-1 that involved atmospheric releases of tritium prior to 1967 when LANL began preparing release estimates The examples shown in Table 7-2 are events for which a quantitative estimate of the tritium released can be found in the associated documentation There are other known incidents involving atmospheric releases of tritium in the pre-1967 era for which release estimates are not given Comparing the data in Table 7-2 with that from Table 7-1 one can infer that large releases of tritium gas from the HP-86 facility at TA-33 were not unusual and thus the total given for TA-33 may be significantly understated The same can be said for tritium releases from TA-3 In addition Morgenstern and Hueske 1995 assert a total release for TA-3 of 5 3 × 1010 µCi dating back to 1953 when CMR Building began operations This is nearly twice the total activity shown for TA-3 in Table 7-1 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 7-5 Table 7-1 Airborne tritium release data reported by LANL for selected TAs µCi Year TA-3 TA-15 TA-21 TA-33 TA-35 TA-41 Total 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 8 72E 08 1 04E 10 1 72E 08 -8 90E 07 4 80E 07 --2 20E 07 -4 00E 08 1 00E 08 3 01E 09 4 55E 06 8 99E 08 1 94E 09 2 46E 09 1 79E 09 2 12E 09 1 23E 09 8 51E 08 3 90E 08 2 91E 08 4 96E 08 2 05E 08 1 15E 08 7 63E 07 5 38E 07 2 25E 06 -- 3 60E 09 4 60E 09 4 51E 09 1 10E 10 2 66E 09 1 80E 09 9 30E 08 1 71E 08 ----------------------- -2 33E 07 2 50E 06 -5 00E 06 -4 00E 06 -3 06E 08 9 50E 07 1 33E 08 7 20E 07 9 50E 07 1 06E 08 1 08E 08 1 69E 08 -8 02E 08 3 67E 08 4 48E 08 5 96E 08 5 28E 08 4 52E 08 4 39E 08 3 23E 08 4 29E 08 4 26E 08 3 32E 08 7 12E 08 3 92E 08 1 13E 10 5 51E 09 2 01E 10 6 70E 08 4 10E 09 2 90E 09 3 90E 09 5 92E 09 3 48E 09 1 35E 09 3 14E 10 1 78E 10 1 05E 10 6 97E 09 6 09E 09 1 36E 10 4 41E 09 7 11E 09 4 87E 09 6 66E 09 1 00E 09 7 96E 09 1 77E 09 8 54E 08 2 54E 08 3 18E 08 3 50E 08 4 56E 08 1 09E 08 5 00E 07 ---2 50E 10 3 13E 09 2 50E 09 1 20E 09 1 40E 09 2 39E 09 1 66E 09 7 86E 08 6 76E 08 1 30E 09 2 50E 07 --6 00E 06 2 06E 08 5 30E 06 4 80E 07 1 55E 08 1 18E 08 1 80E 07 5 00E 04 -1 00E 05 ----- 1 22E 10 1 58E 10 9 76E 09 4 38E 08 3 20E 08 1 10E 08 5 90E 07 -----1 43E 08 4 14E 08 1 26E 08 1 30E 08 9 74E 08 4 78E 09 1 27E 09 1 32E 09 4 70E 08 1 73E 09 1 16E 10 4 44E 09 3 84E 09 2 92E 08 4 83E 08 1 72E 08 7 85E 07 1 10E 08 2 79E 10 3 63E 10 3 45E 10 3 71E 10 1 03E 10 7 35E 09 6 09E 09 7 49E 09 6 20E 09 3 10E 09 3 27E 10 1 86E 10 1 50E 10 7 51E 09 7 22E 09 1 58E 10 7 85E 09 1 47E 10 8 63E 09 9 70E 09 3 07E 09 1 07E 10 1 41E 10 6 23E 09 4 62E 09 1 15E 09 1 34E 09 1 01E 09 9 02E 08 5 52E 08 Total 2 80E 10 2 93E 10 7 37E 09 1 82E 11 4 06E 10 7 10E 10 3 58E 11 7-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 Table 7-2 Examples of pre-1967 atmospheric tritium release events found in the LAHDRA document collection Date 7 25 1958 3 17 1959 3 9 1962 10 3 1964 2 16 1965 6 9 1966 Location TA-33 TA-3 TA-41 TA-3 TA-33 TA-3 Tritium Released µCi 1 3 × 1010 3 1 × 108 7 6 × 109 2 0 × 108 5 0 × 109 7 8 × 108 To ensure a conservative approach to screening and to account for the fact the tritium release data in Table 7-1 are not complete the maximum annual atmospheric tritium releases reported for each of the selected TAs were compiled These are shown in Table 7-3 Table 7-3 Maximum reported airborne tritium releases from LANL Technical Area Maximum Release µCi Year 1 04×10 10 1968 15 1 10×10 10 1970 21 8 02×108 1984 33 3 14×10 10 1977 35 2 50×1010 1970 41 10 1968 3 1 58×10 For screening purposes the maximum values should at a minimum be representative of LANL’s atmospheric tritium releases for the period 1967 forward if not bounding in the case of the earlier data derived from accountability data For the principal contributors to atmospheric tritium releases all but two of the maximum values were from the period prior to the onset of stack monitoring that is they were derived from accountability data Such estimates are typically conservative with respect to the true release again none of the data used in this evaluation have been independently verified Chemical Forms of Tritium One of the most important factors to consider when evaluating atmospheric releases of tritium for potential health risks is the chemical composition of the release Specifically it is important to know if the release was in the form of tritium gas or if it was partially or completely in the form of tritium oxide Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen Tritium gas refers to tritium in the form of diatomic HT or T2 gas where T is used in place of H to differentiate between atoms of tritium and protium normal FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 7-7 hydrogen Tritium oxide refers to molecules of water normally H2O in which a tritium atom has been substituted for one or both of the hydrogen atoms to form HTO or T2O The difference between tritium gas and tritium oxide is enormous in terms of radiation dose to a human receiver If inhaled tritium gas is not incorporated into the body to any appreciable degree and the only dose consequence is the direct exposure to lung tissue Tritium oxide in contrast behaves similar to water and is readily incorporated into body tissues In terms of radiation dose per unit intake the dose from tritium oxide exceeds that from tritium gas by four orders of magnitude ICRP 1996 Dose from tritium gas therefore is typically negligible There is no external dose consequence from tritium in either form but intakes of tritium oxide can result from absorption through exposed skin in addition to inhalation Given its application in the weapons program and accelerator operations tritium at LANL has primarily been used in its tritium gas form There are some circumstances however in which an assumption of the oxide form is appropriate at least for initial screening purposes In addition as of the late 1970s LANL installed catalytic converters on its tritium stacks to convert the gaseous effluent to oxide This conversion allows the tritium to be efficiently collected on molecular sieves and thus significantly reduces the overall release However anything not captured by the sieve system takes the oxide form This system for reducing tritium emissions was described in 1973 by R R Dube of LANL’s GMX-4 group and his colleagues Dube et al 1973 In addition to gas and oxide other chemical forms of tritium are possible With respect to tritium operations at LANL tritium could historically be found in the form of metal uranium tritides or lithium tritide salts Unlike gases any atmospheric emissions of these materials would be in particulate form and absorption and retention in the body would depend on the characteristic biokinetic behavior for the specific tritide compound No information has been noted in the LAHDRA document collection regarding the atmospheric release of tritide compounds and it is believed to be unlikely that tritides would have been a significant component of LANL’s atmospheric tritium releases From a radiation dose perspective tritides represent more dose per unit activity than tritium oxide because they are retained in the body longer In the case of tritide particulates because of the longer retention characteristics the dose per unit intake exceeds that for tritium oxide by a factor of 14 ICRP 1996 Screening LANL’s Atmospheric Tritium Releases for Potential Health Risks The NCRP Report No 123 NCRP 1996 screening method for radionuclide releases to the environment was used to evaluate atmospheric tritium releases from LANL in terms of their potential risk to local residents The source term used was the maximum release reported for each of the six TAs that 7-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 represented the largest contributors to LANL’s atmospheric tritium releases These maximum values shown in Table 7-3 were converted to units of becquerels for input into the NCRP Report No 123 screening models The converted values are shown in Table 7-4 Table 7-4 Maximum reported airborne tritium releases from LANL Technical Area 3 15 21 33 35 41 Maximum Release Bq 14 3 84×10 4 07×10 14 2 97×10 13 1 16×10 15 9 25×10 14 5 84×10 14 Year 1968 1970 1984 1977 1970 1968 The values in Table 7-4 reflect total amounts of tritium released To ensure a meaningful screening result they were re-stated in terms of the corresponding tritium oxide activity for each total value An upper bound for the fraction of a tritium gas source that has converted to an oxide form is 1% Pan and Rigdon 1996 Mishima and Steele 2002 The small amount of oxide is formed by interactions between residual air in the storage vessel and beta radiation from the tritium Following a release of tritium gas additional oxidation occurs slowly resulting from either additional radiolytic reactions with air in the case of high activity concentrations or from photochemical reactions with ultraviolet light These secondary oxidation mechanisms result in conversion rates ranging from approximately 1% per hour in the case of high activity concentrations to falling off to less than 1% per day as the gas diffuses following release Mishima and Steele 2002 Tritium gas does not react strongly with water vapor If there is an ignition explosion or similar event involving tritium gas then an assumption of complete 100% oxidation is appropriate Based on what was known about the processes associated with the maximum atmospheric tritium releases in Table 7-4 conservative assumptions were applied to determine the chemical form of the tritium to be assumed for screening These are documented in Table 7-5 with tritium oxide being designated HTO FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 7-9 Table 7-5 Activity and chemical forms of tritium used for screening Technical Area Maximum Release Bq 3 15 3 84×10 14 4 07×10 14 21 2 97×10 13 33 1 16×10 15 35 9 25×10 14 41 5 84×10 14 Total 3 49×10 15 Assumed Chemical Form and Basis 1% HTO principal sources were tritium gas 100% HTO assume tritium was expended in detonation events 100% HTO assumed releases were the result of water reactions with tritium-bearing salts resulting in an oxide form 1% HTO HP-86 was a tritium gas facility 100% HTO assumed releases were the result of water reactions with tritium-bearing salts resulting in an oxide form 1% HTO operations were similar to those at TA-33 -- Maximum Release as Oxide Bq 3 84×10 12 4 07×10 14 2 97×10 13 1 16×10 13 9 25×10 14 5 84×10 12 1 38×10 15 For screening the maximum release values in Table 7-5 were considered both on an individual and on an aggregate basis the six values added Summing the maximum values which occurred in different calendar years is believed to provide a source term that is at worst representative of any specific year and is likely bounding Again the maximum release data for TAs 3 15 35 and 41 are based on LANL’s examination of accountability records and such assessments are typically conservative with respect to actual releases On an aggregate basis the source term in Table 7-5 represents 3 49×10 15 Bq over 94 000 Ci of tritium and 1 38×10 15 Bq 37 300 Ci of tritium oxide The effective oxide fraction for the aggregate source term is 40% Screening was performed against a criterion of a 1 in 100 000 added risk of fatal or non-fatal cancer assuming a risk factor of 5 5% per sievert Sv This figure corresponds to a dose equivalent of 1 82×10-4 Sv The residential population nearest each release point was selected as the exposed population for each screening assessment The pathways considered for each residential location were contaminated air inhalation and contaminated soil and vegetable consumption Consumption of locally raised meat or milk was not considered The first step of the NCRP Report No 123 screening process is to perform a Level I screening evaluation which is the simplest and most conservative type of evaluation The Level I screen does not account for distance from the source to the receiver or for the associated atmospheric dispersion If the Level I screening result exceeds the screening criterion then a Level II approach in which distance to the receiver and atmospheric dispersion are considered is used next In addition in the Level II screen the 7-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 screening criterion is reduced by an order of magnitude to account for uncertainties If the Level II screening result exceeds the criterion then a Level III screen is performed In general the Level III screen only differs from the Level II in terms of how dose pathways are considered The approach used here for screening LANL’s atmospheric tritium releases was hybridized in that the appropriate pathways were accounted for from the outset rather than first screening for all pathways and then removing the non-applicable pathways afterward A Level I screen was performed for the TA-3 release first since it was the smallest contributor to the tritium oxide source term If the Level I screening evaluation for the TA-3 release exceeded the screening criterion there would be no need to continue with Level I screening for the other releases As shown in Table 7-6 the Level I screening evaluation for the TA-3 source term exceeded the screening criterion by a substantial margin Screening therefore proceeded to Level II III Table 7-6 Level I screening for the maximum HTO release from TA-3 Total Release 3 84E 12 Bq HTO Seconds per year 3 2E 07 Annualized Release Rate 1 2E 05 Bq sec Basis Table 7-5 NCRP 123 I-A-2 calculated Volumetric Flow Rate 0 3 m3 sec NCRP 123 I-A-3 Exhaust vent concentration 4 0E 05 Bq m3 calculated Receiver concentration 1 0E 05 Bq m3 calculated via NCRP 123 I-A-5 Screening Factor 7 20E-07 Sv per Bq m3 Screening Value 7 2E-02 Sv Screening Criterion 1 82E-04 Sv NCRP 123 Table B 1 inhalation vegetables soil calculated 1E-05 excess risk at 5 5% per Sv ICRP 103 Screening criterion exceeded YES To proceed to Level II screening the distance from each release point TA to the nearest residential area was estimated Table 7-7 shows the location of the nearest residential area and the approximate distance in meters from each TA FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 7-11 Table 7-7 Approximate distances from tritium release points to the nearest residents Technical Area Nearest Residents Approximate Distance m 3 15 21 33 35 41 Western Area Royal Crest Trailer Park Group D Housing White Rock Royal Crest Trailer Park Town Site Apartments 1 740 3 050 540 3 750 1 740 490 In the Level II screening process the estimated distances from the release points to the nearest residential locations are used to determine a plume diffusion factor These factors are determined from plots provided in NCRP Report No 123 To simplify the process the bounding value of the diffusion factor was selected for each source-receiver distance thereby eliminating the need to account for effective release heights and the possibility of building wake effects Such selection also added a further degree of conservatism Tables 7-8 through 7-13 below show the Level II b screening calculations for TAs 3 15 21 33 35 and 41 respectively In each of the six Level II screening calculations the screening criterion has been reduced by an order of magnitude factor of ten for an additional degree of conservatism per NCRP Report No 123 Thus the judgments as to whether the screening criterion has been exceeded are made against the adjusted rather than the actual screening criterion The screening evaluations show that only in the case of TA-35 for which the maximum release was treated as 100% HTO was the adjusted screening criterion ever exceeded In no case was the actual unadjusted screening criterion exceeded If all of the screening results are summed the result 9 17×10-5 Sv is approximately half of the screening criterion of 1 82×10-4 Sv Note that in addition to the fact that the maximum release values are being treated as if they all occurred in the same time span summing the individual screening values represents the physical impossibility of a hypothetical population of residents simultaneously living at a location nearest each of the individual release points The screening dose for the aggregate releases would be much lower for any of the individual residential areas b In reality the Level II screening assessments may be thought of as Level III since only the applicable pathways are being considered 7-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 Table 7-8 Level II screening for the maximum tritium release from TA-3 Total Release Seconds per year Annualized Release Rate Wind Speed Distance to receiver Dispersion factor 3 84E 12 3 2E 07 1 20E 05 2 1740 2 5E-05 Bq HTO sec Bq sec m sec m m-2 Table 7-5 NCRP 123 I-A-2 calculated NCRP 123 II-bi-7 estimated from LAHDRA project map NCRP 123 Fig 1 4 limiting value Receiver concentration 3 75E-01 Bq m3 Screening Factor 7 20E-07 Sv per Bq m3 NCRP 123 Table B 1 inhalation vegetables soil Screening Value 2 70E-07 Sv Adjusted Screening Criterion 1 82E-05 Sv 1E-05 excess risk at 5 5% per Sv divided by 10 to account for uncertainties per NCRP 123 II-F-5 Screening criterion exceeded NO Table 7-9 Level II screening for the maximum tritium release from TA-15 Total Release Seconds per year Annualized Release Rate Wind Speed Distance to receiver Dispersion factor 4 07E 14 3 2E 07 1 27E 07 2 3050 9E-06 Bq HTO sec Bq sec m sec m m-2 Table 7-5 NCRP 123 I-A-2 calculated NCRP 123 II-bi-7 estimated from LAHDRA project map NCRP 123 Fig 1 4 limiting value Receiver concentration 1 43E 01 Bq m3 Screening Factor 7 20E-07 Sv per Bq m3 NCRP 123 Table B 1 inhalation vegetables soil Screening Value 1 03E-05 Sv Adjusted Screening Criterion 1 82E-05 Sv 1E-05 excess risk at 5 5% per Sv divided by 10 to account for uncertainties per NCRP 123 II-F-5 Screening criterion exceeded NO FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 7-13 Table 7-10 Level II screening for the maximum tritium release from TA-21 Total Release Seconds per year Annualized Release Rate Wind Speed Distance to receiver Dispersion factor 2 97E 13 3 2E 07 9 28E 05 2 540 1 5E-04 Bq HTO sec Bq sec m sec m m-2 Table 7-5 NCRP 123 I-A-2 calculated NCRP 123 II-bi-7 estimated from LAHDRA project map NCRP 123 Fig 1 4 limiting value Receiver concentration 1 74E 01 Bq m3 Screening Factor 7 20E-07 Sv per Bq m3 NCRP 123 Table B 1 inhalation vegetables soil Screening Value 1 25E-05 Sv Adjusted Screening Criterion 1 82E-05 Sv 1E-05 excess risk at 5 5% per Sv divided by 10 to account for uncertainties per NCRP 123 II-F-5 Screening criterion exceeded NO Table 7-11 Level II screening for the maximum tritium release from TA-33 Total Release Seconds per year Annualized Release Rate Wind Speed Distance to receiver Dispersion factor 1 16E 13 3 2E 07 3 63E 05 2 3750 7E-06 Bq HTO sec Bq sec m sec m m-2 Table 7-5 NCRP 123 I-A-2 calculated NCRP 123 II-bi-7 estimated from LAHDRA project map NCRP 123 Fig 1 4 limiting value Receiver concentration 3 17E-01 Bq m3 Screening Factor 7 20E-07 Sv per Bq m3 NCRP 123 Table B 1 inhalation vegetables soil Screening Value 2 28E-07 Sv Adjusted Screening Criterion 1 82E-05 Sv 1E-05 excess risk at 5 5% per Sv divided by 10 to account for uncertainties per NCRP 123 II-F-5 Screening criterion exceeded NO 7-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 Table 7-12 Level II screening for the maximum tritium release from TA-35 Total Release Seconds per year Annualized Release Rate Wind Speed Distance to receiver Dispersion factor 9 25E 14 3 2E 07 2 89E 07 2 1740 2 5E-05 Bq HTO sec Bq sec m sec m m-2 Table 7-5 NCRP 123 I-A-2 calculated NCRP 123 II-bi-7 estimated from LAHDRA project map NCRP 123 Fig 1 4 limiting value Receiver concentration 9 03E 01 Bq m3 Screening Factor 7 20E-07 Sv per Bq m3 NCRP 123 Table B 1 inhalation vegetables soil Screening Value 6 50E-05 Sv Adjusted Screening Criterion 1 82E-05 Sv 1E-05 excess risk at 5 5% per Sv divided by 10 to account for uncertainties per NCRP 123 II-F-5 Screening criterion exceeded YES Table 7-13 Level II screening for the maximum tritium release from TA-41 Total Release Seconds per year Annualized Release Rate Wind Speed Distance to receiver Dispersion factor 5 84E 12 3 2E 07 1 83E 05 2 490 2E-04 Bq HTO sec Bq sec m sec m m-2 Table 7-5 NCRP 123 I-A-2 calculated NCRP 123 II-bi-7 estimated from LAHDRA project map NCRP 123 Fig 1 5 limiting value Receiver concentration 4 56E 00 Bq m3 Screening Factor 7 20E-07 Sv per Bq m3 NCRP 123 Table B 1 inhalation vegetables soil Screening Value 3 29E-06 Sv Adjusted Screening Criterion 1 82E-05 Sv 1E-05 excess risk at 5 5% per Sv divided by 10 to account for uncertainties per NCRP 123 II-F-5 Screening criterion exceeded NO The NCRP Report No 123 screening evaluation suggests that airborne tritium releases from LANL were unlikely to have been a source of adverse health risks to local residents around Los Alamos The possibility cannot be ruled out entirely however in light of the screening result for TA-35 Further there are caveats to consider including the possibility that larger releases could have occurred prior to 1967 when atmospheric tritium releases were first estimated by LANL or that some of the releases consisted of a greater fraction as tritium oxide HTO than has been considered here But given the degree of conservatism used in the screening method the impacts of such effects would have to be substantial before atmospheric tritium releases would have posed a significant health risk FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 7-15 As a check on the intended conservatism in the screening approach used for atmospheric tritium releases local environmental monitoring data for tritium oxide HTO were compiled for the period from July 1970 through December 1979 This period was expected to encompass the largest airborne tritium releases from LANL for the era when environmental monitoring data are available Table 7-14 shows the maximum annual average concentrations for the on-site and off-site environmental tritium monitoring stations on and around the LANL site for July 1970 to December 1979 The on-site data were included in this evaluation to both be conservative and to allow for the fact that the public historically has had access to many “on-site” locations at LANL Table 7-14 Maximum tritium oxide concentrations from the LANL environmental air monitoring stations 1970–1979 Maximum On-Site Average Maximum Off-Site Average Year Concentration µCi mL-1 Location Concentration µCi mL-1 Location LAHDRA Reference Repos No 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1 80×10-11 2 40 ×10-10 1 80×10-10 1 51×10-10 1 41×10-10 1 74×10-10 3 30×10-10 1 87×10-10 5 70×10-11 4 00×10-11 unknown Array 156-9 4 Array 156-9 4 TA-21 TA-33 TA-52 TA-54 TA-54 TA-54 TA-33 3 50×10-12 1 20×10-10 4 40×10-11 2 70×10-11 3 60×10-11 9 30×10-11 5 10×10-11 5 10×10-11 2 60×10-11 6 70×10-12 “Community” Array 42-3 1 Array 164-8 5 Fuller Lodge Fuller Lodge Fuller Lodge Los Alamos airport Los Alamos airport Los Alamos airport Royal Crest Trailer Park 2178 2155 887 2161 2157 2158 2159 2069 953 2190 July – December 1970 The elevated HTO concentrations at TA-54 are the result of evaporative losses from soil containing buried tritium-contaminated wastes Tritium oxidizes slowly in the environment at a rate of less than 1% per day Mishima and Steele 2002 The fact that the TA-54 sampling station is the location of the maximum measured on-site HTO concentrations for some years shows the importance of TA-54 as a source of airborne releases of tritium oxide relative to other sources The tritium oxide concentration for the TA-54 environmental monitoring station for 1976 was the largest of all of the on-site annual averages for July 1970 through December 1979 The largest off-site annual average for this period was at the location designated Array 42-3 1 for 1971 It is difficult to discern the precise location of this monitoring station in the reference but it appears that it might be at or near the Fuller Lodge location As shown in Table 7-14 the maximum annual average airborne tritium oxide concentrations reported by the LANL environmental air monitoring network for July 1970 through December 1979 were 3 3×10-10 7-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 µCi mL-1 12 2 Bq m-3 and 1 2×10-10 µCi mL-1 4 4 Bq m-3 for on-site and off-site locations respectively To gauge the implications of these concentrations in terms of dose to human receivers screening factors for tritium oxide from NCRP Report No 123 can be applied For the on-site locations for example the appropriate factor to use is the one for inhalation alone The combined factors for contaminated vegetable and soil inhalation and consumption are appropriate for the off-site locations These screening factors are 1 4×10-7 Sv per Bq m-3 for inhalation and 7 2×10-7 Sv per Bq m-3 for the combination of inhalation and consumption of contaminated vegetables and soil Multiplying the inhalation screening factor by the maximum on-site concentration value in consistent units results in a screening dose equivalent value of 1 7×10-6 Sv or 0 17 mrem Note that this calculation requires the extremely conservative assumption of 100% occupancy at the on-site location The same calculation for maximum average off-site concentration using the combined factor for inhalation and vegetables results in a screening dose equivalent of 3 2×10-6 Sv or 0 3 mrem If the vegetation pathway is included however the resulting screening dose is higher than the on-site location despite the lower average air concentration Nonetheless both of these values are well below the screening criterion of 1 82×10-4 Sv 18 2 mrem As with the screening assessment performed using atmospheric release data for tritium measured values of tritium oxide concentrations in the local environment around Los Alamos also suggest that airborne releases of tritium from LANL are unlikely to have resulted in any adverse health risks to the local residents However as with the effluent data the environmental monitoring data have been used as reported without any adjustments or verification and they do not consider the period prior to 1970 References Allison SK April 10 1944 letter from the Metallurgical Laboratory to X-10 Site concerning tritium production at Oak Ridge 1944 Barnes JW TA-41 Tritium Release Analysis memorandum to LJ Johnson dated 15 September 1976 WX-4-445 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1976 Buckland CW Spread of Plutonium in TA-41 W-7 Area memorandum to distribution dated 23 January 1957 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1957 Coffin DO Environmental Impact of HP-86 Operations memorandum to JE Dougherty dated 2 June 1971 W-3-71-4619 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1971 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 7-17 Deinken HP Report on Outer Perimeter Safety Survey for TA-33 memorandum to Roy Reider dated 15 November 1962 W-3-1896 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1962 DNFSB Review of Tritium Operations and Emergency Hazard Assessment at Los Alamos National Laboratory Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board 2001 Dube CM Coffin DO Stoll RD An Apparatus for the Reduction of Tritium Emissions into the Atmosphere Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-5303-MS 1973 Erickson DJ Letter to J L Bellows dated 4 February 1993 ADNWT 93-050 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1993 Garcia KLM McGehee ED Ronquillo J Isaacson J Upgrades to TA-33-87 -88 and -89 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-04-6061 2004 Harper JR Garde R The Decommissioning of a Tritium-Contaminated Laboratory Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-9056-MS 1981 Holmes V An Accidental Release of Radioactive Tritium Gas to the Atmosphere at TA-33 on February 16 1965 memorandum to Dean Meyer dated 4 March 1965 H-1-M-252 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1965 ICRP Age-Dependent Doses to The Members of the Public from Intake of Radionuclides Part 5 Compilation Of Ingestion And Inhalation Coefficients Vienna Austria International Commission on Radiological Protection ICRP Publication No 72 1996 Jalbert RA Tritium Stack Releases from TSTA memorandum to F Guevara dated 19 February 1985 MST-3 TSTA-20-85 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1985 Johnson LJ Calibration Check of DP513 Tritium Monitor memorandum to J W Anderson dated 4 June 1971 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1971 LANL TA-41 Unit Information Los Alamos National Laboratory 1988 7-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 LANL Environmental Assessment for the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility Building 205 TA-16 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1990 LANL TA-41 Facility Description Los Alamos National Laboratory 1991 LASL Monthly Progress Report of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Division Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMS-357 1946 LASL Tritium Release Data 1967 – 1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1973 Loomis E McGehee ED Garcia KM Towery K Ronquillo J The Decommissioning of TA-3-16 the Ion Beam Facility IBF Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 2005 Mishima J Steele CM Oxidation of Tritium Gas Under Accident and Transport Conditions Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-02-3803 2002 Morgenstern M Hueske K Air Modeling as an Alternative to Sampling for Low-Level Radioactive Airborne Releases 50th Purdue University Industrial Waste Conference 1995 Nasise JE Performance and Improvements of the Tritium Handling Facility at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-UR-80-1265 American Nuclear Society Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission Fusion and Isotopic Applications 1980 NCRP Screening Models for Release of Radionuclides to Atmosphere Surface Water and Ground Bethesda MD National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report No 123 1996 Pan PY Rigdon LD Tritium Oxidation in Atmospheric Transport Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-96-2953 1996 Storm E Appraisal of TA-35 Ten Site memorandum to Dean Meyer and JNP Lawrence dated 18 May 1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1972 Tuggle DG Weapons Subsystems Laboratory construction proposal from LANL Archives Collection A2007-002-668-1 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1983 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 7-19 Webber JB Tritium Results on Water Samples Room 326 DP West memorandum to Dean Meyer dated 15 May 1952 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1952 7-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Hot Cell Facilities and Operations at LANL Beginning with early operations LANL processed highly radioactive material such as fission products to meet both its production and research needs and those of the federal government Much of LANL’s work on radioactive materials was carried out in specialized shielded enclosures called “hot cells” that provided protection for workers by reducing their radiation exposures Remote manipulators also called mechanical hands were used to handle isolated radioactive materials inside the hot cells The hot cells also provided some level of control in helping to reduce releases of radioactive material to the environment In 1944 LANL began receiving its first shipments of multiple curies of 140Ba for use in extracting 140La a radionuclide used as a tracer for hydrodynamic explosive tests conducted during the Radioactive Lanthanum “RaLa” program Because of the high gamma energy and radiation fields associated with these materials LANL designed and built its first hot cell facility in order to safely extract the 140La for further processing Over the course of many years LANL built several additional hot cell facilities to meet the growing needs of the federal government and other customers and by the early 1980s had approximately 36 hot cells in operation In addition to 140Ba 140La operations hot cells were used for Wilson et al 1979 • handling and manufacturing of nuclear reactor fuels and fuel assemblies • chemical separation and analysis of irradiated reactor fuels • radionuclide analyses such as with fission products to support nuclear weapon tests • accelerator-based production of radionuclides for medical and research applications • fabrication and testing of fuels associated with the Rover nuclear propulsion and the Ultra High-Temperature Reactor Experiment UHTREX projects • storage and processing of materials with high tritium concentrations and • chemical separation isotopic analysis treatment and volume reduction and high-level radioactive waste storage in support of a variety of LANL and other governmental programs LANL’s hot cell facilities were used for handling large quantities of fission products and to a lesser extent plutonium uranium and other heavy elements Because of the higher radioactivity handled in these facilities the project team collected information on hot cell operations to support potential prioritization of associated future releases This chapter provides an overview of LANL’s hot cell operations and highlights those that may warrant further investigation In preliminary prioritization FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 8-1 analyses fission products were found to be less important than several other classes of radionuclides The analyses performed to date however have been largely dependent on release estimates put forward by LANL and waste streams associated with hot cell operations appear to not always have been among the top priorities within programs for monitoring and estimating releases to the environment Several comments have been made during past LAHDRA public meetings that indicate that some members of the public believe that releases from hot cell operations have not been adequately disclosed characterized or quantified Some believe that releases of radioiodine and other fission products could have been significantly larger than has been disclosed and that an independent evaluation of associated historical activities is warranted A summary of LANL hot cell operations is presented in Table 8-1 Over 8 000 documents or sets of documents that are included in the LAHDRA project information database were searched by team members for information pertaining to hot cell and associated operations A summary of related information that has been extracted is presented below 8-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 Table 8-1 Hot Cell Operations at LANL Wilson et al 1979 TA Purpose Dates Radionuclides Chemicals 140 Ba 140La 90Sr 210Po 226Ra Be 1 Radiochemical and radiotracer separation including RaLa operations and neutron source preparation Most of these operations took place in H Building 1944 -1957 3 CMR Building Wing 9 Hot Cell Facility Used to evaluate irradiated plutonium and uranium fuel and fission products testing and separation and post detonation debris radiochemical analyses Operations occurred largely in Wing 9 of CMR Building The facility contained 16 general purpose cells 2m by 2m by 3 6m high 1961-present 10 Early RaLa sources were prepared in Bayo Canyon and later in facilities at Ten Site TA-35 RaLa explosive experiments were completed in Bayo canyon Remote handling telescopes and mirrors were used to aid in the separation and preparation of the 140La A few hundred thousands curies were handled during almost 20 y of RaLa explosive testing Some batches of La reached upwards to 5 000 Ci Single sources for test shots ranged from 40 to over 3 000 Ci 1944-1951 18 Rover Program - Hot Cell facility 1955-1973 21 Examination of irradiated Pu and enriched uranium from Omega reactor such as 235U impregnated with graphite and 239Pu in stainless steel casing and a tantalum sheath and separation of irradiated fuel and fission products The facility had four primary hot cells that were designed primarily to evaluate plutonium reprocessing schemes Fuel reprocessing experiments and tests were discontinued in 1967 In the 1970s the hot cells were used to evaluate irradiated fuel elements associated with the LMFBR program Operations occurred largely in Bldg 4 Room 401 Rooms 403 through 407 contained gloveboxes used for metal preparation of 238 239Pu High exposure rates during material transfers to hot cells After tests were completed irradiated fuel was transferred from hot cells to the “hot dump ” On 26 May 1961 special fiberglass filter papers were placed in cell corridor and stack exhaust lines in Room 401 to sample air for fission products 1958 - 1978 33 Tritium handling facilities that contained hot cells for source handling and processing 3 35 Radiochemical and radiotracer separation RaLa operations neutron source preparation and fuel separation Starting in 1956 the Chemical Processing Plant at Idaho Falls provided purified 140Ba Almost 2 million Ci were processed at Ten Site by 1963 when the RaLa program was terminated Irradiated fuels from the LAPRE I and II and LAMPRE reactors were also evaluated in hot cells located at Ten Site First hot cell design after WWII for handling high-level radioactive materials 1951-1963 140 48 Radiochemistry Hot Cell Facility Used to perform actinide chemistry and isotope production separation Facility also used to analyze samples collected from nuclear weapon test shots In 1963 another hot cell facility was built in an adjacent structure to evaluate and dissolve samples of graphite fuel from the Rover Program The Rover Program ended in 1973 1959-present Pu U TRU mixed fission products and mixed activation products 50 Contaminated Hot Cell facility This facility was designed to handle high-level beta and gamma emitting wastes from several groups at LANL The hot cells were part of the Contaminated Waste Treatment Plant The cell was primarily used to neutralize liquid waste and package it for permanent storage 1963-present Pu U TRU mixed fission products andmixed activation products 52 UHTREX high-level remote handling area consisted of one hot cell for fuel element changing and examination 1961-1968 53 LAMPF and LANSCE facilities contain two hot cells used for radiochemical experiments of irradiated targets isotope production and mixed activation products 1976-present 239 238 Pu 234 235 238U mixed fission products mixed activation products TRU 140 Ba 140La 90Sr 210Po 226Ra Be Pu U and fission products 3 H 239 238Pu 234 235 238U mixed fission products H Ba 140La 90Sr 210Po 226Ra mixed fission products Be Pu and U 3 H mixed activation products FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 8-3 The RaLa Program Chemical extractions of lanthanum during the initial years of the program for testing the implosion process 1944-1950 were performed using 1 5- to 2- m high shielded shipping casks and were carried out in a wooden building located in Bayo Canyon TA-10 Wilson et al 1979 Operators located approximately 27 m from the casks using electric cranks cabling and remote tongs along with telescopes and mirrors for viewing lowered reagents into casks to complete the chemical separation of barium and lanthanum One hundred and fifty sources of 140La ranging in source strength from 40 to over 3 000 Ci were prepared and used in explosives tests from September 1944 to July 1950 The crude remote handling facility used at TA-10 was modest by today’s standards for hot cell design and performance but it served its purpose until it was phased out of operations in the early 1950s In 1947 LANL began constructing a new hot cell facility at Ten Site TA-35 to process barium and lanthanum Completed in 1951 at a cost of nearly $3 million the facility consisted of two 3-m by 6-m by 2 5-m high hot cells A crane and trolley system was used to move radioactive materials in and out of the cells The trolley housed a rotatable spindle with pins on one end to mate with bayonet slots of various tools vessels and equipment components inside the hot cells for handling and processing materials An operator’s view inside a hot cell was accomplished with shielded glass windows such as leaded glass and a series of mirrors and retractable periscopes A large auxiliary building was used to handle and purify air and house liquid filtration and treatment equipment Believed to have been the first modern hot cell design to handle high-level radioactive materials the TA-35 facility contained innovative features such as exterior contamination–free lighting cell wash-down sprays collimated ports for experiments and hydraulic rams for opening and handling shipping casks LANL later added concrete caves with a zinc bromide window above the hot cells to provide flexibility for packaging lanthanum sources In 1963 these operations terminated after processing about two million curies from the Chemical Processing Plant at the Idaho Falls Wilson et al 1979 Hot Cells Associated with LANL Reactors A series of research and production reactors were operated at LANL as far back as 1943 These reactors were largely used in fuel and neutron experiments and for fission and activation product research and production Wilson et al 1979 The first of these reactors were the water boiler series reactors LOPO HYPO and SUPO as described in Chapter 5 The Clementine reactor located at Omega Site TA-2 at the bottom of Los Alamos Canyon was commissioned in November 1946 and was the first reactor to use 239Pu for fuel Hot cells were used to test the fuel and reactor components following neutron 8-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 irradiation experiments Corrosion of steel cladding began to release considerable alpha contamination into the mercury coolant which led to the reactor’s shutdown and decommissioning in 1952 According to LANL employees no detectable radioactivity was released to the environment during these fuel rod failures Wilson et al 1979 The OWR was built at the same location as Clementine and was operated from 1956 to 1994 to support a variety of research programs Irradiated fuel from Omega West was transferred to hot cells for chemical processing and testing In some cases isotopes were extracted to support or research programs LANL used a series of compact reactors assembled and tested at Ten Site in the 1950s and 1960s to test new technologies used in reactor and fuel assembly designs This project was called the Los Alamos Power Reactor Experiment LAPRE and it used plutonium dissolved in phosphoric acid LAPRE I was a forced-convection high pressure water-cooled reactor that was later drained and decommissioned LAPRE II used natural convection operated for short time and then was shut down Irradiated fuel and reactor components and equipment were tested inside the TA-35 hot cells Typical processes involved chemical separation radionuclide analytical measurements and waste disposal preparation A third reactor known as the Los Alamos Molten Plutonium Reactor Experiment LAMPRE operated within the Ten Site hot cell adjacent to the one used to extract 140La in the RaLa program The fuels from these reactors were eventually transferred for storage to the CMR Wing 9 hot cell facility at TA-3 for further processing and waste disposal Wilson et al 1979 General Purpose Hot Cells Since 1951 LANL has operated 36 general purpose hot cells in four separate on-site facilities These are described as general purpose cells because their designs permitted considerable flexibility for radioactive material storage processing and handling This section presents a description of each of these facilities Hot cell operations are active or have been active at the following LANL facilities • TA-3 CMR Building Wing 9 Operations • TA-21 DP West Site Building 4 Room 401 • TA-48 Radiochemistry LaboratoryTA-50 Contaminated Waste Treatment Facility • TA-52 UHTREX Facility and • TA-53 LAMPF LANSCE Facility FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 8-5 TA-3 CMR Building Wing 9 Hot Cells The CMR Wing 9 hot cell facility began operating in December 1961 The facility was used to support the civilian power reactor program from 1961 to 1967 the Rover Nuclear Propulsion Project from 1961 to 1973 and the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor LMFBR from 1967 to the early 1980s The facility has also provided assistance to numerous LANL programs by performing various experiments involving high levels of gamma radiation associated with irradiated fuel and fission product samples The facility still supports a variety of LANL programs including transuranic TRU waste treatment and packaging for disposal at the DOE WIPP site in Carlsbad New Mexico LANL 1999 Fig 8-1 Wing 9 hot cell facility at TA-3’s CMR Building LANL 1999 The Wing 9 hot cell facility consists of sixteen 2-m by 2-m by 3 6-m high hot cells arranged in two groups of eight cells separated by shielded corridors Fig 8-1 represents a cutaway drawing of the Wing 9 hot cell facility The ferro-phosphorus walls and leaded-glass windows shield up to 30 000 Ci of mixed fission products or 50 000 Ci of 1 MeV gamma radioactivity Valentine et al 1969 Wilson et al 1979 A storage area consists of 364 shielded holes that are cooled and maintained at negative pressure Areas within the facility are designed for decontamination activities mock-up runs machine shop manipulator repair cold laboratory dark room and staff offices Fig 8-2 is a photograph showing the exterior work stations and the shielded glass viewing windows manipulator arms and control panels for a group of four Wing 9 hot cells located in the CMR Building Airborne effluents from the CMR Wing 9 hot cells are filtered and monitored for particulates and radioiodine with fiber and charcoal filters respectively Air from three monitored compartments is discharged at a rate of 176 840 ft3 min-1 through a 56 ft tall stack Air samples are collected on a 24-h basis and analyzed for 235U 238U 239Pu 241Am fission products and 131I Sampling results and details of the sampling program were reported in LANL reports and were reviewed by the LAHDRA team Early 8-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 effluent monitoring results are published in monthly Health Division reports and special reports that present monitoring results for non-routine releases as well as discussion of general issues relating to stack monitoring and airborne emissions and their environmental impact Monitoring results are also published in LANL’s Annual Environmental Surveillance reports for the years 1970 to the present Stack sampling and filtering of effluents for the Wing 9 hot cells began at the start of operations and underwent of number of changes and improvements over the years In a 1970 memorandum LANL reported that the CMR stack sampling was not isokinetic results were therefore not representative of quantities actually discharged and Fig 8-2 CMR Building Wing 9 hot cells improvements were needed in order to generate reliable release estimates Graham 1952 Upgrades and new procedures were implemented to improve the exhaust filtration and monitoring program as highlighted in numerous Health Division reports and memorandums Graham 1952 Efforts to reduce emissions were also emphasized during this period because of the forthcoming AEC release limit reductions for radioactive isotopes Other reports also depicted LANL’s efforts to improve the monitoring and control of airborne releases from other CMR wings and exhaust stacks LASL 1975 Solid radioactive waste from these and other hot cell operations were disposed of at the former TA-21 and TA-54 burials grounds Waste was often treated or consolidated and packaged into a variety of containers such as 55-gallon metals drums and transported to the burial grounds for shallow-land burial Land burial at LANL began during the 1940s and continued up through recent years Small volumes of liquid waste from hot cell operations containing plutonium americium uranium and fission products along with reacted sodium and sodium potassium solutions were placed in 3 8 L or smaller containers and then packed in 7 8 L cans with dry vermiculite for shaft burial at the burial grounds Other waste containing higher levels of radioactivity were transported to TA-50 for treatment LASL 1975 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 8-7 T-21 DP West Site Room 401 Hot Cells Construction of four hot cells began in 1958 in Building 4 at TA-21 These cells were designed to handle kilogram quantities of irradiated plutonium possessing kilocuries of gamma activity and to support evaluation of plutonium fuel reprocessing schemes up through 1967 The facility then remained idle for the next three years until the cells were used to perform in-depth post-irradiation examinations of reactor fuel elements The 2-m by 2-m by 6 5-m high cells were interconnected by a 3-m by 10-m shielded corridor with rolling steel doors and 22 1 5 m deep storage wells located on the floor The cells were equipped with manipulators for remote processing and radioactive material was moved in and out via a transfer can system This facility was partially decommissioned in the 1980s and has been under a maintenance and preservation program since The future plans for many of the buildings at TA-21 are currently under review by LANL The Room 401 hot cells were designed with a negative pressure water circulating system If the system were breached air would leak into the system instead of water leaking into the cells This design minimized the chances of a nuclear criticality accident and reduced the potential for a large of amount of contaminated water that would have otherwise flooded the cells This design did however create airborne emission concerns As reported in two 1961 Health Division memos regarding the DP West Room 401 Hot Cells LANL recognized that process air concentrations and releases of 131I had become a concern and needed to be addressed by using improved source control and exhaust vent and stack filtration Dummer 1961 Fig 8-3 provides an example report of air concentrations above the maximum permissible concentrations MPCs highlighting those concerns The elevated air concentrations were due to the dissolution and analysis processing of an 82-g plutonium foil that had been irradiated in the Omega West Reactor The reports suggest that this occurrence was not unique and that greater attention was needed in order to reduce such airborne emissions in the future 8-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 Fig 8-3 DP West hot cell 131I air sample results from Dummer 1961 LANL also stated in memos that before another sample was run some effort to prevent iodine dispersal should be made that is charcoal filters should be installed at the drybox exhaust ports Dummer 1961 TA-48 Radiochemistry Hot Cell Facility The TA-48 Radiochemistry Hot Cell Facility became operational in 1959 and was designed for irradiated fuel and fission product evaluations and experiments The facility was also used for other programs such as actinide chemistry experiments isotope separation and production for medical and research uses indepth fuel analyses and fission product and fuel testing of samples collected following nuclear weapon detonation tests Wilson et al 1979 The first cell utilized three work stations and was design to store and handle hundreds of curies of radioactivity TA-48 hot cells are still in use today for processing testing and storing radioactive materials Vergamini 1991 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 8-9 Fig 8-4 DP West hot cell layout showing monitoring and filters Dummer 1961 In 1963 twelve more cells were built in an adjacent building at TA-48 for dissolving and evaluating graphite fuel used in the Rover program The cells are 1 5-m by 1 7-m by 2 7-m high and arranged in two rows of six separated by a shielded corridor The Rover project ended in 1973 and some of the cells were later modified to handle uranium plutonium transuranics and fission products Releases of 131I and other fission products gained the attention of LANL staff While it is unclear how rapidly LANL responded to the issue it is clear that Health Division staff published their concerns about the issue during early operations Figure 8-5 presents an example of a LANL document that highlights radioiodine releases and concerns about off-site emissions from the TA-48 hot cells Much of LANL’s concerns focused on residents living in a nearby trailer court Royal Crest Trailer Park located approximately 1000 m from the TA-48 exhaust stack Hot cells at TA-48 were used to experiment with a variety of less commonly used radionuclides such 227Ac 76Br 77Br 82Br and 237U 8-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 Fig 8-5 1964 H-Division memo addressing airborne iodine releases at TA-48 Buckland 1964 LANL took steps to reduce these iodine releases by adding additional charcoal filters to exhaust air systems It also improved its stack sampling and monitoring systems and practices over time so that results more accurately quantified releases to the environment Neely 1967 Process air from TA-48 hot cells and surrounding areas was consolidated and exhausted through two main exhaust plenums designated as FE-38 and FE-48 and then vented to the outdoor atmosphere FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 8-11 through an elevated stack Maestas 1971 The Maestas references cited here are sample reports selected from a series of weekly Health Division reports located in the LAHDRA database TA-50 Contaminated Waste Treatment Plant Hot Cell Facility As part of the Chemical Waste Treatment Plant at TA-50 a hot cell facility became operational in 1963 to handle high levels of beta-gamma emitting radioactive material The hot cell facility was primarily used to neutralize liquid waste and package the treated and consolidated waste for long-term storage and disposal The facility consisted of a cask unloading dock transfer and storage area and one 2-m by 3-m by 4-m high hot cell TA-52 UHTREX Hot Cell This hot cell was built in 1965 to provide a properly-shielded place to exchange fuel assemblies and test irradiated fuel The facility was shut down in 1968 along with the UHTREX project Fast Reactor Core Test Facility Construction of this facility began in 1963 and was completed in 1966 The project and associated use of the hot cell facility for handling plutonium fuel was terminated before any of the systems or structures were tested or used TA-53 LAMPF LANSCE The accelerator complex at TA-53 contains two hot cells with four work stations These hot cells have been in operation since 1976 The cells are used for radiochemical experiments and medical and research isotope production and separation Isotope separation was also performed inside the hot cells at Wing 9 CMR Building at TA-3 Hot Cell Decontamination and Waste Disposal The largest amount of radioactive waste generated by hot cell operations came from the hot cells located at TA-3 Wing 9 TA-21 Room 401 TA-35 Ten Site Laboratory TA-48 Radiochemistry Laboratory and TA-50 Waste Treatment Plant Methods used to decontaminate treat and dispose liquid and solid waste from LANL’s hot cell operations varied according to the levels of radioactivity and the types of radioactive materials processed in a given project Much of the removal treatment consolidation and disposal of highly radioactive residues and wastes generated inside hot cells involved using remotely-operated jet spray washing and dry and wet vacuum systems Dummer 1965 LANL 8-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 1974 Highly radioactive liquid waste was treated at the Contaminated Waste Hot Cell facility located at TA-50 Removing and collecting contaminated radioactive waste and subsequently treating it for on-site disposal at a typical LANL hot cell involved the following procedures • Removable contamination was spray-washed from containment structures such as bench tops and laboratory exhaust hoods and from equipment and tools and then vacuumed into holding containers • Spray washing to remove loose contamination was repeated until levels allowed personnel to enter the hot cells for short periods to apply more aggressive measures such as acid washing and scrubbing to lower contamination to acceptable levels • Soaking highly contaminated smaller equipment and tools in containers filled with a mixture of CH2Cl2 dichloromethane or methylene chloride detergents and hot water This process proved to be an effective means of removing radioactive residues The foaming action of the mixture carried off much contamination in precipitates that were collected treated and or disposed • Dry solid residues and debris were vacuumed with in-cell vacuum systems and collected in containers Recovered material considered to be valuable was sent for further separation analysis and recycling • At Ten Site TA-35 hot cells highly radioactive residues were evaporated to dryness placed in pressure-sealed aluminum containers and loaded into uranium casks The casks were then loaded on trucks and transported to the TA-21 disposal area for burial in 2-ft diameter by 15 ft deep holes in the ground When burial activities at TA-21 ceased LANL began using the burial grounds at TA-54 to meet their disposal requirements for these wastes • Highly radioactive solid waste was loaded into aluminum or stainless steel containers and placed in uranium casks for burial at the TA-21 disposal area In later years these wastes were transported to the burial grounds at TA-54 During the early period of the 1950s and 1960s liquid wastes were mixed with concrete and vermiculite and buried as solid waste • At the Wing 9 facility TA-3 hot cells cells dedicated to uranium and plutonium fuel work used open containers inside the hot cells Dry debris and dust generated from cutting crushing and drilling the fuel was collected with an in-cell vacuum system equipped with a cyclone separator a FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 8-13 CWS filter and a charcoal adsorption bed Liquid and solid wastes were collected treated and consolidated for land burial using similar methods • By the 1970s liquid wastes with recoverable amounts of radioactive materials were sent to hot cells at TA-50 for separation such as cation exchange processing analyzed and returned to LNL generators for reuse and or further analyses Waste contents with 10-3 μCi mL-1 alpha and or 10-2 μCi mL-1 beta concentrations were disposed of as low-level radioactive waste If concentrations were above these values the waste was placed in portable stainless steel tanks and delivered to the TA-50 Waste Treatment facility for recovery and consolidation LANL 1974 References Buckland C Summary of I131 Concentrations found in and from new cell addition at TA-48 H-1 Office Memo dated October 14 1964 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964 Dummer JE Iodine Activity from DP West Hot Cells Memorandum to Dean D Meyer dated June 2 1961 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961 Dummer JE Hot Cell Decontamination Procedures at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1965 Graham JB General Information Bulletin No 3 - CMR Building dated Octoberr 7 1952 Los Almos Scientific Laboratory 1952 LANL Radioactive Waste Management Site Plan June 1974 Los Almos NM Los Almos Scientific Laboratory 1974 LANL Nuclear Materials Research and Technology Los Almos National Laboratory 1999 LASL Radioactive Waste Management Site Plan June 1975 Los Almos New Mexico Los Almos Scientific Laboratory 1975 Maestas S H-1 Weekly Survey Report for Radioactive Contamination for TA-48 Memorandum to George Cowan and Dean D Meyer dated January7 1971 Los Almos Scientific Laboratory 1971 Neely G Zn65 and Na24 Contamination at Omega site - OWR Monday January 23 1967 1967 Valentine A Fitzgibbon F Martinez L Health Physics at the Los Almos Wing 9 Hot-Cell Facility written December 1968 Los Almos NM Los Almos Scientific Laboratory 1969 8-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 Vergamini T Tritium Stack Effluent Report November 1 1991 through November 27 1991 Memorandum to Margo Clark dated December 4 1991 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1991 Wilson MT Wood WT Barnes JW History of Remote Handling at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-UR-79-3091 1979 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 8-15 This page intentionally left blank 8-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Operations with Other Radionuclides Uranium As discussed in numerous places in this report uranium at various levels of 235U enrichment has been used in a wide variety of applications at LANL Uses of Uranium in Weapons To develop and build gun-assembled weapons LANL personnel initially experimented with using enriched uranium 235U and plutonium as the fissionable material The gun-assembled uranium weapon was carried into production and some implosion-assembled weapons that came along later included uranium as a fissile material In addition heavy metals such as uranium were used as ―tampers‖ that confined the explosion reflected some neutrons that would otherwise escape and thereby decreased the ―critical mass‖ of fissile material required to achieve an atomic explosion Serber et al 1992 Uses of Uranium in Reactors Uranium in liquid and solid forms was also used as fuel in various nuclear reactors more details can be found in Chapter 5 The first Water Boiler reactor was assembled in late 1943 at Omega Site TA-2 using the nation’s total supply enriched uranium as fuel in the form of 14%-enriched uranyl sulfate The Plutonium Fast Reactor Clementine used plutonium fuel that was surrounded by a 6-inch thick natural uranium reflector and reactivity control was achieved via inserting uranium fuel rods The LAPRE I reactor experiment studied the use of phosphoric acid solutions of high-enriched uranium in a hightemperature reactor fuel as did LAPRE II The Ultra High Temperature Reactor Experiment UHTREX used 93%-enriched uranium fuel in the form of small spheres of UO2 coated with pyrolytic carbon and bound in a graphite matrix That fuel was fabricated at the CMR Building in TA-3 A 1969 waste management plan says that the DP East facility processed new Rover fuel elements containing enriched uranium Facilities that Handled Uranium From 1948 to 1960 DP West Site’s Building 4 housed laboratories for production of enriched uranium hydride In 1960 the hydride equipment was removed so that a hot cell could be added for the examination of irradiated plutonium and enriched uranium fuel elements Facilities at the Original Technical Area TA-1 that housed uranium operations included FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 9-1 C-Building– housed a normal machine shop with a uranium machine shop in southeast section Became operational in October 1943 D-Building– a facility designed to carry out chemistry and metallurgical experiments on plutonium and uranium Other activities included tamper and polonium initiator design and various refractory material development G-Building– housed the uranium and graphite ―Sigma Pile ‖ plus leak-testing of radium sources Removed in June 1959 HT-Building– heat treatment and machining of normal and enriched uranium HT Barrel House– contained storage areas for 239Pu and 235U M-Building– housed processing metallurgy and recovery of enriched uranium Sigma Bldg– housed casting machining powder metallurgy of normal and enriched uranium and thorium eastern part was normal western part was enriched TU-Building– housed machining of normal uranium ―tuballoy‖ TU-1 Building– housed recovery of enriched uranium V-Building– contained the original machine shop uranium and beryllium were machined there The Sigma Complex in TA-3 built in the 1950s and 1960s has housed extensive laboratory areas for synthesizing processing characterizing and fabricating materials such as beryllium uranium thallium and aluminum alloys These activities included large-scale metallurgy and fabrication of normal and fully enriched uranium As of 1969 the CMR Bldg except for its Wing 9 was used for laboratory work on small quantities of uranium and plutonium Wing 9 contained hot cells for handling irradiated uranium and sometimes plutonium see Chapter 8 Uses of Uranium in Explosive Testing LANL staff estimated in 1971 that between 75 000 and 95 000 kg of uranium had been expended in experimental shots at LANL from 1949 through 1970 Drake and Eyster 1971 Normal uranium was used until 1954 after which time depleted uranium was used exclusively A 1952 AEC report states that test shots at LANL routinely dispersed 300 lbs of uranium per month and 2 000 lbs of barium per month 9-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 English 1952 Between 1944 and 1948 eight firing sites A-H were established at TA-15 R-Site Experiments using from 50 lbs up to two tons of HE were conducted at these firing points Firing points E and F were the most active Up to 65 000 kg of uranium and 350 kg of beryllium were expended at these two firing sites Hazardous materials including uranium beryllium and lead were largely left in the places where they had been deposited by explosions at these sites LANL 1992 The Bayo Canyon Site TA-10 was used between 1944 and 1962 for experiments using conventional high explosives radioactive lanthanum RaLa and in some cases depleted or natural uranium The explosions resulted in the dispersion of uranium 140La and 90Sr in the form of aerosols and debris to the atmosphere and onto the ground Use of Uranium at LAMPF LANSCE Originally constructed to study sub-atomic particles the Los Alamos Meson Physics facility LAMPF includes an accelerator that has been used to generate intense pulses of neutrons by sending protons into targets of high atomic number such as uranium Accidents and Incidents Involving Uranium In addition to describing routine operational releases of uranium some LANL documents also describe accidents and incidents involving uranium that could have been associated with airborne and or waterborne releases to the environment Some of the documented accidents that that have involved uranium are summarized in Table 9-1 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 9-3 Table 9-1 Some accidents and incidents at LANL involving uranium Date Description Repos No 2 1 1951 On February 1 1951 there was a criticality incident involving 2 cylinders of U-235 The cylinders weighted 24 4 kg and 38 5 kg of 93% U-235 The 2 cylinders were in a water reflected system There was slight oxidation of the uranium 1017 total fissions were involved 6206 12 9 1952 On December 9 1952 in S-104 uranium in a furnace caught fire and was contained in the furnace Clean-up of S-104 was conducted on December 11 and 12 3495 6 26 1953 On June 26 1953 there was a small fire in a flask containing uranium hydride in D-151 3491 12 5 1953 On December 5 1953 a glass furnace in a vacuum hood exploded releasing 40g of uranium 3491 3 9 1955 Uranium was released into the hood of Room 121 at TA-46 on March 9 1954 2383 5 12 1955 On May 12 1955 a small furnace erupted releasing an unknown quantity estimated at less than one kilogram of uranium in Room 102 of Sigma Building 2374 7 21 1955 On July 21 1955 some normal uranium caught fire in Room 1131 1184 8 19 1955 On August 19 1955 an employee dropped a test tube containing one gram of normal uranium in Wing 2 of CMR Building 3489 3 9 1956 On March 9 1956 a spill of uranium flowed into the bottom of the furnace in Room 21 of the Sigma Building 2383 9 27 1957 On September 27 1957 rags contaminated with sodium and uranium caught fire in Room 133 at Ten Site Fire was quickly extinguished with CO2 2414 4 1 1959 During processing of irradiated U-235 at TA-48 uranium oxide was blown out of the hood when a sample can was opened 2514 12 3 1959 On December 3 1959 a fire broke out in the duct work of Room 313 of DP West where uranium materials are incinerated The damage was limited to the duct work 2494 6 17 1960 On June 17 1960 there was a criticality incident involving 48 kg U-235 Uranium cylinders in thick graphite 9-in reflected before complete assembly resulting in trivial damage 6 x 1016 total fissions were involved 6206 8 7 1961 On August 7 1961 a container with a uranium fuel element leaked Contamination products were detected in the parking lot and around the building No decontamination was done 2524 4 8 1963 On April 8 1963 there was a uranium spill at TA-46 2536 1 10 1964 On January 10 1964 in SM-66 depleted uranium residue ignited in a drum The material was allowed to burn out 2812 4 22 1964 An explosion occurred following a fire in Room 313 DP West from uranium contaminated rags on April 22 1964 The fire spread from the drybox to the adjoining hood 2505 6 1 1965 At DP East the gas purge line to a recovery furnace became plugged The operator in charge removed a rubber hose connected to the unit and uranium-containing dust was blown out into his face and onto his clothing NA 11 16 1966 The air cleaner at one of the enriched uranium shops developed a pin-hole leak which resulted in high surface contamination of the surrounding area NA 1 15 1969 A glovebox explosion occurred in the uranium recovery operation at DP West during the incineration of U-235 metal turnings NA 4 3 1970 On April 3 1970 a furnace containing uranium exploded releasing dust in SM-35 Room 104 4261 11 2 1971 On November 2 1971 an explosion in test cell furnace blew uranium contamination onto floor 1417 5 4 1979 A stainless steel pot containing uranium tritide was overheated in a laboratory at the Cryogenics Building and ruptured on May 4 1979 tritiated water escaped into the laboratory because of inadequate air flow in the hood Some tritium was released to the atmosphere 4484 11 2 1982 On November 2 1982 approximately 50-100 L of waste liquid escaped from a tank vent at TA21-257 contaminating the building roof walls and surrounding area with low levels of plutonium americium and uranium NA 9-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 Evaluation of Potential Health Risks from Atmospheric Releases of Uranium As summarized above the main areas where uranium has been used in machining or fabrication include TA-1 TA-3 and TA-21 Considerable quantities of uranium have also been expended in firing site activities conducted at TA-15 TA-36 and others LANL’s operations have involved a wide range of uranium enrichment from depleted primarily 238U with very little 235U to highly enriched primarily 235 U Figure 9-1 shows LANL’s reported airborne releases of uranium from routine operations for the period 1952 through 1995 The release data have been adjusted upward through application of correction factors for sample line losses and for degraded counting efficiency due to dust loading and burial in the sampling media These correction factors are discussed further in Chapter 17 ―Routine operations‖ has been used here to differentiate between chronic releases associated with everyday activities and episodic releases associated with dynamic testing The routine releases were those from elevated stacks or roof vents The principal sources of routine airborne releases of uranium reported by LANL were TA-3 and TA-21 No uranium-specific release data have been identified to date for the period prior to 1952 Uranium releases from TA-21 are not reported prior to 1962 meaning the uranium source term for 1952 – 1961 is underreported unless there were no releases from TA-21 during that period Uranium release data for TA-3 are also currently unavailable for the period 1962 – 1966 so the source term for that period is likewise understated There are airborne effluent data available from earlier in LANL’s history however the data are not nuclide specific Rather they are reported in terms of gross beta and gross alpha activity Specifying the reported gross beta and gross alpha releases in terms of their nuclide-specific constituents is beyond the scope of this initial investigation FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 9-5 1 00E 05 Uranium Released µCi 1 00E 04 1 00E 03 Total TA-21 TA-3 1 00E 02 1 00E 01 1 00E 00 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 Year Figure 9-1 Routine airborne releases of uranium from LANL 1952 – 1995 To gauge what impact LANL’s atmospheric uranium releases may have had in terms of human health risk the NCRP Report No 123 screening model NCRP 1996 was applied to airborne uranium source term information for TA-21 TA-21 was selected because it was the largest source of airborne releases of uranium reported by LANL for its routine i e non-firing site operations The screening was performed using the data for 1963 the year of the largest release reported by LANL The 1963 uranium release was screened against a criterion of a 1 in 100 000 added risk of fatal or nonfatal cancer assuming a risk factor of 5 5% per sievert Sv ICRP 2007 This figure corresponds to a dose equivalent of 1 82×10-04 Sv 18 2 mrem The exposed population selected was the residential area nearest the release point In the case of TA-21this was the Group 18 residential area just west of the airport The distance between this area and the uranium release points from TA-21 was estimated to be 540 m The pathways considered were inhalation of contaminated air plume immersion irradiation from contaminated ground and consumption of contaminated soil and vegetables Consumption of locallyraised meat or milk was not considered The applicable NCRP 123 screening factors for the selected 9-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 pathways were 0 31 Sv per Bq per m3 and 0 33 Sv per Bq per m3 for 234U and 235U respectively Inhalation is the dominant contributor to both factors being 93% of the total for 234U and 80% for 235U For simplicity the release was screened as 100% 235U A bounding value for the air diffusion factor was selected based on the source-receiver difference This value was conservative and avoided the need to account for effective release height and building wake effects The NCRP Report No 123 screening evaluation for the 1963 airborne uranium release from TA-21 gave a screening value of 6 94×10-4 Sv 69 4 mrem This value is larger than the screening criterion indicating that further investigation of uranium releases from DP Site is warranted A screening calculation was also performed for uranium releases from TA-3 using the same method as for the TA-21 release For TA-3 the maximum reported release occurred in 1956 and the distance to the nearest residential area the Western Area was approximately 1 100 m The resulting screening value was 2 47 × 10-5 Sv This value is smaller than the screening criterion on its own however NCRP 123 recommends dividing the criterion by 10 to account for uncertainties Doing so gives an adjusted screening criterion of 1 82 × 10-5 Sv which is smaller than the calculated screening value Thus further investigation of uranium releases from TA-3 is also warranted Radioactive Lanthanum RaLa Operations Barium lanthanum is a mixture of 140Ba and its daughter product 140La 140 La was the isotope used by LANL in the years between 1944 and 1962 as an aid in ―hydrodynamic tests‖ conducted primarily to perfect the implosion process 140 140 La has a 40-h half-life a strong gamma emission and ―grew into‖ the Ba that was produced in large quantities in the Clinton Pile at X-10 Site in Oak Ridge Widner 2000 Widner and Flack 2002 and later at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory RaLa was used in implosion testing from September 21 1944 through March 6 1962 Dummer et al 1996 All RaLa implosion tests were conducted in Bayo Canyon TA-10 shown in Fig 9-1 Fig 9-2 depicts the location of the buildings and firing points within TA-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 9-7 Fig 9-2 Bayo Canyon Site TA-10 in 1950 View is toward the west Photo ERID-018982 courtesy of LANL Fig 9-3 Layout of TA-10 Bayo Canyon 9-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 From 1944 to 1950 the RaLa sources were prepared at the TA-10 Chemical Processing Building Preparation of the RaLa sources was moved to TA-35 ―Ten Site‖ for the period of 1951 through 1963 and operated by group CMR-10 The 140La sources were placed in shielded containers and trucked to the firing site where they were remotely loaded to the explosive test assemblies In order to obtain data on implosions LANL personnel had previously conceived a procedure of placing a gamma ray source at the center of a spherical implosion assembly The emitted gamma rays would travel outward radially through both the collapsing shell and the high explosive The increased compression of the metallic shell during implosion would cause the gamma rays to be increasingly absorbed The gamma rays were monitored by detectors set around the high explosives The monitored data would provide data on the density changes in the collapsing shell the time of collapse and the degrees of compression and symmetry by comparing the gamma rays’ intensity in different directions A mixture of 140Ba and 140La were to be used as the gamma ray source Because of potential post-experiment radioactive problems however 140Ba was removed from the mixture 140 La was initially provided by Oak Ridge as a mixture of 140Ba and 140La Chemists at the TA-10 Chemical Process Building prepared RaLa sources by separating a solution containing the parent 140Ba and other impurities such as 89Sr and 90Sr The separated RaLa along with unavoidable small amount of barium and strontium was then encapsulated as specified by each experiment—sometimes in a metal sphere no larger than a match head a pure 1 000-Ci 140La source weighs 0 8 mg The explosive test assemblies used surrogate materials with mechanical properties similar to plutonium Uranium although used had the disadvantage of being a strong gamma-ray absorber Metals such as iron copper or cadmium were used and most of the early shots employed cadmium Dummer et al 1996 The implosion assembly was surrounded initially by a number of ionization chambers see Fig 94 and later by scintillation detectors FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 9-9 Fig 9-4 Ionization chambers surrounding a RaLa shot on May 13 1947 Table 9-2 lists by year the number of test shots and the amount of RaLa involved A total of 254 tests were conducted between 1944 and 1962 with RaLa sources ranging in size from about 25 Ci to 7 090 Ci The explosions resulted in the dispersion of the metallic shell uranium or other material such as cadmium and the radioactive RaLa and residual impurities such as 140Ba and 90Sr in the form of aerosols and debris to the atmosphere and onto the ground The preparation of the RaLa conducted at TA-10 generated liquid and radioactive wastes that were disposed of in subsurface pits and leaching fields at the site Almost two million curies of 140Ba had been handled at TA-10 and TA-35 by the time the RaLa program was terminated in 1963 The TA-10 site was decommissioned by 1963 and transferred to Los Alamos County on July 1 1967 Mayfield et al 1979 In addition to RaLa about 226 mCi of Strontium-90 was reportedly released over 80% of the 226 mCi was released in seven shots in 1945 Dummer et al 1996 In a dose assessment conducted by LANL personnel the highest annual dose from the RaLa shots 17 mrem was calculated to have occurred in 1955 The calculated dose for those who were in Los Alamos during the experiments ranges from 110 mrem to 450 mrem Mayfield et al 1979 Dummer et al 1996 Kraig 1997 None of these dose assessments have been independently critiqued by the LAHDRA team 9-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 Table 9-2 Annual quantities of radioactive lanthanum used in RaLa shots at Bayo Canyon Year Quantity of RaLa Used Ci Number of Shots 1944 1 112 10 1945 18 363 36 1946 20 556 24 1947 22 734 27 1948 12 236 19 1949 28 255 26 1950 19 788 12 1951 0 0 1952 6 370 4 1953 1 065 4 1954 15 580 13 1955 40 763 21 1956 35 976 21 1957 17 358 9 1958 9 845 7 1959 8 322 8 1960 5 560 5 1961 24 312 5 1962 13 607 3 Totals 301 802 254 During March and early April 1950 the Air Force sought to conduct independent studies of airborne radioactivity Dummer et al 1996 It selected three of the 254 RaLa experiments Shots 147 148 and 149 and used a B-17 aircraft to track and measure radioactivity in the resulting cloud In July 1950 LANL provided the Air Force with a static 400 Ci RaLa source for additional analysis The source was transported to an area near Abiquiu about 22 air miles north of Los Alamos and seven passes were made by an airplane over the stationary source Dummer et al 1996 Polonium Operations Polonium was used in atomic bomb initiators utilizing the n reaction of 210Po and 9Be to generate neutrons In February 1945 schedule for polonium delivery from Monsanto to the Original Technical Area was increased to 100 Ci per month by June and to 500 Ci per month by December Hoddeson et al 2004 At TA-1 polonium was handled in D-Building H-Building and Gamma Building DP East Site FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 9-11 began operation in September 1945 and contained Buildings 151 152 and 153 Building 155 was completed in December 1949 Reports indicated that ―the well-designed DP polonium plant went into operation sooner than did the plutonium plant‖ DP West site TR 6704 Box 6 of 8 The DP East Site facilities were used to process polonium and actinium and to produce initiators At DP East Building 21-153 exhausted air from the main buildings at DP East was constructed similarly to Building 12 and was in service until March 1970 The primary radioactive contaminant of this filter house was 227Ac Bldg 153 had transitional plenums and filter housings for electromatic filters two blowers and two stacks Stack monitoring data for DP East Site have been located in CMR-12 monthly progress reports starting in August 1945 The data are presented as average counts per minute per liter over each month for DP East Stack 1 and Stack 2 These data are for alpha-emitting radioactivity with no isotopic composition indicated through at least 1949 Polonium was also expended in explosive testing at LANL TA-33 Hot Point or HP Site for example was developed in 1947 for LANL’s weapons testing group as a substitute test site for experiments being conducted at Trinity Site in southern New Mexico McLain et al 2001 These tests used conventional high explosives as well as uranium beryllium and polonium radiation sources Experiments conducted primarily to verify nuclear weapon initiator designs were performed in underground chambers and on surface firing pads Additional tests were carried out at TA-33 firing sites equipped with large guns that fired projectiles into earthen berms The documents associated with LAHDRA Repository Numbers 2375 4519 6523 and 7021 provide details of events at TA-33 that resulted in releases of polonium from tests at TA-33 in the 1950s On January 8 1953 a mock fission source containing polonium and beryllium ruptured at Pajarito Site TA-18 and the resulting contamination spread to the housing area Shipman 1953 Possibly as much as 2 Ci of polonium was lost the greater part of which was thought to have remained in and around LANL at Pajarito Site However ―significant amounts of polonium were found in a number of homes ‖ Among the items found to be contaminated in a ―large number‖ of homes were shoes clothing floor coverings vacuum cleaners children’s toys and baby diapers Rugs and upholstered furniture presented serious decontamination problems On August 3 1955 a Po Be neutron source ruptured resulting in the contamination of 150 staff members in Building SM-40 Shipman 1955 A mock fission polonium source containing 25 2 Ci of polonium exploded in the basement of the Physics Building and contamination was spread throughout the building It was five days or more before most personnel could return to work Air samples for the area reportedly 9-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 never exceeded 3 times tolerance Although reports indicated that no activity reached homes or personal vehicles a few government vehicles were contaminated References Drake RW Eyster EH Memorandum from E H Eyster to G L Voelz Uranium dispersed by experimental test shots at Los Alamos 1971 Dummer JE Taschner JC Courtwright CC The Bayo Canyon radioactive lanthanum RaLa program Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-13044-H 1996 English SG Project Crave Survey of the U S Atomic Energy Commission Operations and Facilities Brookhaven NY Brookhaven National Laboratory BNL-157 1952 Hoddeson L Henriksen PW Meade RA Westfall CL Baym G Hewlett R Kerr A Penneman R Redman L Seidel R Critical Assembly A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years 1943-1945 New ed Cambridge University Press 2004 ICRP The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection Stockholm The International Commission on Radiological Protection ICRP 103 2007 Kraig DH Dose reconstruction for weapons experiments involving 140La at Los Alamos National Laboratory 1944-1962 Health Phys 73 620-8 1997 LANL RFI Work Plan for Operable Unit 1086 Los Alamos NM Environmental Restoration Program Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-92-3986 1992 Mayfield DL Stoker AK Ahlquist AJ Formerly Utilized MED AEC Site Remedial Action Program Radiological Survey of the Bayo Canyon Los Alamos NM Washington DC U S Department of Energy DOE EV-0005 15 UC-71 1979 McLain AD McHehee ED Garcia KM Decontamination and Decommissioning of Buildings 1 2 and 40 at Technical Area 33 LA-UR-01-5308 2001 NCRP Screening Models for Release of Radionuclides to Atmosphere Surface Water and Ground Bethesda MD National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report No 123 1996 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 9-13 Serber et al The Los Alamos Primer - The First Lectures on How to Build a Bomb Contains an annotated version of report LA-1 The Los Alamos Primer 1943 Berkeley CA University of California Press 1992 Shipman TL H Division Monthly Progress Report December 20 1952 - January 20 1953 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1953 Shipman TL H-Division Progress Report July 20 1955- August 20 1955 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1955 Widner TE Oak Ridge Dose Reconstruction project summary report Alameda CA ChemRisk a Service of McLaren Hart Inc 2000 Widner TE Flack SM Dose Reconstruction for Radionuclides and Chemicals Case Study Involving Federal Facilities at Oak Ridge Tennessee Chapter 13 Human and ecological risk assessment theory and practice 735-869 2002 9-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 9 Chapter 10 The Trinity Test During the first six months of development work at LANL the focus of the ordnance program was the gun method of assembly Up until August 1944 the plutonium gun was the main focus of activity By August 1944 the high velocity uranium gun had been thoroughly proved in principle but the plutonium gun assembly program was abandoned LANL’s main efforts were now directed to the mounting difficulties of the implosion program The proposal for implosion assembly required using a plastic flow tamper and active material under high-explosive impact The first advantage of the implosion weapon over the gun weapon was its much shorter assembly time especially important since plutonium’s expected high neutron background makes predetonation a serious danger Hawkins 1961 The implosion-assembled plutonium-based designi was far more complicated than the gun-assembled design A test of that device was considered necessary because of the “enormous step” of moving from theory and experimentation to producing a combat weapon and realizing that if the device failed over enemy territory “the surprise factor would be lost and the enemy would be presented with a large amount of active material in recoverable form ”ii Document Review Internal LANL technical reports many with LA- and LAMS- prefixes in the LANL Reports Collection and the document holdings of the LANL Records Center and Archives were the primary sources of information about the implosion weapon development and the Trinity test program These collections were reviewed and copies of relevant documents were requested for public release Information from interviews with Trinity participants Web sites the Nuclear Testing Archives in Las Vegas news archives and books available from the popular press were also incorporated into this information summary regarding the Trinity test Preparations for the Test Test Organization Testing the implosion bomb was considered essential by LANL’s director and most of its group and division leaders The first test preparations were made in March 1944 when Group X-2 was formed in the Explosives Division headed by George Kistiakowsky The duties of the X-2 group under Kenneth i Implosion-assembled weapons were designed on the principle of compressing the fissile material to super-criticality by detonating a high-explosive implosion system ii “The July 16 1945 Trinity Bomb Test ” September 1945 LANL Archives Collection A-1984-019 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-1 Bainbridge included preparing for a field test in which blast earth shock neutron and gamma radiations would be studied and complete photographic records would be taken of the explosion and any associated atmospheric phenomena This work was initially set up under Section X-2C with L Fussell Jr in charge In May 1945 a temporary organization was formed consisting of seven groups designated TR-1 through TR-7 “TR” for Trinity Organizationally the test was called Project TR and for reasons of secrecy the test site was referred to as “T Site” prior to the test Personnel from R G O F and X Divisions and military personnel from the SED Special Engineering Detachment were reassigned to this “division” until the test was completed Bainbridge 1976 Project Trinity was led by K T Bainbridge with Frank Oppenheimer brother of J Robert Oppenheimer serving as his aide Responsibilities of the TR groups were as follows • TR-1 headed by John H Williams construction procurement transportation timing communications • TR-2 headed by J H Manley measurements of air blast and earth shock • TR-3 headed by R R Wilson physics measurements prompt alpha delayed neutron and gamma radiation • TR-4 headed by J M Hubbard meteorology • TR-5 headed by J E Mack spectrographic and photographic measurements • TR-6 headed by B Waldman air blast airborne measurements • TR-7 headed by L H Hempelmann medical including instruments the monitoring group and first aid • Special Assignments four searchlight crews an announcer and weather advisers J Robert Oppenheimer and George Kistiakowsky stated in a 1944 memo that “if we do not have accurate test data from Trinity the planning of the use of the gadget over the enemy territory will have to be done substantially blindly” Jones 1985 10-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Site Selection and Construction Bainbridge’s group considered eight sitesi for testing the first implosion weapon— three in New Mexico two in California one in Texas and one in Colorado The LANL scientists established the following criteria for the site • flat terrain to minimize effects of the blast and to facilitate easy construction of roads and communication lines • sufficient distance from populated areas but close enough to Los Alamos to minimize travel between the two sites • clear and sunny weather on average to permit the extensive collection of optical data and • convenience to good rail transportation The Manhattan Project’s military head Major General Leslie R Groves added further conditions requiring that the area be about 17 by 24 mi in size and that it house no Native Americans this requirement was made primarily so that General Groves would not have to deal with Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes whom he thought would cause difficulties Groves 1962 General Groves made the final site selection in late August 1944 When Groves discovered that in order to use a California location that he favored he would need the permission of its commander General George Patton Groves quickly decided on his second choice the Jornada del Muertoii Journey of Death valley for the main reason that General Groves did not want anything to do with the flamboyant Patton whom Groves had once described as the most disagreeable man he had ever met Szasz 1984 Bainbridge a Harvard physicist assigned by J Robert Oppenheimer to oversee the bomb test and base camp preparations selected the 18- by 24-mi tract of land in the northwest corner of the Jornada del Muerto valley east of the Rio Grande in the New Mexico desert Bainbridge 1976 Jones 1985 As soon as the Air Force’s commanding general for the New Mexico district approved Bainbridge’s request to have a section of the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range turned over to the Manhattan Project Bainbridge called Oppenheimer to tell him the good news and urged him to pick a code name for the site as soon as possible Oppenheimer was familiar with a book of John Donne’s poems and the opening line of one he recalled was “Batter my heart three-person’d God for you as yet but knock breathe shine i Besides the Jornada del Muerto the other sites in New Mexico were the Tularosa Basin near Alamogordo the lava beds now the El Malpais National Monument south of Grants and an area southwest of Cuba and north of Thoreau Possible sites outside New Mexico were an Army training area north of Blythe California in the Mojave Desert San Nicolas Island one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California on Padre Island south of Corpus Christi Texas in the Gulf of Mexico and in the San Luis Valley of south central Colorado near today's Great Sand Dunes National Monument USDOE 1994 ii This area was a short cut on the Camino Real the King’s Highway that linked Mexico to Santa Fe used to avoid a valley that was too narrow for supply wagons Sixty mi of desert with very little water and numerous hostile Apaches led the Spanish conquerors of New Mexico to assign the name FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-3 and seek to mend ” One theory is that Oppenheimer said “we’ll call it Trinity” based on that poem Lamont 1965 Another theory however is that Oppenheimer selected the name with reference to the divine Hindu trinity of Brahma the Creator Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer Oppenheimer had an avid interest in Sanskrit literature which he had taught himself to read and following the Trinity test reportedly recited a passage from the Bhagavad-Gita Radiochemistry Society 2007 A great deal of time was initially wasted in land surveys because of inadequate maps Maps were requested through the Security Office in June 1944 but many were never received The maps that were eventually used were obtained by ordering all the geodetic survey maps and most of the grazing service and county maps for the state of New Mexico aerial mosaics and land status maps had to be “scrounged ” Aerial photographs of the northwest corner of the Alamogordo Air Base were obtained from the Air Force and assembled into a photo mosaic that was used with a transparent overlay to determine locations for the main instrument shelters that would not be in washes The selected land tract permitted separation from nearest habitation by a minimum of 12 mi to the north and west Moreover the government controlled the land out to 18 mi on the east The nearest towns in any direction were 27-30 mi away and the prevalent winds were from the west Bainbridge 1976 A memorandum justifying the construction and equipment requirements for the proposed scientific measurements was given to Oppenheimer in October 1944 A construction company contracted by the Army J D Leftwich Company of El Paso TX completed the first camp facilities by the end of December 1944 and a small military police detachment under Lt Bush arrived from LANL to provide site security Bainbridge 1976 Shortly after a much larger group of scientists technicians medics civil service personnel and construction workers arrived At the new site a maze of roads needed to be built hundreds of mi of wire had to be strung over and under the ground a complete communication system had to be installed buildings had to be erected supplies equipment and personnel had to be transported between Los Alamos and Trinity and all these tasks had to be completed under the cloak of extreme secrecy LASL 1979 By early 1945 there were more than 200 residents of the Trinity Base Camp Civilian construction crews aided by construction personnel from LANL built additional facilities in the spring of 1945 to ready the site for the bomb test which was scheduled for early summer Jones 1985 10-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Fig 10-1 through Fig 10-3 facilities at the test site included • A Shot Tower located at “Ground Zero ” the central reference point • Base Camp located ten mi to the south-southwest • South Shelter located 10 000 yd about six mi to the south housed VIPs and the control center for the test • North Shelter located 10 000 yd to the north housed personnel instruments and searchlight crews • West Shelter located 10 000 yd to the west housed personnel cameras and searchlight crews The three shelters which were heavily-built wooden bunkers reinforced with concrete and covered with earth were code named Able Baker and Pittsburgh National Atomic Museum 2007 Test personnel made use of the McDonald Ranch House for final assembly of the bomb’s plutonium core Trinity Base Camp included stables a blacksmith shop water storage tanks a hay barn officers’ quarters a supply room mess hall barracks latrine P X and day room coal storage infirmary laboratory technical warehouse office garage gasoline storage tanks fire station engineering office plumbing shop electrical shop carpentry shop and drinking water tanks Merlan 2001 Fig 10-1 Map of facilities at the Trinity Test Site based on Lamont 1965 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-5 The 100-Ton Test In the summer of 1944 a “100-ton test shot” using conventional high explosives HE was proposed in order to calibrate the blast and earth shock measuring equipment at the Trinity site and to serve as a dress rehearsal for the summer 1945 test The “first” Trinity test occurred on May 7 1945 at the New Mexico site 800 yd south of what would be ground zero for the July 16 test It was the first chance to test experimental data under explosion conditions Since explosions of more than a few tons of TNT have different characteristics than lesser amounts 108 tons of HE Composition B a mixture of TNT and the explosive RDX brought in from Fort Wingatei and a small volume of radioactive solution to simulate the radioactive products of the nuclear test were detonated atop a 20-foot platform Fig 10-4 so that dispersion could be characterized and instruments could be calibrated LASL 1979 Jones 1985 Radiochemistry Society 2007 i Erickson 1946 described the explosive charge for the 100-Ton Test as 3590 wooden boxes 179 500 lbs of flaked TNT and 744 boxes 32 044 lbs of pelletized Composition B 10-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Fig 10-2 Location of the Trinity Test Site and nearby towns from Jones 1985 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-7 This page intentionally left blank 10-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Fig 10-3 Map of Trinity Site within White Sands Proving Ground Nearby Towns and Terrain Features FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-9 Back of Fig 10-3 -- 11×17 sheet 10-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Box after wooden box of HE were stacked until approximately 100 tons were in the pile An irradiated uranium fuel slug from a Hanford reactor was dissolved using the apparatus shown in Fig 10-5 and poured into flexible tubing threaded through the high explosive Sugarman 1945 The solution introduced into the pile had beta activity of 1 000 Ci and gamma activity of 400 Ci Fig 10-4 Boxes of high explosives stacked for the 100-Ton Test Fig 10-5 Diagram of the equipment used to dissolve an irradiated uranium fuel slug from a Hanford reactor for dispersion in the 100-Ton Test at Trinity Site Sugarman 1945 The fuel slug entered the dissolver via the pipe from the left by which off-gases were also exhausted The radioactive solution exited via the tubing to the right into the stack of boxed high explosives FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-11 The blast Fig 10-6 compressed and blew the surrounding earth into a saucer-shaped crater expelling about 40% of the dirt A scaling up the RaLa shots suggested that 10% of the activity would remain in the soil within a 300-ft radius However only 2% of the activity of the dissolved radioactive material was deposited in the crater out to a distance of 450 ft from the center indicating that simple scaling did not account for the increase in updraft with increased explosive charge According to Richard C Tolman a physicist who served as an advisor to General Groves the explosion of the “100-ton test” aroused little comment in neighboring towns but the illumination and sound were detected at the Alamogordo Air Base 60 mi away by a pre-warned observer According to Hempelmann the level of activity after the blast in the crater was low enough to be safe for several hours of exposure The dissolving unit was covered with dirt and surrounded by a guard fence After this explosion suggestions for improving the facilities and procedures included paved roads to protect personnel and instruments from dust more vehicles more vehicle repairmen and more telephone lines Bainbridge 1976 Hoddeson et al 1993 Fig 10-6 Views of the “100-Ton Test” blast at 1 2 and 3 seconds after detonation photos obtained at nuclearweaponarchive org Usa Tests Trinity html Date Selection and Meteorology July 4 was the original target date for the second test at Trinity which was to be the nuclear test In midJune Oppenheimer said that July 13 was the earliest possible date for the test however LANL’s “Cowpuncher Committee” had primary responsibility for coordinating and scheduling Trinity The committee was composed of S K Allison former Director of the Metallurgical Laboratory Kistiakowsky Captain Parsons C C Lauritsen Bacher and Hartley Rowe a former Technical Advisor to General Eisenhower It was organized “to ride herd” on the implosion program After reviewing developments on June 30 the committee advanced the test date to July 16 in order to include certain additional vital experiments The committee held its first meeting in early March 1945 10-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 This group met often and published a semi-monthly report called “The Los Alamos Implosion Program” that presented in detail the current status of the work Since Secretary of War Henry Stimson would be attending the Potsdam Conference starting on July 16 General Groves requested a test date of July 14 so that the results of the test would be known before that date The bomb test team however insisted on a test date of July 17 On July 7 Oppenheimer told Groves the test could take place on the 16th but no earlier since all parts of the Gadget the code name for the Fat Man implosion bomb would not be ready before July 16 Jones 1985 The date of the Trinity test depended on the availability of components as well as on the weather Haze dust and mirage effects would interfere with photographic measurements Overcast skies would make flying more difficult for the airplanes needing to drop instruments Winds had to be favorable to keep the radioactive cloud away from inhabited areas to the east and north Each group was asked to specify the best weather conditions for its experiment and meteorologist Jack Hubbard tried to find a date to match all the requirements Hubbard initially projected that the best dates for the Trinity test would be between July 18 and 21 with July 12 through 14 as second best The preferred time was several hours before dawn Hoddeson et al 1993 Meeting the weather needs of all groups proved impossible and the groups had to compromise Optimum winds would draw the radioactive cloud away from the nearby towns and break it up rapidly Winds from the northwest through southwest were judged best and were typically the driest thereby keeping thunderstorms from washing additional radioactivity down to the earth’s surface No one was sure how high the radioactive cloud would go An inversion layer over nearby towns which were 27-30 mi away would prevent material from touching down in those areas Although thunderstorms were expected for July 16 Hubbard agreed that the shot could be made even if conditions would not be optimal for all the planned experiments Hoddeson et al 1993 Scheduling Impacts on Planning of Protective Actions After the date for the Trinity test was set as July 16 1945 Dr Louis Hempelmann recalled that “there was feverish activity on our part to make the town monitoring program flexible enough to adapt itself to whatever wind conditions prevailed when the test was ready” Hacker 1987 Anticipating that the people living in towns and on ranches in the immediate vicinity might have to be evacuated to avoid radioactive fallout army intelligence agents led by Maj T O Palmer searched the countryside trying to locate list and map every person living within a 40-mi radius of ground zero in case evacuation became necessary Hoffman 1947 Bainbridge 1976 Hacker 1987 The Army stationed a detachment of 160 enlisted men with vehicles at Socorro and other strategic points along main highways a few mi north of FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-13 the site The Army also detailed 25 Counterintelligence Corps CIC members to towns and cities up to 100 mi from the site with instructions to summon evacuation troops if they were needed and to help manage public reaction to the blast Jones 1985 Instrumentation Experiments and Cameras Put into Place At a conference in Oppenheimer’s office on December 23 1944 diagnostic experiments for the Trinity test were categorized as essential desirable or unnecessary Essential experiments include the pressure of the blast wave and the time spread in the firing of the detonators Desirable experiments included photographic and spectrographic analyses of the fire ball and measurement of the earth’s motion during the explosion in case any lawsuits were brought against LANL for blast damage All other experiments were deemed unnecessary Hoddeson et al 1993 Much emphasis was placed on measuring the energy in the blast wave This measurement was achieved by using a pair of beryllium-copper diaphragm microphones to record the peak pressure following the explosion since it has been suggested that the change in pressure generated by the blast wave was the only quantity that could be measured accurately from 20 mi away during combat use A more sophisticated method was also used entailing precisely measuring the velocity of sound at the site of explosion and comparing it to the velocity of the blast wave Spring-loaded piston gauges water-filled pistons diaphragm box gauges and ball and cylinder gauges were calibrated to record a range of peak pressures from the blast The mechanical gauges were insensitive to electrical disturbances and acted as backup to the electrical methods Hoddeson et al 1993 Plans were made to estimate the energy of the bomb in several ways including determining the number of fissions by measuring the number and intensity of the gamma rays emitted Prompt and delayed gamma rays could be measured separately Ionization chambers were used to measure the prompt gamma rays The ionization from the delayed gamma rays was measured by “suitable devices” placed within 10 or 20 mi of the gadget The number and energy of the gamma rays could be used to derive the number of fissions and to calculate the efficiency and yield of the bomb Hoddeson et al 1993 The energies and distribution of neutrons from the blast provided another method for calculating yield but they were difficult to measure since they were more likely to be degraded or absorbed Plans were made to measure time-integrated neutron flux using gold foils in protective tubes placed between 300 and 1000 m from ground zero that would be activated by slow neutrons from the blast Arrangements were also made to directly examine the soil from the area near the blast for plutonium and fission products to 10-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 help estimate the efficiency of the explosion Two lead-lined tanks Fig 10-7 with trap doors on their undersides were equipped to recover soil samples from the Trinity site crater Hoddeson et al 1993 Another essential measurement was the time interval between the high explosive detonation and the beginning of the chain reaction to determine if the nuclear reaction was started by the initiator or if it began prematurely The degree of simultaneity of the detonators needed for an efficient implosion was unknown at the time The presence of an informer switch at each detonator superseded the requirement for the test to be an exact duplicate of the gadget as it would be used in combat Hoddeson et al 1993 A variety of instruments were put into place to measure earth motion including the change in position of stakes geophones and seismographs Seismograph measurements were made on site at the North Shelter 10 000 yards from ground zero at Base Camp and off site at Tularosa Carrizozo and San Antonio Hoddeson et al 1993 Fig 10-7 One of two lead-lined tanks prepared to recover soil samples from near ground zero The primary purpose of the photography effort was to provide a photographic record for spectrographic and yield analysis Different stages of the explosion required different film speeds lenses and exposures and no one knew the amount or kind of light that would be emitted during the explosion Fastax cameras taking 10 000 frames per second were put into place to record minute details of the beginning of the explosion Fastax cameras placed 800 yd from the blast were protected by a steel and glass bunker and were mounted on a sled that could be pulled out of the contaminated area by a chain attached to one of the lead-lined tanks they would exhaust their film supplies in several hundredths of a second Rotating-drum spectrograph cameras were positioned to monitor light wavelengths emitted by the fire ball and pinhole cameras were put into place to record gamma rays The only available well-exposed color photograph of FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-15 the explosion was taken by Jack Aeby a 21-year old LANL scientist and amateur photographer Hoddeson et al 1993 using his own camera which Italian physicist Emilio Segre had secured permission for him to carry on site to record the activities of Segre’s group as they studied delayed gamma rays Savage and Storm 1965 The “Jumbo” Containment Vessel In the winter and spring of 1944 consideration was given to constructing a large pressure vessel referred to as Jumbo to contain the rare and valuable plutonium if the first atomic bomb turned out to be a dud Other recovery methods considered included a below-ground sand cone sand to high explosive weight ratio 15 000 1 and a cylindrical tank of water water to high explosive weight ratio 50 1 or 100 1 Although a container could possibly allow scientists to recover the plutonium all proposed blast earth shock and optical measurements would be rendered useless by the presence of the vessel so this idea was not popular with the scientists The final design for Jumbo was a 25 ft by 12 ft cylinder weight 214 tons with hemispherical ends It was built by Babcock and Wilcox Corporation in Barberton Ohio and shipped in early April 1945 on a specially fabricated railcar to a railroad siding at Pope New Mexico Fig 10-8 A 64-wheeled trailer pulled by two tractors was used to move the vessel the 25 mi from Pope to the test site Jones 1985 By March 1945 all recovery methods were abandoned because sufficient plutonium for a second test would be available from Hanford and Jumbo was never used However it was erected 800 yards from ground zero in case it was needed for a second test Hoddeson et al 1993 10-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Fig 10-8 The Jumbo containment vessel being loaded on a specially made 64-wheel trailer at the Pope NM railroad siding left and making its 25-mi trip to the Trinity site on a road constructed for that purpose right Final Preparations Two complete sets of high explosive castings were available on July 10 Prior to July 7 there had not been enough lens castings to make a complete charge Kistiakowsky and Bradbury picked the best looking pieces for the Trinity assembly and designated the rest for the full-scale magnetic Creutz test of the gadget to be conducted at Pajarito Canyon without active material The Trinity charge was assembled on July 12 at V Site in Los Alamos and started on its journey to the Trinity site at midnight arriving just before noon on the 13th Bainbridge 1976 Kistiakowsky wrote that he chose to leave just after midnight on Friday the 13th because he “believed in unorthodox luck” Kistiakowsky 1980 On July 12 two scientists arrived from LANL in an army sedan with the 239Pu core for the implosion device According to an interview Phillip Morrison rode down to Trinity with the weapon core He and Marshall Holloway both G Division engineers were designated as the Pit Assembly team in April 1945 and were responsible for placing the core into the gadget during final assembly Morrison didn’t remember a great deal about the ride to the Trinity site but did recall that he was “rather afraid of the fast driving young woman who drove us down there with the convoy who was really a high-speed… pedal to the floor all the way That driver was the scariest thing” Morrison 1999 Brigadier General Thomas F Farrell signed a receipt for the active material formally completing the transfer from the scientists to the Army Jones 1985 As of 5 45pm on July 13 all components were in place except the detonating system The device was hoisted to a metal shed on a platform atop a 100-ft steel shot tower a surplus Forest Service fire-watch tower Fig 10-9 and Fig 10-10 National Atomic Museum 2007 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-17 Fig 10-9 The steel shot tower used for the Trinity test Fig 10-10 The assembled Gadget sits in the metal shed atop the 100-ft metal test tower To the right in this photo is Norris Bradbury who would follow Oppenheimer as LANL Director 10-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 A truckload of mattresses were piled up under the Gadget in case it fell Hoddeson et al 1993 The detonator group completed the firing circuit and technicians added an apparatus for experiments By 5 00 pm on July 14 the device was ready to test Observers including Office of Scientific Research and Development OSRD Director Vannevar Bush and National Defense Research Committee Chairman James Conant arrived with General Groves on Sunday July 15 The large contingent from Los Alamos arrived in three buses around 3 00 am on the morning of July 16 just before the scheduled test time of 4 00 am The weather was rainy and there were occasional flashes of lightening General Groves and Oppenheimer decided to delay the shot for an hour and a half The rain stopped at 4 00 am Shortly before 5 00 am with the wind still blowing in the “right” direction they gave the go-ahead signal for the test Jones 1985 Health and monitoring preparations addressed issues of cloud and trail contamination According to Hempelmann resulting activity from the cloud would vary with the efficiency of the explosion and it would need to be monitored until it was dispersed since it was a potential hazard to the local population If loose dust from the crater and the surrounding area rose to 10 000 feet and fell at a normal rate there might be danger to towns 30 mi away due to a prediction of 7 R h-1 from fission products and the 239Pu tolerance dose being exceeded in 22 h Hubbard assured all concerned that the meteorological conditions that could affect the cloud were predictable including low humidity temperature inversion winds above the inversion atmospheric lapse rate and heating of the earth Low humidity would exclude a thunderstorm created by the blast and heat effects that could cause precipitation of the active material over a small area The inversion layer would retard particles from falling until the morning thermals mixed the active material more thoroughly A 30 mph wind to the SE above the inversion layer would carry the cloud beyond the nearby towns A stable lapse rate would allow the fire ball to ascend until it reached a higher inversion at 20 000 ft and preclude heavy active particles from falling on a small area The usual heating of the earth would break the inversion layer and move air in an ascending manner Hubbard predicted that contaminated material thrown into the air could be suspended for weeks Bainbridge 1976 A betting pool was started by LANL scientists as to what the yield of the Trinity device would be National Atomic Museum 2007 Yields from zero to 45 000 tons of TNT 45 kilotons were selected Bainbridge was furious when he heard discussions of the possibility that the blast would be hot enough to ignite the nitrogen in the atmosphere and could annihilate the human race Hacker 1987 This possible outcome had been suggested by Edward Teller but fears were quashed by intensive studies by Hans Bethe and others that were documented by Teller and Emil Konopinski in December 1943 These studies concluded that the safety factor was “at least a factor of 60” Rosen 2002 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-19 Bus loads of visitors from Los Alamos and elsewhere started arriving near the Trinity Site around 2 00 a m on July 16 Many of those who had no responsibilities during the test situated themselves on Campaña Hilli about 32 km to the northwest of ground zero to watch the event These individuals included Ernest O Lawrence Hans Bethe Edward Teller Robert Serber Edward McMillan James Chadwick and Richard Feynman Merlan 2001 At the time of the detonation 99 project personnel about 76 civilian and 23 military were in the three shelters 29 at North 37 at West and 33 at South Harvard president James Conant General Groves and Vannevar Bush observed the test from a slit trench at Base Camp J R Oppenheimer Kenneth Bainbridge George Kistiakowsky Thomas Farrell Donald Hornig and Samuel Allison watched from the South 10 000 shelter which served as the control point Maag and Rohrer 1982 Merlan 2001 Groves and Oppenheimer purposefully watched the test from different locations separated by some distance so that if one were killed the other could likely continue to manage the project The Trinity Test The Trinity “Gadget” was detonated on Monday July 16 1945 at 5 29 a m Mountain War Time at latitude 33°28’- 33°50’ longitude 106°22’- 106°41’ UTM coordinates 630266 on the Alamogordo Bombing Range New Mexico The time is not known with exact certainty since scientists experienced difficulty in picking up station WWV for a time check Bainbridge 1976 Maag and Rohrer 1982 Observations Descriptions The nuclear blast Fig 10-11 created a flash of light brighter than a dozen suns National Atomic Museum 2007 The light was seen over the entire state of New Mexico and in parts of Arizona Texas and Mexico The resulting mushroom cloud rose to over 38 000 ft within minutes and the heat of the explosion was 10 000 times hotter than the surface of the sun At 10 mi away this heat was described as similar to standing directly in front of a roaring fireplace Data from hundreds of instruments recorded what occurred that morning The blast was more powerful than expected however and many instruments and experimental devices were ruined Lamont 1965 A brilliant yellow light was seen as far away as Albuquerque and Los Alamos to the north Silver City New Mexico to the west and El Paso Texas to the south A sensation of heat persisted as a huge ball of fire took shape and transformed into a moving orange and red column Out of this spectrum rose a narrower column that rapidly spilled over to form a giant white mushroom cloud surrounded by a blue glow As the glow began to fade observers at the base camp felt the pressure of the shock wave and its rumble reverberated for more than five minutes in the i “Campaña” also appears as “Campania ” “Campagne ” or “Campagna” in various sources These spellings might have been adopted to help those with little knowledge of the Spanish language pronounce the word 10-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 surrounding hills Jones 1985 General Thomas Farrell Deputy to Gen Leslie Groves said that “The effects could well be called unprecedented magnificent beautiful stupendous and terrifying No manmade phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before ” It was at this moment when Oppenheimer reportedly said “I am become Death the Destroyer of Worlds ” And Dr Kenneth Bainbridge Director of Trinity Test said “Now we are all sons-of-bitches ” Fig 10-11 Two images from the only well-exposed color photograph available for the Trinity blast taken by LANL scientist and amateur photographer Jack Aeby from near Base Camp As Aeby later said “It was there so I shot it ” The crew that was at Searchlight Station L-8 observing the cloud from the blast recorded that at t 15 minutes the cloud was divided into three parts—a dense white mushroom cloud a flat fairly long red dust cloud and a reddish-brown column that seemed to come from ground zero Blair et al 1945b The three-man crew was located 19 5 mi from ground zero to the northeast as shown in Fig 10-12 At t 30 minutes the high mushroom cloud had moved directly toward their position and had “taken on the shape of the North American part of the western hemisphere ” while the “lower red-brown cloud and column took on the shape of a question mark while the brown dust seemed to be still emanating from position 0” Blair et al 1945b Radioactive material started to descend upon Searchlight Station L-8 between t 90 minutes and t 120 minutes Blair et al 1945b The radiation level peaked at its highest level at 8 25 a m and remained constant through 9 15 a m after which it started to decline Blair et al 1945b Physicist Otto Frisch had been taken to a spot about 32 km from ground zero probably on Compaña Hill Because he couldn’t find his assigned dark glasses as the countdown progressed in the dark that early morning Frisch initially turned away from ground zero but later recorded the following observations Frisch 1979 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-21 “And then without a sound the sun was shining or so it looked The sand hills on the edge of the desert were shimmering in a very bright light almost colourless and shapeless The light did not seem to change for a couple of seconds and then began to dim I turned round but that object on the horizon which looked like a small sun was still too bright to look at I kept blinking and trying to take looks and after another ten seconds or so it had grown and dimmed into something more like a huge oil fire with a structure that made it look a bit like a strawberry It was slowly rising into the sky from the ground with which it remained connected by the lengthening grey stem of swirling dust incongruously I thought of a red-hot elephant standing balanced on its trunk Then as the cloud of hot gas cooled and became less red one could see a blue glow surrounding it a glow of ionized air a huge replica of what Harry Daghlian … saw just over five weeks later at Omega Site in Los Alamos when his assembly went critical and signaled his death sentence The object now clearly what has become so well known as the mushroom cloud ceased to rise but a second mushroom started to grow from its top the inner layers of the gas were kept hot by their radioactivity and Being hotter than the rest broke through the top and rose to even greater height It was an awesome spectacle anybody who has ever seen an atomic explosion will never forget it And all in complete silence the bang came minutes later quite loud though I had plugged my ears and followed by a long rumble like heavy traffic far away I can still hear it ” 10-22 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Fig 10-12 Map of areas to the northeast of the Trinity Site where highest off-site radiation levels were measured after the July 1945 shot FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-23 Less than a half hour after the test shot General Groves called his secretary in Washington D C to pass on word of the test to Secretary Stimson Groves reported that the strength of the explosion was at least “satisfactory plus and perhaps far greater than estimated” Lamont 1965 Cloud Trajectory and Fallout Observations Up to the time of the shot and for the first half hour information about the cloud’s direction of travel was vague A 20 mi h-1 wind was blowing from the southeast toward Guard Gate 2i to the northeast of ground zero It was thought that the radioactive cloud would move in a line toward the northwest from ground zero but the cloud did not end up traveling in that direction Hoffman 1947 Col Stafford Warren Chief of the Manhattan Project’s Medical Section documented the following in a July 21 1945 report to Gen Groves Warren 1945 “The energy developed in the test was several times greater than that expected by scientific group The cloud column mass and top reached a phenomenal height variously estimated as 50 000 to 70 000 feet It remained towering over the northeast corner of the site for several hours This was sufficient time for the majority of the largest particles to fall out Various levels were seen to move in different directions In general the lower one-third drifted eastward the middle portion to the West and northwest while the upper third moved northeast Many small sheets of dust moved independently at all levels and large sheets remained practically in situ By zero plus 2 hours the main masses were no longer identifiable except for the very high white mass presumably in the stratosphere By 0800 hours the monitors reported an area of high intensity in a canyon 20 mi northeast of zero … Intensities in the deserted canyon were high enough to cause serious physiological effects The distribution over the countryside was spotty and subject to local winds and contour It skipped the nearby highway #380 20 mi N E except for low intensities which were equaled at twice and three times the distance It is presumed that the largest outfall occurred in the N E quadrant of the site This can only be explored by horseback at a later date ” Between 6 00 and 7 00 am the wind direction changed from southeasterly to southwesterlyii and the cloud was traveling northeast at 15 mi h-1 at altitude 35 000 ft and rising about 14 000 ft h-1 Monitors found readable gamma radiation 1 7 h after the shot 19 mi from ground zero indicating that the active i Guard Gates or Guard Posts were typically just tents or parked trucks along the roadside used to provide shelter for security guards who controlled access to the various areas of the Trinity Site ii Although typical in many historical reports this summary follows the convention of describing wind directions as the directions directions that the wind is blowing from 10-24 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 dust falling from high altitudes had been caught by the northwesterly wind near the ground and blown in the direction of Socorro Hoffman 1947 The cloud drifted northeastward at about 10 mi h-1 dropping its trail of fission products across a region measuring 100 mi long and 30 mi wide Lamont 1965 In the deep ravines northeast of the Trinity site where cattle grazed the radioactivity settled in a white mist Lamont 1965 The off-site monitors feared inversions and solar heating of air in the canyons which could cause thermal updrafts that could lead to sudden wind shifts and carry airborne contamination beyond the expected limits possibly dumping it in some remote area unknown to the monitors Lamont 1965 William Wrye whose house was 20 mi northeast of Trinity reported that “for four or five days after that a white substance like flour settled on everything” Albuquerque Journal News 1995 And rancher M C Ratliff said that “the ground immediately after the shot appeared covered with light snow ” adding that for several days afterward especially at dawn and dusk “the ground and fence posts had the appearance of being frosted” Hacker 1987 As the cloud drifted beyond Carrizozo with monitoring teams in full chase scientists realized that the monitors had overreached the limits of their radio contact with base camp As fallout was dropping on northern communities like Coyote Ancho and Tecolote the monitors were unable to relay the results to Stafford Warren at Base Camp Lamont 1965 Even as officials at base camp were advising Washington that the fallout danger was diminishing the monitors were racing back toward Trinity with reports that fallout had reached a number of areas beyond their jurisdiction such as Vaughn Lamont 1965 The visible cloud from the Trinity blast appears to have dissipated over the vicinity of Vaughn 96 mi from ground zero It appears that the main cloud wrapped itself around Gallinas Peak 65 mi north of the site and broke up Lamont 1965 There is evidence that fallout from the Trinity test traveled as far as Indiana In the fall of 1945 the Kodak Company observed some spotting on their film and they traced it back to contamination in their cardboard Dr J H Webb a Kodak employee studied the matter and concluded that the 141Ce contamination must have come from a nuclear explosion somewhere in the U S In fact it had come from the Trinity Test Webb 1949 i Fallout from the explosion had contaminated the river water that the paper mill in Indiana had used to manufacture the cardboard pulp Recognizing the sensitivity of this information Dr Webb kept his discovery secret until 1949 Webb 1949 i Memorandum by Julius H Webb “Fogging of film by radioactive contaminants at Eastman Kodak Company ” March 15 1949 1949 In LANL Archives Collection A-1999-019 Box 69 Folder 14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-25 Airplanes equipped with filters followed the Trinity cloud across Kansas Iowa Indiana upstate New York New England and out to sea Blair et al 1945a Witnesses from Outside the Project Because of the intense secrecy surrounding the test accurate information of what actually happened was not released to the public until after the second atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan three weeks later Without being officially informed many people in New Mexico were well aware that something extraordinary had happened the morning of July 16 1945 The blinding flash of light followed by the shock wave had made a distinct impression on people who lived within a radius of 160 mi of ground zero Windows were shattered 120 mi away in Silver City and residents of Albuquerque saw the bright light of the explosion on the southern horizon and felt the tremor of the shock waves moments later National Atomic Museum 2007 In spite of the “no fly” order pilot John Ellison a flight engineer and four trainees took off from Roswell Air Field in a B-29 just before 5 a m on July 16 1945 They were on a training mission for the 9- to 12-h bombing missions planned over Japan and had been cleared to fly to California About 42 min into the flight they were 18 000 ft over the northern part of the Sacramento Mountains bordering the White Sands Missile Range when they saw a searing light and the red fireball of the first atomic bomb test Ellison estimated that he and his crew were 15-20 mi from ground zero and may have been the closest individuals to witness the test from the air This estimation is likely to be true as the two B-29 observation planes were unable to take off from Kirtland Field because of bad weather including heavy clouds and thunder storms Groves 1945 Ellison radioed the tower in Roswell and its staff told him to get the plane back Later he learned that authorities associated with the atomic test overheard his radio transmission and ordered the base to call in the planes Santa Fe New Mexican 2005 The “Cover Story” An officer from General Grove’s headquarters provided a cover story to the commander of the Alamogordo Air Base to be issued as soon as the test had occurred Another officer was stationed in the Associated Press office in Albuquerque to suppress any stories that might alarm the public Groves also arranged with the Office of Censorship in Washington D C to keep news of the explosion from getting into newspapers in other parts of the country The Army issued an order grounding all commercial planes and suspending all flights from nearby military installations Jones 1985 Groves modified the cover story to fit the exact circumstances of the test and gave permission to the Associated Press at Albuquerque to release it as follows 10-26 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 “Alamogordo N M July 16 The commanding officer of the Alamogordo Air Base made the following statement today Several inquiries have been received concerning a heavy explosion which occurred on the Alamogordo Air Base reservation this morning A remotely located ammunition magazine containing a considerable amount of high explosives and pyrotechnics exploded There was no loss of life or injury to anyone and the property damage outside of the explosive magazine itself was negligible Weather conditions affecting the content of the gas shells exploded by the blast may make it desirable for the Army to temporarily evacuate a few civilians from their homes” Jones 1985 Fig 10-13 shows an article that resulted from release of this cover story Experimental Results Immediately after the test Sherman M-4 tanks painted white equipped with their own air supplies and lined with two inches of lead went out to explore the crater area The lead added 12 tons to each tank's weight but was considered necessary in order to protect the tank occupants from the radiation levels at ground zero The tank passengers found that the 100-foot steel tower had virtually disappeared only the metal stumps of its legs remained imbedded in concrete USDOE 1994 The most important result of the test though was that the implosion device actually worked The yield was three times larger than predicted T-Division’s predictions were between five and ten kilotons Radiochemical analysis of the soil samples gave an estimated yield of 18 600 tons of TNT quite close to the currently accepted value of 20 to 22 kilotons Some of the observers tried to estimate the yield while watching the test Enrico Fermi performed a fairly simple experiment in which he tore a sheet of paper into pieces and dropped them as the blast wave passed his location Fig 10-13 An Associated Press article that resulted from the Trinity cover story FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-27 They moved about 2 5 ft which Fermi calculated to be equivalent to 10 000 tons of TNT The Socorro Chieftain carried the following item after the Trinity Test but before the true story of what had happened was released “An explosives magazine at the Alamogordo air base blew up Monday morning see ‘The Cover Story ’ below and the flash sound and shock were seen heard and felt in Socorro more than 100 mi away The flash was intensely white and seemed to fill the entire world It was followed by a large crimson glow The flash lasted only a second or so It was so bright that Miss Georgia Green of Socorro a blind student at the University of New Mexico being driven to Albuquerque by her brother-in-law Lieutenant Joe Wills asked What's that The blast measuring devices performed well but the gamma ray measuring devices were overloaded The higher gamma radiation fogged the motion picture films slightly and ruined the measurements of detonator simultaneity Few neutron detectors survived the blast Seven of the gold foils were recovered No gauges with 200 ft of ground zero survived The seismographs detected a tremor at the North shelter and at San Antonio 28 mi away The yield and size of the fire ball prompted scientists to specify the height of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs as 1 850 ft Hoddeson et al 1993 According to Bainbridge 1% of the fission products were left in the crater and its vicinity Bainbridge 1976 Because of the presence of dust around ground zero “a large region of the countryside was contaminated by fission products ” This contamination is discussed in more detail in a LANL report Hirschfelder et al 1945 Because of the storm conditions on the morning of the 16th Oppenheimer asked Waldman and Alvarez not to fly over ground zero to drop the gauges that would radio data back to the B-29s since the flight would be too dangerous Hoddeson et al 1993 Local Conditions Fig 10-14 shows an aerial photograph of the area around ground zero at 28 h after the test The blackened area shows the radius of intense heat that burned off all the vegetation The blast effect in this area and the resulting updraft of hot gases removed a thin layer of soil and burned debris from the blast area 10-28 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Fig 10-14 Aerial view of the Trinity ground zero center at 28 h after the shot The circle to the lower right is from the 100-Ton Test with its detonation point exactly 1 mi distant Off-site Consequences Measurement and Management While not much was said publicly about measurements of off-site fallout from the Trinity test for years after the shot advance planning and preparation did take place before the test to establish the ability to measure off-site radioactivity and promote public safety to the extent allowed during war time in the face of many other competing objectives Competing Priorities for Secrecy Security Safety and Litigation Avoidance Writing 25 years after the Trinity test General Groves described what had been the six immediate military requirements for adequate Project Trinity security Hacker 1987 While the General’s recollections might have reflected 1970 as well as 1945 views the list of requirements for security is informative • Barring strangers from the test site • Preventing harm to project members • Reducing chances that outsiders could learn of the explosion • Safeguarding the public from fallout FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-29 • Planning for emergency evacuation and • Forestalling any national press reports that might alert Japan Testing an atomic bomb on American soil no matter how remote the site clearly threatened the secret of the atomic bomb project— the most violent man-made explosion in history could hardly pass unseen It was important that the Japanese not be alerted and elaborate public safety precautions seemed likely to only make the event more noticeable Hacker 1987 But fortunately to some degree the same measures that kept Trinity safe from prying eyes also helped keep the public safe from the test and testers safe from lawsuits Hacker 1987 When General Groves visited LANL in April 1945 for a briefing on the Trinity plans his first questions were about legal matters Hacker 1987 He was concerned about damage or harm from earth shock air blast and toxic effects and felt that valid records would help secure the army against damage claims This concern explains why for example 20 government agents were stationed in towns up to 100 mi from ground zero on shot day equipped with recording barographs seismographs and recording radiation m to measure remote shock blast and radiation Hoffman 1947 Bainbridge 1976 Hacker 1987 Until just weeks before the test fallout simply appeared to be a minor problem LANL’s “plans to send out radio equipped cars provided with instruments for measuring alpha particle and gamma ray intensities in outlying areas” met with Groves’s approval Hacker 1987 It was added that “on the basis of these measurements evacuation of inhabitants could be carried out if necessary ” Groves dismissed any thoughts of giving advance warning to nearby ranchers and townsfolk because “the danger seemed modest given the proper weather” Hacker 1987 Keeping the secret though forced some safety compromises Stannard 1988 Shortly before the field test updated calculations provided indication that fallout could be more substantial and widespread than originally thought Hacker 1987 Stannard 1988 While there was considerable discussion regarding whether assumptions on which those calculations were based were overly pessimistic the fallout calculations completed shortly before June 23 1945 provided predictions that were sobering and establishing monitoring and evacuation plans seemed more prudent Hacker 1987 Figure 10-15 shows the locations of ranches farms towns and camps within approximately 40 mi of Trinity ground zero that are labeled on USGS 1 250 000 maps issued in 1954 General Groves and the Manhattan Project’s Medical Director Stafford Warren are said to have known that the Army was not eager to pursue too diligently the possibilities of widespread fallout Lamont 10-30 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 1965 The specter of endless lawsuits haunted the military and most of the authorities simply wanted to put the whole test and its after-effects out of sight and mind Lamont 1965 Fig 10-15 Locations of ranches farms camps and towns within about 40 mi of Trinity Site ground zero based on USGS 1 250 000 maps issued in 1954 Circles are at radii of 10 20 and 30 mi FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-31 Potential Public Exposure Pathways Members of the public could have been exposed to radiation and radioactive materials from the Trinity event by a number of pathways including 1 Direct prompt radiation from the blast itself 2 Direct external irradiation from the cloud passing overhead or nearby 3 Direct external irradiation from being immersed in the cloud 4 Direct external irradiation from contamination deposited on the ground 5 Direct external irradiation from contamination deposited on the skin hair or clothing 6 Internal dose from inhalation of airborne contamination 7 Internal dose from inhalation of re-suspended fallout particles 8 Internal dose from ingestion of contaminated food products Initial radiation from fission and other processes in the explosion ceased in less than a minute as delayed neutrons lasted only seconds radiation from the fire ball although substantial decreased as the square of distance and was further attenuated by air Ten thousand feet from ground zero well within site boundaries radiation was too low to detect Hacker 1987 Pathway one was apparently relatively insignificant to members of the public Had it been significant it would have shown up on the “remote sentinel robot ionization chambers” that spotted the main access roads at distances between 400 and 10 000 yd Hoffman 1947 Hacker 1987 and the recording gamma m that were stationed in local towns The post-shot radiological monitoring program conducted by LANL scientists with the assistance of military personnel addressed to the extent possible with the equipment available at the time pathways two three and four dealing with direct exposure from radioactivity in the cloud or deposited on the ground This assessment was accomplished by having field monitoring crews collect data which were then analyzed and reported in documents assembled by Hoffman and others The post-shot radiological monitoring program however did not focus on assessing pathways five through eight No monitoring of contamination on the bodies of members of the public was performed such as frisking or collecting wipe or wash samples This pathway was found to be important for livestock though since they stay mostly outdoors do not wear clothes and do not bathe It was reported that cattle that grazed on Chupadera mesa suffered local beta burns and temporary dorsal hair loss Hempelmann 1947 Hacker 1987 Stannard 1988 Patches of hair grew back discolored The Army bought 75 head in all from ranchers the 17 most significantly marked were kept at LANL while the rest 10-32 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 were shipped to Oak Ridge for long term observation Doses required to produce such effects were estimated to be between 4 000 and 50 000 r and most likely around 20 000 r Hacker 1987 While there is documentation that samples of airborne particles were taken using ten Filter Queen air samplers modified vacuum cleaners and that soil samples were reportedly taken using large-mouthed jars provided to monitoring crew members Hoffman 1947 we have located no analyses of subsequent radiometric or radiochemical analyses of these samples nor have we located risk assessments that address exposures to Trinity workers or to members of the public from internally deposited radioactivity following inhalation or ingestion of radioactivity from the Trinity blast Dose Limits and Action Levels for Public Evacuation The recovery of data from the Trinity test took precedence over general safety standards Hacker 1987 The 0 1 R d-1 standard for workers in day-to-day operations at LANL was replaced for Trinity by a statement that “no person should of his own will receive more than five 5 r at one exposure” Hacker 1987 When pressed to decide how high of a radiation exposure to consider safe for those with no part in or knowledge of the Trinity test that is members of the public Hempelmann and Nolan assured Bainbridge that a total dose of 68 R spread over two weeks “would certainly not result in permanent injury to a person with no previous exposure It would probably not even cause radiation sickness A normal person could probably stand two to three times this amount without sustaining permanent bodily damage Fatalities would not result unless ten or more times this dose were delivered” Hacker 1987 Stannard 1988 Concern focused on immediate hazards sincewithin the health physics community “the thinking had not yet focused on possible long-term effects” Stannard 1988 It was clear that evacuation would require an “extreme emergency” Hacker 1987 Stafford Warren stated that he would begin to worry only if peak exposure rates reached 10 R h-1 and said that the best approach would be to take “measurements for several hours and consider evacuation if total dose reached final total of 60-100 r” Hacker 1987 Two days before the test Warren and Hempelmann agreed to “set the upper limit of integrated gamma ray dose for the entire body over a period of two weeks 336 hours as 75 roentgens ” and also agreed on an “upper safe limit of radiation … of 15 r hr at peak of curve” Hacker 1987 Off-Site Monitoring Team Staffing and Positioning Four two-man off-site monitoring teams and one five-man team supervised by the chief off-site monitor constituted the off-site monitoring crew led by Joseph Hoffman Fig 10-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-33 The teams were manned as follows with initial placement as indicated Hoffman 1947 Maag and Rohrer 1982 • Alfred Anderson with Julian Bernacci at Nogal NM about 55 mi ESE • Joel Greene with Charles Nally at Roswell NM about 110 mi ESE • Carl Hornberger with Richard Foley at Fort Sumner about 140 mi NE • Robert Leonard with William McElwreath at Socorro NM about 30 mi NW • Wright Langham Phillip Levine John Magee Joseph Hirschfelder and Joseph Hoffman the chief monitor were at Guard Gate 2 The five-man team remained at Guard Gate 2 to assist with evacuating nearby residents if the cloud from the shot drifted toward the northwest These residents specifically those in the Fite Ranch house and the homes in the town of Tokay were roughly 15 and 20 mi northwest of ground zero respectively Maag and Rohrer 1982 From Guard Gate 2 those monitors could also be dispatched toward Carthage Bingham Claunch about 50 mi NE and Carrizozo Fig 10-16 Recovery team and radiation monitoring crew members after the Trinity blast Equipment Used for Off-Site Monitoring Each off-site monitoring team was provided with the following equipment Hoffman 1947 • A methane filled proportional counter for detecting alpha particle radiation in the presence of beta and gamma radiation 10-34 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 • A Victoreen Model 247 portable gamma ray survey m with three ranges • A Hallicrafter Model 5 portable Geiger-Mueller survey m for gamma radiation and mixtures of gamma and beta • Large-mouthed bottles for collecting soil samples and • A map showing names and locations of residents within a radius of 40 mi of ground zero Landsverk and Wollan quartz-fiber electrometers “L W meters” were also used at least at Searchlight Station L-8 as were “meters obtained from R Watts ” also known as Watts-type m Blair et al 1945b Hacker 1987 All off-site monitoring teams were supposed to be in radio or telephone contact with personnel at Base Camp but communications were problematic and information could not always be shared Hoffman 1947 Lamont 1965 Maag and Rohrer 1982 In addition to the instruments carried in automobiles the following stationary equipment was used Hoffman 1947 • The three shelters North South and West were equipped with an alpha m a beta-gamma GM m and a survey m • At the Base Camp a Filter Queen airborne particulate sampler and a GM recording m were used • At the towns of Tularosa Hot Springs San Antonio and Carrizozo a Filter Queen a recording beta-gamma m and a seismograph were set up Travel of Off-Site Monitoring Teams Based on observed surface winds scientists thought that contamination was blowing in a line toward the northwest from ground zero during the first half hour after the shot As a result an early attempt was made to monitor around Fite’s Farm just past Guard Gate 2 see Fig 10-3 A Military Police officer refused to allow the monitoring team to enter that area however until permission was received from Base Camp That permission came only after the cloud had passed however so attention was diverted elsewhere Around 7 11 am a monitoring team found detectable gamma radiation 19 mi from ground zero in the direction of Socorro toward the northwest Hoffman 1947 After the cloud’s path appeared to shift toward the northeast monitors focused on areas along or near Route 380 past Carthage and between Bingham and Carrizozo see Fig 10-12 Monitoring teams visited Adobe and White Store to the east along Route 380 and some traveled all the way to Carrizozo Teams traveled north from Bingham on Road 146 to monitor ranches in that area such as the Coker Lucero and Sedillo ranches Just east of Bingham the highest levels of elevated radioactivity were found around FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-35 Searchlight Station L-8 and in the rugged areas to its southeast About two mi east of the 146 161 junction Road 146 runs through a steep gorge The highest exposure rates were found there leading it to be called “Hot Canyon” see Fig 10-12 and 10-17 Hoffman wrote “since the canyon was hot extensive measurements could not be made there on account of instrument contamination” Hoffman 1947 Puzzled by the high readings reported from Hot Canyon Drs Hempelmann and Friedell went to the area on July 17 the day after the shot and discovered an adobe house hidden from the road about a mi east of where the highest readings had been taken Hacker 1987 An elderly couple lived there with a young grandson several dogs and assorted livestock Hoffman 1947 Hacker 1987 The Ratliff ranch had been overlooked by the Army and it was not on the copies of “Palmer’s map of inhabited localities” that monitoring crews were given A second ranch unknown to the army was discovered later As it turned out a couple with the last name of Wilson lived near the Ratliffs and early reports confused the two residences Hemplemann 1947 Hoffman 1947 Hacker 1987 Although there was no record of what the exposure rates were at the Ratliff ranch on shot day the doctors decided that the exposure rates at the ranch on the 17th were not high enough to warrant “hasty evacuation” Hacker 1987 As mentioned earlier rancher M C Ratliff said that “the ground immediately after the shot appeared covered with light snow ” adding that for several days afterward especially at dawn and dusk “the ground and fence posts had the appearance of being frosted” Hemplemann 1947 Hacker 1987 10-36 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 ROAD 146 Fig 10-17 USGS Topographic map excerpt showing the area around the Ratliff Ranch Broken Back Crater N Mex 15-min series 1948 Contour interval 25 ft Results of Off-Site Monitoring Results of the off-site monitoring conducted by 44 individuals after the Trinity test are documented in handwritten notes typed transcripts of these notes and in summary forms NTA 1946 Hempelmann 1947 Hoffman 1947 Lamont 1965 Maag and Rohrer 1982 Quinn 1987 Table 10-1 contains a summary of field team monitoring results recorded on July 16-17 1945 that reached intensities of 100 mr h-1 or higher After the trajectory of the cloud shifted toward the northeast monitors focused mostly on areas along or near U S Route 380 to the east of Carthage and between Bingham and Carrizozo Measured exposure rates first reached 100 mr h-1 at Searchlight Station L-8 around 7 30 a m Measurements in Bingham 30 km northeast of ground zero reached 1 5 r h-1 by 8 25 a m and peaked at 3 3 r h-1 at 8 49 a m Gamma radiation levels in Adobe 5 4 km southeast of Bingham were 6 5 r h-1 at 8 49 a m and fell to 1 6 r h-1 by 10 18 a m About 3 km farther southeast in White Store the highest recorded result was 3 r h-1 at 10 30 a m The highest gamma intensities were found in the “Hot Canyon” area Monitoring in the area of the canyon found gamma intensities up to “the vicinity of 20 R hr” at 8 30 a m that dropped off to 6 0 R h-1 by 1 30 p m and 3 8 R h-1 by 1 57 p m Hoffman 1946 NTA 1946 Hoffman 1947 Teams traveled north from the Bingham L-8 area on Route 146 to monitor the Coker Lucero and Sedillo ranches Gamma radiation above background was measured in the school yard at Vaughn 96 mi to the northeast of ground zero 7 6 h after the blast indicating that the cloud traveled no slower than 12 9 mi h-1 Hoffman 1947 On the day after the blast exposure rates as high as 300 mr h-1 were measured near FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-37 Corona and Claunch while exposure rates from three to 11 mi north of Vaughn ranged between 0 1 R h-1 and “ 0 1” r h-1 shortly after 3 00 p m At no location greater than ten mi distant from ground zero was an alpha particle count obtained that could easily be distinguished from background with the instruments the monitors were using Hoffman 1947 At about 3 30 p m on the day of the blast the recording G-M counter at Carrizozo began to track upward About 15 min later that m went off scale on its least sensitive scale and the monitor notified Base Camp by telephone Hoffman 1946 Lamont 1965 Full scale on that recorder corresponded to 10 000 counts per minute “cpm” Hoffman 1947 After one hour the gamma intensity at Carrizozo was measurable on a single-scale Victoreen survey m that indicated an intensity of 1 5 mr h-1 until the following morning Hoffman 1946 NTA 1946 By 10 00 a m the G-M counter reading had decreased to 3 000 cpm 10-38 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Table 10-1 Exposure rates 0 1 R h-1 or greater measured July 16-17 1945 near Trinity Site Date and Time 7 30 a m 7 45 a m 8 00 a m 8 25 a m 8 25 to 9 15 a m 8 29 a m 8 30 a m 8 30 a m 8 35 a m 8 42 a m 8 45 a m 8 45 a m c 8 46 a m 8 47 to 8 56 a m 8 49 a m 8 49 a m 8 50 a m 8 50 a m 8 56 to 9 40 a m 9 05 a m 9 30 a m 9 40 to 10 15 a m 10 00 a m 10 15 to 10 50 a m 10 18 a m 10 22 a m 10 25 a m 10 25 a m 10 30 a m 10 30 to 11 30 a m 10 33 a m 10 40 a m 10 45 a m 10 49 a m 10 54 a m 10 55 a m 11 00 a m 11 00 a m 11 00 a m 11 00 a m 11 30 a m 11 40 a m 11 50 a m 11 58 a m c 12 00 p m Off-Site Locationa Searchlight Station L-8 11-16 km W of Carthage on US 380 Searchlight Station L-8 Bingham Searchlight Station L-8 0 4 km W of Hansenburg Ranch Searchlight Station L-8 5 6 km SE of L-8 Hot Canyon area Searchlight Station L-8 1 6 km E of Bingham along US 380 3 3 km W of Bingham Cooler spot retreated to from 8 30 spot in canyon 3 2 km E of Bingham along US 380 From Searchlight Station L-8 to Hot Canyon Bingham 6 4 km E of Bingham along US 380 Adobe 4 8 km E of Searchlight Station L-8 Hansenburg Ranch From Hot Canyon to Searchlight Station L-8 4 8 E of Searchlight Station L-8 Searchlight Station L-8 N from L-8 to Rte 41 cutoff to Maxwell Ranch 0 8 km S of Hansenburg Ranch From Rte 41 near Maxwell Ranch back to L-8 6 4 km E of Bingham Adobe 6 4 km E of Bingham along US 380 9 7 km E of Bingham along US 380 White Store White Store White Store 8 km N of Bingham Just W of White Store on US 380 8 km N of Bingham and 0 25 mi E Wrye Ranch Just W of White Store on US 380 14 km E of Bingham along US 380 0 8 km E of Bingham Bingham 8 km E of Bingham 6 4 km E of Bingham Bingham Bingham Bingham 6 4 km W of Bingham 1 6 km W of Bingham Bingham FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Recorded Exposure Rate r h-1 0 1 0 2 0 5 1 5 2 0 0 25 0 1 vicinity of 20 2 1 0 1 6 15 2 2 1 2 to 14 5 3 3 6 5 15 0 0 45 1 5 to 6 5 15 0 1 0 1 1 to 6 0 0 8 1 5 to 4 8 1 6 1 5 3 0 2 5 3 2 0 0 5 3 3 0 2 3 2 0 7 1 3 1 55 2 5 2 0 0 5 1 7 0 65 0 25 0 25 0 25 10-39 Date and Time Off-Site Locationa 12 02 p m c 1 6 km E of Bingham along US 380 Monday July 16 1945 continued after blast at 5 30 a m 1 00 p m Bingham 1 27 p m 6 4 km E of Bingham along US 380 1 28 p m 0 2 km E of White Store on US 380 1 30 p m White Store 1 30 p m Hot Canyon 1 35 to 1 57 p m 1 6 to 4 8 km E of Searchlight Station L-8 1 47 p m 11 km E of Bingham along US 380 1 54 p m 2 4 km E of Bingham on US 380 2 00 p m At Bingham 2 00 p m Rte 146 just E of junction with Rte 161 2 13 p m 8 km N on Rte 146 from junction Rte 161 2 30 p m 6 4 km W of Bingham along US 380 2 30 p m 0 27 km E of Sedillo 2 30 p m Coker Ranch 2 40 p m 9 7 km NE of Bingham on Rte 161 2 46 p m 13 km NE of Bingham on Rte 161 2 47 p m 0 27 km W of Coker Ranch 2 50 p m Lucero Ranch 3 00 p m S side of Rte 161 near junction with Rte 146 3 42 to 3 50 p m 11 to 21 km W of Vaughn on Rte 60 4 30 p m Cedarvale 4 48 p m c 1 6 km W of Cedarvale on Rte 42 4 53 p m c 4 km mi W of Cedarvale on Rte 42 c 4 59 p m 7 2 km mi W of Cedarvale on Rte 42 7 01 p m c 1 6 km E of Willard on Rte 60 10 30 p m White Store Tuesday July 17 1945 the day after the blast 25 to 39 km W of Corona toward Claunch 11 39 to 11 54 a m c c 12 01 to 12 10 p m 8 to 0 km E of Claunch on Rte 42 12 14 to 12 21 p m c 3 2 to 9 7 km S of Claunch 12 26 to 12 54 p m c 14 to 40 km S of Claunch c 1 05 to 1 09 p m 9 7 to 5 6 km N of Bingham 2 00 p m Bingham 3 00 p m White Store 3 10 to 3 30 p m 4 8 to 18 km N of Vaughn on Rte 285 3 30 p m 8 km N of Bingham on Rte 41 toward Monte Prieto 3 30 to 4 02 p m 1 6 to 26 km N of Vaughn toward Encino 4 30 to 6 00 p m 24-40 km N of Bingham on Rte 41 to Monte Prieto 5 50 to 6 36 p m 42-47 km E of Broadway Trinity access on US 380 6 30 p m Hot Canyon 7 30 to 8 00 p m 8 to 0 km N of Claunch on road from Gran Quivira c 10-40 Recorded Exposure Rate r h-1 0 15 1 5 0 95 2 8 0 15 6 0 0 5 to 3 8 1 6 1 5 0 5 6 0 2 0 16 0 27 0 22 3 5 7 0 26 0 24 7 0 off scale 0 11 0 11 0 15 0 13 0 11 0 25 0 10 to 0 15 0 11 to 0 18 0 11 to 0 19 0 11 to 0 30 0 11 to 0 18 0 10 0 10 0 1 to 0 1 0 19 0 1 0 19 to 0 30 0 11 to 0 5 0 5 0 10 to 0 19 Measurement time estimated based on odometer readings and times specified for nearby measurements FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Evacuation Policy and Decision Making Shortly before the Trinity blast surface winds were blowing toward the North shelter Hoffman 1946 About 12 min after the shot a “Watts’ meter” at North shelter indicated a rapid increase in radiation intensity because of a faulty zero setting Hoffman 1946 Hoffman 1947 Maag and Rohrer 1982 When a remote ionization “sentinel” indicated a rapid increase in radiation immediate evacuation of all personnel at that shelter was advised Some personnel evacuated with such urgency that their cars were riding their hubs when they reached Base Camp 25 km south Lamont 1965 While film badges worn by personnel in the shelter showed no exposures over 100 mr the subsequent detection of radioactivity in the area was seen as evidence that part of the cloud had passed over the area but deposited little radioactivity on the ground Maag and Rohrer 1982 Hacker 1987 Gamma intensities of 10 to 20 mr h 1 were measured around North shelter two hours after evacuation Bainbridge 1976 Most of the Army evacuation detachment and five radiological safety monitors that were stationed near Guard Post 2 northwest of ground zero remained there until a platoon was sent to Bingham while monitors surveyed that area Maag and Rohrer 1982 When the chief monitor learned of exposure rates as high as 3 3 r h-1 at Bingham Adobe and White Store he projected that total exposures in that region might approach the allowed limit The exposure rate of 6 5 r h-1 taken 4 mi east of Bingham at 8 49 a m was judged to be “getting close to the evacuation limit ”i A message was sent by courier to Base Camp that integrated gamma doses had been projected at 90% of tolerance Hoffman 1947 Hacker 1987 Medical experts were summoned exposure rates decreased as the dust dispersed and settled and no evacuation of the area was conducted The evacuation detachment was dismissed at 1 00 p m on shot day “when it became evident that evacuations would not be undertaken” Maag and Rohrer 1982 After the recording beta-gamma m at Carrizozo went off scale around 4 20 p m on test day scientists and military officials considered whether Carrizozo should be evacuated They held off on that action though pending some additional monitoring and within an hour fallout readings dropped officials thus concluded that the radioactive cloud had passed over and ordered no evacuations Hoffman 1946 NTA 1946 Lamont 1965 Hacker 1987 As the cloud drifted beyond the 15 mi radius north of Bingham and around Carrizozo monitors often overreached the limits of radio communication with Base Camp Bainbridge 1976 As officials at Base Camp were advising Washington that the danger from radioactive fallout was diminishing they were out of communication with monitors who were measuring fallout in areas as distant as 112 mi to the north Lamont 1965 i Notes taken by radiation monitors Robert R Leonard and W J McElwreath July 16 1945 LANL Archives Collection A-84019 Box 8 Folder 1 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-41 Historical records indicate that pressure to maintain secrecy and avoid legal claims led to decisions that would likely not have been made in later tests Even though exposure rates total exposures and alpha count rates exceeding pre-established limits were measured and projected a “cover story” was in place that would have provided an avenue for relatively inconspicuous evacuation of selected residents and evacuation personnel vehicles shelters and supplies were on standby no evacuations of members of the public were conducted In a July 31 1945 War Department memorandum to Dr Louis Hempelmann reproduced in Hempelmann 1947 Lt Daniel Dailey of the Corps of Engineers refers to requests from Hempelmann that “the health of persons in a certain house near Bingham N M be discretely investigated ” During the two years following Trinity at least seven visits were made to the Ratliff ranch by LANL and MED medical personnel health physicists and Army Intelligence agents “under suitable pretext” to check on the visible condition of the residents Hempelmann 1947 Hoffman 1947 Even after the atomic bombs had been dropped the atomic bomb project and the roles of LANL and Trinity had been described publicly and the need for secrecy diminished the reasons for these investigations were not disclosed to residents Monitoring practices and protective action decision processes after the Trinity blast were clearly focused on the immediate hazards of radiation exposure In the health physics community of the MED “the thinking had not yet focused on possible long-term effects” Pierre 1972 Hacker 1987 Stannard 1988 Medical surveillance of ranchers was limited to casual observation of external appearances and veiled non-specific questioning regarding any health complaints Although concern was voiced for the health status of at least one family no evidence was found of steps being taken to reduce exposures to ranchers who continued to live in the fallout zone after July 1945 in spite of the fact that the soil and the grasses eaten by grazing livestock were particularly radioactive in the area of Hot Canyon In retrospect Hempelmann acknowledged that “a few people were probably overexposed but they couldn’t prove it and we couldn’t prove it So we just assumed we got away with it” Hempelmann and Henrickson 1986 After the Trinity test LANL scientists estimated effective rates of decay and total external doses delivered for several public areas Hoffman 1947 LANL scientists defined the “geometrical dose” as the integrated dose under the maximum exposure rate that preceded the steady decay Hoffman 1947 The geometrical dose was seen to represent “high intensity short duration dose” that “can be a severe health hazard because it is delivered in a short time interval ” The integrated dose used by LANL scientists in 1945 did not include the area under the maximum but corresponded to the “long low intensity decay that follows the maximum ” out to a point in time 14 days after the blast Hoffman 10-42 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 1947 The maximum tolerable values of geometrical dose and integrated gamma ray dose for the entire body over a period of 14 days were 50 and 75 R respectively Hoffman 1947 Table 10-2 shows the geometrical doses integrated doses and total doses geometrical plus integrated that were reported by Hoffman 1947 for Hot Canyon White Store and Bingham Correction factors for shielding by house structures were based on measurements in Los Alamos wooden frame and Bingham adobe houses on July 19 and August 17 1945 respectively Hoffman 1947 Based on monitoring done on and beyond the day after the blast LANL scientists estimated doses at the Ratliff residence Hempelmann 1947 For the first 14 days after the blast the geometrical dose was estimated to be 15 R the dose from the ground 32 R and the total accumulated dose waist high 47 R-– considered to be a factor of 33 above the tolerance Radioactivity at the nearby Wilson ranch was estimated to be 75% that of the Ratliff ranch Hempelmann 1947 Table 10-2 External gamma ray exposure values calculated for several public areas after the Trinity test by LANL scientists Hoffman 1947 Geometrical Dose R Location Hot Canyon On the grounda Corrected for house shieldingb Corrected to torso levelc Torso level no house shieldingd White Store On the ground Corrected for house shielding Corrected to torso level Torso level no house shielding Bingham On the ground Corrected for house shielding Corrected to torso level Torso level no house shielding Integrated Dose R Total Dose after 14 d R 24 24 15 28 115 62 41 76 139 88 56 100 8 4 8 4 4 2 7 8 21 8 11 8 5 8 10 7 30 2 20 2 10 19 3 3 3 3 1 7 3 1 24 0 3 6 5 12 27 3 17 3 8 1 15 a Estimated at 10 cm above the ground surface Gamma dose reduced by 46% to account for shielding by an adobe house c Dose at torso level estimated to 50% of the dose at 10 cm above ground level during the two weeks d “Corrected to torso level” values divided by 0 54 to estimate torso level with no house shielding b Trinity Fallout Assessments Performed by Others Exposure rate contour lines based on the data collected by the town monitoring crews in 1945 based on modeling by the Weather Service Nuclear Support Office Quinn 1987 and extended by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Cederwall and Peterson 1990 are presented in Figures 10-18 and 10-19 The lines in Fig 10-18 that extend roughly east-west at five distances from ground zero indicate FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-43 approximate locations of the edge of the cloud at times from two to 14 h after the shot The extensions of the fallout contours in Fig 10-19 show the contamination leaving New Mexico into Colorado and the northwest portion of Oklahoma Fig 10-18 The 0 01 0 1 2 and 10 R h-1 contours from the Trinity test at t 1h as analyzed by the Weather Service Nuclear Support Office WSNSO Quinn 1987 BGZ ground zero 10-44 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Fig 10-19 Extension of Trinity fallout pattern as exposure rate mR h-1 at t 12 h based on WSNSO analysis Quinn 1987 extended dotted lines with LLNL modeling Cederwall and Peterson 1990 A source term for the Trinity event was calculated by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Hicks 1985 and fallout patterns were reconstructed on behalf of the USDOE’s Off-Site Radiation Exposure and Review Project ORERP Quinn 1987 Unlike the nuclear explosions at the Nevada Test Site doses have not been reconstructed for the Trinity event primarily because of the scarcity of data Anspaugh 2000 Evaluations of public exposures from the Trinity blast that have been published to date have been incomplete in that they have not reflected the internal doses that were received by residents from intakes of airborne radioactivity and contaminated water and foods Some unique characteristics of the Trinity event amplified the significance of these omissions Because the Gadget was detonated so close to the ground terrain features and wind patterns caused “hot spots” of radioactive fallout The lifestyles of local ranchers led to intakes of radioactivity via water milk and homegrown vegetable consumption Since FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-45 members of the public who lived less than 20 mi downwind were not relocated the resultant internal radiation doses could have posed significant health risks for individuals exposed after the blast As a result internal radiation doses could have posed significant health risks for individuals exposed after the blast Gaps in Information about the Trinity Test In retrospect pioneer health physicist J Newell Stannard identified two main gaps in descriptions of Trinity event Stannard 1988 The first deals with characterizing residual plutonium which was present because the efficiency of the device was not 100 percent The Trinity Gadget contained 6 kg of 239Pu as its sole fissile material USDOE 2001 The 21 kt yield of the blast USDOE 2000 corresponds at 1 45×1023 fissions per kt Glasstone and Dolan 1977 to 3 05×1024 atoms or 1 21 kg of 239Pu fissioned indicating that approximately 4 8 kg of 239Pu remained unfissioned and was dispersed in the environment It was present in the crater and partly scattered around the environment in the fallout Monitors did find some plutonium it was not measured very carefully near shot time but its presence was hinted at in the initial surveys Stannard 1988 The instruments used by field monitoring teams were later acknowledged to be incapable of measuring alpha contamination in the environment to the desired sensitivities Hoffman 1947 A full-scale survey of the Trinity site was not conducted until three years later by a group from the UCLA Medical School The second gap in information is the lack of any measures for detecting internally deposited radionuclides such as bioassay nose swabs etc At the time at LANL nose swab collection and analysis was the main technique for monitoring for inhalation of radioactive material including in D-Building where the plutonium hemispheres for the Trinity device were manufactured Hempelmann and Langham 1953 There certainly were instances of airborne radioactivity inhalation by members of the public who were in the path of the Trinity cloud or were near deposited radioactivity that was resuspended and water and food products were also contaminated The Ratliff home in Hot Canyon for example used its tin roof to collect water into a cistern that served as the family’s drinking water supply which was a common practice in the area Allen 2008 There was also rain in the area the night after the shot meaning that deposited radioactivity was likely carried into the Ratliffs’ drinking water Appendix II in Hoffman 1947 Some Lessons about Off-site Impacts Learned from the Trinity Test The Trinity test taught scientists that detonating a nuclear explosive device close to the ground will increase the radioactive fallout Detonating devices at higher elevations results in the dispersion of less radioactivity while yielding more blast power Based on the Trinity ex-experience and later tests 10-46 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 conducted in the Pacific during 1946 and 1948 the potential for exposure of workers and members of the public to fallout became known and appreciated Anspaugh 2000 Scientists also learned that “hot spots” are important phenomena when radioactive clouds disperse and that their occurrence can be influenced by local terrain features and air flow patterns The Trinity site was judged to be too small for additional atomic tests to be conducted General Groves concluded that the Trinity test site was “too small for a repetition of a similar test of this magnitude except under very special conditions” Hacker 1987 He proposed finding a larger site “preferably with a radius of at least 150 mi without population” compared to about 15 mi at Trinity for any future test Follow-Up Studies of Trinity Fallout After the Trinity blast several monitoring teams continued through the remainder of 1945 to periodically traverse roads to the northeast of the site to measure and record exposure rates Records of survey trips were found for excursions on 12 additional days in July eight in August two in November and four in December Hoffman 1946 NTA 1946 Hoffman 1947 In August 1947 scientists from the University of California working with Wright Langham from LANL conducted a limited survey of a 26 000 ha 100 mi2 area near the Trinity Site Overstreet et al 1947 Between 1949 and 1978 teams from UCLA and the U S Environmental Protection Agency USEPA published reports of studies of larger zones of local Trinity fallout Warren and Bellamy 1949 Bellamy et al 1951 Gillcoly et al 1951 Leitch 1951 Nishita et al 1957 Douglas 1978 The earliest UCLA surveys were limited to beta-gamma measurements Measurements of gross alpha radioactivity in airborne particles assumed to be plutonium were first reported in 1951 as were alpha measurements of chemically separated plutonium from plants and soil The first of these studies to include isotopic analyses of plutonium in environmental media soil and air was published by Douglas 1978 for samples collected in 1973 and 1974 over 28 years after the detonation Characteristics of Members of the Public near the Trinity Site Population ethnicity diet housing and lifestyle characteristics of residents near the Trinity test site around 1945 were described based on except where noted otherwise interviews of current residents and historians Allen 2008 and information from reviewed documents Based on interviews of local residents and historians the typical ethnic compositions of ranchers sheepherders and cowboys near the Trinity Site around 1945 were estimated to be as shown in Table 10-3 Both ranchers and town residents used the most readily available construction materials As shown in Table 10-4 adobe was by far the FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-47 most common building material for homes and work places Barn roofs were typically mud while home roofs were usually metal to facilitate water collection In towns such as Carrizozo most buildings were adobe but homes made of wood frame construction and bricks were also present Table 10-3 Estimated distribution of ethnicities for residents near the Trinity Site circa 1945 based on LAHDRA interviews percentages Class of Persons Ranchers Sheepherders Cowboys Angloa Spanish Native American 90 0 80 10 100 20 0 0 0 a Non-Hispanic white persons Table 10-4 Estimated distribution of construction types for buildings near the Trinity Site circa 1945 based on LAHDRA interviews percentages Building Type and Setting Adobe Wood Stone Brick Ranch homes 85 10 10 0 Homes in towns Ranch workplaces Workplaces in towns 75 80 75 22 15 23 1 5 0 2 0 2 During daylight ranchers and their hired hands would typically be outside working Breakfast would typically be eaten while it was still dark so work could begin at first light Meals would have been eaten inside Since the Trinity test occurred during the summer children would also have been outside during daylight hours either working or playing While ranch wives spent the bulk of their time outdoors tending to laundry gardening or helping with the livestock wives typically spent more time inside than men preparing meals canning food and processing milk Cattle and sheep were commonly raised by ranchers in the area and each ranch typically had horses chickens and a garden Some ranchers also kept hogs The Ratliff ranch maintained a herd of 200 goats and some turkeys and donkeys Hempelmann 1947 Hoffman 1947 A long-time resident of the area indicated that these goats were raised for their hair not their milk If drought caused lack of forage the livestock was sold Ranchers and their hired hands had similar diets Ranchers in the area typically collected rain water off metal roofs into cisterns as shown in Fig 10-20 as their source of drinking water Local ground water 10-48 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 contained excessive mineral content that made it unsuitable for human consumption but it was used to water livestock Beans and potatoes were grown in vegetable gardens but were often supplemented with purchases made in town Flour sugar and other staples were bought in town Produce including peas root crops squash and corn was grown in gardens Moreover some ranchers had fruit trees Produce that was not eaten fresh was canned in glass jars with the goal of having enough to last the family through to the next harvest The primary fresh meat sources were deer and chickens which also provided eggs If the ranchers ate any beef it was most likely from grown calves from their dairy cows Virtually all ranchers kept a dairy cow and ranch wives processed the milk to make other dairy products used on the ranches Fig 10-20 A system for collection of water off the roof of a residence on the Black Hills Ranch formerly the Nalda Ranch east-northeast of the Trinity Site The cistern to the left which was damaged by the Trinity blast and then repaired is still in use today The ranches near the Trinity Site did not have electricity until after the War but most had an icebox Ice was purchased in town and stored underground at the ranch houses Some ranchers might have had butane-powered refrigerators or coal-oil-powered refrigerators and stoves Town dwellers bought their groceries including milk products from grocery stores Town residents had electricity and refrigerators and water was piped to their homes Ranchers and historians have little knowledge of local ranchers who drank goat milk except for one man who reportedly purchased goat milk in Belen New Mexico There FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-49 has been no published study of the internal radiation exposures for residents downwind of the Trinity test from pathways such as ingestion of cistern water that collected fallout from the roof Such a cistern was observed at the Ratliff Ranch in “hot canyon ” Conclusions Regarding Pubic Exposures from the Trinity Test All evaluations of public exposures from the Trinity blast published to date have been incomplete in that they have not reflected the internal doses received by residents from intakes of airborne radioactivity and contaminated water and food Some unique characteristics of the Trinity event amplified the significance of those omissions Because the Fat Man device was detonated so close to the ground members of the public lived less than 20 mi downwind and were not relocated terrain features and wind patterns caused “hot spots” of radioactive fallout and lifestyles of local ranchers led to intakes of radioactivity via consumption of water milk and homegrown vegetables it appears that internal radiation doses could have posed significant health risks for individuals exposed after the blast The young health physics community had never faced the challenge of monitoring such an extensive environmental release of fission products activation products and unfissioned plutonium and wartime pressures to maintain secrecy and minimize legal claims led to decisions that would not likely have been made in later tests Different standards of safety were applied to informed project workers than to uninformed members of the public Project workers knew enough to evacuate areas when high exposure rates were measured or to take the necessary precautions to minimize exposure but members of the public did not realize that changes in their behavior were prudent and project staff did not call for evacuations or protective measures even though predetermined tolerances for exposure rate and projected total exposure had been exceeded Too much remains undetermined about exposures from the Trinity test to put the event in perspective as a source of public radiation exposure or to defensibly address the extent to which people were harmed Beyond omission of internal doses all assessments released to date are based on monitoring data that have not been subjected to the processes used in modern dose reconstruction studies that include quality checking cross-checking against other data sources application of appropriate adjustments or corrections and uncertainty analysis 10-50 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 References Albuquerque Journal News Trinity 50 Years Later An Albuquerque Journal Special Reprint Albuquerque Publishing Company 1995 Allen CA Trinity test residence history interviews San Francisco CA ChemRisk Inc 2008 Anspaugh LR Radiation Doses to the Population of the Continental United States from the Ingestion of Food Contaminated with Radionuclides from Nuclear Tests at the Nevada Test Site February 4th 2000 Rockville MD Report from the National Cancer Institute 2000 Bainbridge KT Trinity Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-6300-H 1976 Bellamy A Held E Taylor J Olafson J Leitch J Neel J Larson K Dunn W Gross W Alpha activity due to the atomic bomb detonation at Trinity Alamogordo New Mexico Los Angeles California University of California at Los Angeles UCLA-108 1951 Blair J Frisch D Katcoff S Detection of Nuclear-Explosion Dust in the Atmosphere Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-418 1945a Blair J Kupferberg M Nedzel A Section L-8 Searchlight Detachment Cloud Observations and Radiation Measurements Memorandum to Joseph G Hoffman Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1945b Cederwall RT Peterson KR Meteorological modeling of arrival and deposition of fallout at intermediate distances downwind of the Nevada Test Site Health Phys 59 593-601 1990 Douglas RL Levels and Distribution of Environmental Plutonium Around the Trinity Site Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory ORP LV-78-3 1978 Frisch O What little I remember New York New York Cambridge University Press 1979 Gillcoly B Olafson J Neel J Larson K Gordon S Dunn WF The 1949 and 1950 radiological soil survey of fission product contamination and soil plant Interrelationships of areas in New Mexico affected by the first atomic bomb detonation Los Angeles California University of California at Los Angeles UCLA140 1951 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-51 Glasstone S Dolan PJ The Effects of Nuclear Weapons Third ed Washington DC U S Department of Defense U S Energy Research and Development Agency 1977 Groves LR Memorandum for the Secretary of War Stimson from the Commanding General July 18th 1945 Manhattan District Project 1945 Groves LR Now It Can Be Told The Story of the Manhattan Project New York NY Da Capo Press 1962 Hacker BC The Dragon's tail Radiation Safety in the Manhattan Project 1942-1946 Berkeley California University of California Press 1987 Hawkins D Manhattan District History Project Y - The Los Alamos Project Vol 1 - Inception Until August 1945 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMS-2532 Vol 1 1961 Hempelmann LH Nuclear Explosion 16 July 1945 Health Physics Report on Radioactive Contamination throughout New Mexico Part B Biological Effects Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-638 1947 Hempelmann LH Henrickson PW Transcript of an oral history interview of Dr Louis Hempelmann conducted by Paul Henrickson on 31 January 1986 LANL Archives Collection A-2006-006 1986 Hempelmann LH Langham W Determination of systemically deposited plutonium in laboratory personnel and a simple qualitative test for exposure to airborne radioactive material Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos National Laboratory AECU-2663 1953 Hemplemann LH Nuclear Explosion 16 July 1945 Health Physics Report on Radioactive Contamination Throughout New Mexico Part B Biological Effects Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1947 Hicks HG Results of Calculations of External Gamma Radiation Exposure Rates from Fallout and the Related Radionuclide Compositions - The Trinity Event Livermore California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory UCRL-53705 1985 Hirschfelder JO Kamm R Magee J Sugarman N Fate of the Active Material After a Nuclear Explosion August 20th 1945 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LAMS-277 1945 10-52 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Hoddeson L P W H Meade R Westfall C Critical assembly - A technical history of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer years 1943-1945 Cambridge University Press 1993 Hoffman JG Nuclear explosion 16 July 1945 health physics report on radioactive contamination throughout New Mexico following the nuclear explosion Part C Transcript of radiation monitor's field notes film badge data on town monitoring Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1946 Hoffman JG Nuclear explosion 16 July 1945 health physics report on radioactive contamination throughout New Mexico following the nuclear explosion Part A Physics Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-616 1947 Jones WC Manhattan The Army and the Atomic Bomb Washington DC Center of Military History United States Army 1985 Kistiakowsky G Reminiscences of Wartime Los Alamos Reminiscences of Los Alamos 1980 Lamont L Day of Trinity The Dramatic Story of the Los Alamos Atomic Explosion and the Men Who in July 1945 Opened the Nuclear Age New York Atheneum 1965 LASL Los Alamos 1943-1945 The Beginning of an Era Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LASL-79-78 1979 Leitch JL Summary of Radiological Findings in Animals from Biological Surveys in 1947 1948 1949 1950 February 14 Los Angeles CA University of California Los Angeles UCLA-111 1951 Maag C Rohrer S Project Trinity 1945-1946 final report Washington DC U S Defense Nuclear Agency United States Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Tests Nuclear Test Personnel Review DNA Report 6028F 1982 Merlan T Life at Trinity Base Camp Prepared for the White Sands Missile Range by Human Systems Research Inc White Sands Missile Range Archaeological Research Report No 01-07 2001 Morrison P Former Worker Pit Assembly G-1 for Project Trinity Transcript of Videotaped Interview with Phillip Morrison on November 30th 1999 Los Alamos NM Public Affairs Office Los Alamos National Laboratory 1999 National Atomic Museum The First Atomic Test Chapter 1 online Available at http www worldwideschool org library books hst northamerican TrinitySite-I chap1 html FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-53 Nishita H Olafson J Larson K The distribution of plutonium in the soils of central and northeastern New Mexico as a result of the atomic bomb test of July 16 1945 West Los Angeles California University of California at Los Angeles UCLA-406 1957 NTA Hand written field notes taken by field monitoring teams after the Trinity explosion Las Vegas NV Nuclear Testing Archives NVO-59707 1946 Overstreet R Jacobson L Larson K Huntington G Trinity survey program Los Angeles California University of California AM-2843 1947 Pierre AJ Nuclear Politics The British Experience with an Independent Strategic Force 1939-1970 New York New York Oxford University Press 1972 Quinn VE Analysis of nuclear test Trinity radiological and meteorological data Las Vegas NV National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Weather Service Nuclear Support Office 1987 Radiochemistry Society Nuke Tests Trinity Test - July 16th 1945 online Available at http www radiochemistry org history nuke_tets trinity index html Rosen TL The Atomic City - A Firsthand Account by a Son of Los Alamos Austin TX Sunbelt Eakin 2002 Santa Fe New Mexican History in the Making Pilot Accidentally Witnessed First A-Bomb Explosion Santa Fe New Mexican News 2005 Savage J Storm B Reach to the unknown The Trinity story The Atom 2 1965 Stannard JN Radioactivity and Health a History Office of Scientific and Technical Information 1988 Sugarman N 100-Ton Test Radiochemistry Appendix 61 to LA-1027 LA-290 1945 Szasz F The day the sun rose twice University of New Mexico Press 1984 USDOE “Trinity Site” visitor brochure U S Department of Energy National Atomic Museum 1994 USDOE United States Nuclear Tests July 1945 through September 1992 Las Vegas NV U S Department of Energy Nevada Operations Office DOE NV--209-REV 15 2000 USDOE Restricted data declassification decisions 1946 to the present RDD-7 U S Department of Energy 2001 10-54 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Warren S Bellamy A The 1948 Radiological and Biological Survey of Areas in New Mexico Affected by the First Atomic bomb Detonation Los Angeles California University of California at Los Angeles UCLA-32 1949 Warren SL Report on Test II at Trinity July 16th 1945 to the Attention of Major Gen Groves 1945 Webb JH The fogging of photographic film by radioactive contaminants in cardboard packaging materials Physical Review 76 375 1949 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 10-55 This page intentionally left blank 10-56 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Beryllium Use at LANL Beryllium has been used at LANL since 1943 in various operations related to nuclear reactors and weapons production including the machining fabrication and testing of components French chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin was credited with discovering beryllium in 1798 upon formulating beryllium hydroxide Elemental beryllium however was not isolated prior to two independent experiments in 1828 Beryllium occurs naturally only as the 9Be isotope although five additional isotopes are produced artificially 6Be to 11Be IPCS 1990 Beryllium is the lightest of all solid and chemically-stable substances and has an unusually high melting point of 1287 C HSDB 2005 The metal has a number of chemical properties in common with aluminum including a very high affinity for oxygen A thin film of beryllium oxide forms on the surface of bare metal when it is exposed to air providing the metal with high corrosion resistance This film also renders beryllium resistant to water and cold oxidizing acids IPCS 1990 The most important nuclear physical property associated with beryllium is neutron emission upon alphabombardment Beryllium’s low neutron absorption properties and its high-scattering cross-section distinguish it as a suitable moderator and reflector of structural material in nuclear facilities While most other metals absorb neutrons from the fission of nuclear fuel beryllium atoms only reduce the energy of such neutrons and reflect them back into the fission zone IPCS 1990 Industrial Uses of Beryllium Interest in and application of beryllium grew after the discovery in the 1920s that adding only two percent beryllium to copper would result in an alloy that was six times stronger than copper alone IPCS 1990 Becker and Vigil 1999 As early as 1943 the U S nuclear weapons program examined metallic beryllium for use as a possible tamper material Enough beryllium had been accumulated at LANL by May 1946 to allow for critical mass experiments Hanson 1995 Using large quantities of it in the nuclear weapons program in the 1940s however would have exhausted the entire U S supply Beryllium was used as a substitute for gold or natural uranium reflectors in early atomic weapons thereby saving much weight and money Hanson 1995 Beryllium metal did not become readily available to American industry until 1957 Since that time beryllium use has used as a glass additive in ceramics plastics camera shutters submarine cable housings and dental prostheses and in beryllium-copper alloys in products such as golf clubs springs FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-1 pivots and pinions Beryllium is also used in the semiconductor precision electronics spacecraft and missile manufacturing industries IPCS 1990 A timeline depicting important events in beryllium’s history in general at AEC DOE facilities and at LANL as well as states of knowledge regarding its health effects promulgation of guidelines and regulatory limits is presented in Table 11-1 Records Searches for Beryllium Information The project team has identified few reports written during the period of historical beryllium operations at LANL other than H-Division Progress Reports Most of the early H-Division reports mention beryllium air sampling in specific LANL buildings but no details regarding the associated beryllium operations are provided Several documents located in the LANL Records Center and Report Collection provide summaries of historical monitoring activities associated with beryllium metal machining and firing site operations Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 Becker and Vigil 1999 A Johns Hopkins report JHSPH 1999 was recommended to the project team by a former LANL worker and after initial contact with the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act EEOICPA office in Española NM the team was provided a copy by M Cadorette Project Coordinator Very little historical stack monitoring data for beryllium have been located by the project team If stack releases of beryllium were not routinely monitored indoor air monitoring data might be useful for estimating source terms for beryllium releases to the environment Operations Involving Beryllium Release to the Environment Two types of operations at LANL machining and firing tests have resulted in releases of beryllium to the environment The machining grinding sanding and general handling of beryllium components typically occurred in machine shops or experimental laboratory settings Dynamic testing has involved using beryllium and other materials in explosive tests in the open air or with various forms of containment or confinement Industrial hygiene records indicate that activities involving beryllium were performed at 20 different Technical Areas between 1943 and 1980 The main facilities housing beryllium operations within the Original Technical Area are shown in Fig 11-1 Beryllium metal was processed in the shops and metallurgical labs and soluble beryllium salts were handled in the chemical labs JHSPH 1999 11-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 Table 11-1 Beryllium timeline 1933 First description of acute beryllium disease Weber and Engelhardt 1993 1943 Chemical pneumonia reported in workers extracting beryllium from beryl ore Van Ordstrand et al 1943 1943 U S Public Health Service publishes NIH Bulletin 181 stating that beryllium metal is not toxic Hyslop et al 1943 1944 Beryllium machining began in V Shop at LASL’s Original Technical Area 1946 First cases of chronic beryllium disease CBD in fluorescent light bulb workers Hardy and Tabershaw 1946 1947 United States Atomic Energy Commission USAEC is formed 1949 USAEC establishes a 2 µg m-3 occupational exposure limit at their facilities Eisenbud et al 1949 1949 Beryllium machined in V Shop Annex also known as the “Old Beryllium Shop” at LASL 1952 Exhaust system enlarged in Old Beryllium Shop at LASL 1953 Beryllium is machined in the new beryllium shop at LASL and the old beryllium shop is closed 1957 ACGIH proposes a 2 µg m-3 Threshold Limit Value exposure limit ACGIH 2006 1958 USAEC contracts with Brush Wellman for 200 000 lbs of beryllium per year Stange 2005 1959 Health protection in beryllium facilities summary of 10 y of experience Breslin and Harris 1958 Breslin and Harris 1959 1971 OSHA adopts the 2 µg m-3 permissible exposure limit PEL 8-hr TWA time-weighted average OSHA 2008 1973 National Emission Standard for beryllium in ambient air 0 01 µg m-3 averaged over a 30-d period USEPA 2004 1977 NIOSH recommends a 0 5 µg m-3 limit to OSHA classifies beryllium as a potential occupational carcinogen USDOE 1999 based on an increased risk for lung cancer associated with exposure to high levels of beryllium in the workplace before the 1950s ACGIH 2006 1984 First case of CBD at the USDOE Rocky Flats Plant Stange 2005 1998 ACGIH proposes a 0 2 µg m-3 TLV®-TWA to minimize CBD and sensitization 1998 USEPA establishes a reference concentration of 0 02 µg m-3 based on sensitization and progression to CBD USEPA 2009 1999 USDOE establishes a 0 2 µg m-3 action level that triggers workplace precautions and control measures USDOE 1999 2000 Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act EEOICPA passed by Congress 2001 EEOICPA makes first CBD claim award Stange 2005 2007 ACGIH proposes a 0 05 TLV®-TWA and a 0 2 TLV®-STEL short term exposure limit NRC 2008 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-3 Fig 11-1 December 1946 view looking south of the Original Technical Area indicating buildings that had significant beryllium involvement identified Buildings Gamma V and M on the left B and Q in the center and Sigma I and Delta toward the right Based on photo LAHM-P1990-40-1 courtesy of the Los Alamos Historical Society 11-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 Machining and Component Production Operations The first production job assigned to the LANL metallurgy groups involved manufacturing specially shaped high-density beryllium oxide bricks required for the Water Boiler reactor These bricks were produced by hot-pressing beryllium oxide powder into a graphite die or mold of suitable shape The die and contents were heated to approximately 1 700 C using an induction coil connected to a high-frequency converter under a pressure of 1 000 psi This process consolidated the semi-plastic beryllium oxide powder into a dense coherent mass in the shape of the die Occasionally the bricks had to be ground to a precise size to meet critical dimensions Smith 1945 Until 1948 beryllium was machined in the center of a large machine shop called V Shop located in V Building at TA-1 the Original Technical Area TA-1 JHSPH 1999 Flexible exhaust ducts were placed near the cutting tool and the captured dust was exhausted into the shop’s atmosphere Because of the use of coarse fiberglass filter media the Industrial Hygiene Group recommended that the filtered air be exhausted outside the shop In 1949 an addition was built onto the main shop for machining only beryllium All machines were equipped with local exhaust hoods Each machine hood was exhausted by a blower-filter unit equipped with a wool-felt filter The air was exhausted outside the building through a common stack The quantity of air exhausted by each unit was approximately 200 ft3 min-1 In 1951 the beryllium concentrations in stack effluent ranged from 0 1 to 2 0 μg m-3 JHSPH 1999 In 1952 the local exhaust system was enlarged to provide a larger quantity of air for each machine and to add an additional lathe and mill to the shop The blower was capable of exhausting 2 000 ft3 min-1 through the five local exhaust hoods in the shop thus providing approximately 400 ft3 min-1 for each hood A cloth tube filter was installed outside the old beryllium machine shop to maximize collection efficiency for air cleaning prior to release to the environment The unit consisted of two steel chambers each containing 32 cloth tubes cotton bags containing asbestos floc as a filter aid operating continuously with a total capacity of 2 000 ft3 min-1 The collection efficiency determined by isokinetic sampling during normal machining operations was 98 8% The mass median diameter particle size in samples collected with a cascade impactor in the duct before the filter was 4 microns μm Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 In August 1953 the shop was closed and all machines and equipment were cleaned to prepare for the move to a new shop building at TA-3 SM-39 JHSPH 1999 Operations in the new beryllium shop FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-5 started in October 1953 and included two lathes a mill a surface grinder and an index mill used as a drill press all in hood enclosures The cloth tube filter was moved to the filter room above the machine shop in the new building A dynamic separator was installed before the cloth tube filter and dampers were installed on all machine hoods Orlon bags with no filter aid were used instead of cotton bags with asbestos floc The theoretical collection efficiency increased to 99 9% but the Orlon bags were not as effective Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 Continuous stack samples were collected downstream of the dust tube filter in both the old and new beryllium shops Of the 309 samples collected between 1952 and 1956 44 from the V Shop and 265 from the SM-39 Shop 53% were below 0 05 μg m-3 the method detection limit 67% were below 0 10 77% were below 0 2 94% were below 1 0 99% were below 2 0 and 100% were below 25 μg m-3 LASL 1969 1970 Although no tolerance for beryllium stack discharge had been recommended based on the results from the exhaust stacks and atmospheric dilution the Industrial Hygiene Group at that time indicated that the neighborhood tolerance of 0 01 µg m-3 was never exceeded Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 Beryllium work was also initially performed at the Delta Gamma I M and old Sigma buildings at TA-1 Work activities at old Sigma included extrusion welding heating beryllium in a furnace and flame plating beryllium onto substrates Beryllium metal was welded and machined at Delta building and beryllium oxide materials were used at M Building V Shop was a foundry and machine shop at which a variety of metals including beryllium were processed JHSPH 1999 As summarized in Table 11-2 and Table 11-3 industrial hygiene records indicate that sampling for beryllium was conducted in numerous buildings at TA-3 and at 19 other Technical Areas The Sigma Complex at TA-3 is made up of three large buildings and several smaller buildings totaling over 200 000 ft2 These facilities built in the 1950s and 1960s house laboratory areas for synthesizing materials and processing characterizing and fabricating materials such as beryllium uranium thallium and aluminum alloys The Sigma Complex is home to two groups of the Materials Science and Technology Division Ceramics MST-4 and Metallurgy MST-6 11-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 The three main buildings of the Sigma Complex are • Sigma Building SM-66 – built in 1959 and 170 000 ft2 in size • Rolling Mill Building SM-141 – built in the early 1960s and covering 20 000 ft2 and • Press Building SM-35 – built in 1953 and 10 000 ft2 in size Table 11-2 Beryllium operations at TA-3 buildings Bldg No Building Name Beryllium Operation SM-16 Van de Graaff Lab Sanding SM-29 New CMR Bldg chemical synthesis vaporization purification SM-30 Warehouse Unknown SM-39 Shops Bldg machining milling brazing heat treating cutting SM-32 Center for Material Science Unknown SM-43 Admin Bldg foils mirrors BeO rods SM-49 Physics Bldg thin foils SM-66 New Sigma Bldg Casting etching brazing SM-141 Rolling Mill Bldg Coating SM-184 Old Occupational Health Lab Unknown SM-218 Magnetic Energy and Storage Unknown SM-287 Scyllac Bldg Unknown Source JHSPH 1999 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-7 Table 11-3 Beryllium operations at Technical Areas other than TA-1 and TA-3 TA No Technical Area Name Beryllium Operation TA-6 Two-Mile Mesa Foils TA-8 Anchor Site West storage of BeF and BeO TA-9 Anchor Site East BeF fusion furnace TA-14 Q Site test firing TA-15 R-Site test firing with kg quantities of Be TA-16 S-Site laundry burn pit TA-18 Pajarito Site Processing Be-U blocks and BeO rods ultrasonic cleaning TA-21 DP Site Machining milling arc melting palletizing TA-33 HP Site Machining using a method X machine TA-35 Ten Site high temperature Be salts TA-39 Ancho Canyon test firing TA-40 DF Site milling test firing TA-41 Icehouse test firing TA-46 WA Site Heating TA-53 LANSCE targets and beam stops TA-11 K Site Unknown TA-43 Health Research Lab Unknown TA-48 Radiochemistry Unknown Source JHSPH 1999 BeF beryllium fluoride BeO beryllium oxide Be-U beryllium uranium alloy One-third of Sigma Building space contains the mechanical and ventilation equipment necessary to protect employee health and safety The remaining area includes laboratories offices and administrative areas The Rolling Mill Building contains laboratories for beryllium processing powder metallurgy and ceramics and rapid solidification research The Press Building houses a 5 000-ton capacity hydraulic press with a 12-foot maximum opening and hazardous materials research laboratories LANL 1995 Two 1992 files regarding permits for beryllium operations mention historical beryllium cutting operations at DP West Site’s Building 5 in the 1960s and possibly 1950s and existing beryllium operations in Sigma building TA-3-66 TA-16-450 and TA-55-4 The operations at Sigma Building and TA-16-450 had existed since the 1950s Gutierrez 1992 Tiedman 1992 An H-1 Division notebook discusses procedures for monitoring beryllium in stack effluent from the CMR Building Wing 5 Filter Tower in February 1954 Enders 1954 11-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 Dynamic Testing Operations Air samples and fallout trays were used to monitor beryllium during explosive tests starting in 1948 although beryllium was involved in relatively few tests until 1954 Voelz and Jordan 1974 Becker and Vigil 1999 reviewed the historical beryllium expenditure in dynamic tests conducted by the DX Division at LANL and present data on known beryllium concentrations in soil at firing sites as well as beryllium air concentration measurements onsite and beyond LANL boundaries and beryllium concentrations in swipe samples Records for beryllium use in dynamic testing activities at LANL date back to 1955 and include shot records in the form of internal LANL memoranda DX Division office records and published annual beryllium expenditures in LANL Environmental Surveillance reports Beryllium was presumably expended in dynamic testing activities before 1955 although no verifying data has been compiled The authors assumed that 160 kg of beryllium was used prior to 1955 but no explanation for this estimate is provided Becker and Vigil 1999 estimated a total beryllium expenditure of 1 064 kg for the period of 1955 through 1997 see Table 11-4 Dynamic testing at firing sites was conducted at TA-40 -14 -15 -36 and -39 The evaluation of available records performed by Becker and Vigil 1999 determined that the majority of beryllium expenditure occurred at three firing sites PHERMEX E-F and R-44 -- all located at TA-15 Table 11-4 Beryllium expenditure at LANL firing sites 1955-1997 Site Status as of 1999 Beryllium Expended kg R-44 TA-15 Closed 346 PHERMEX TA-15 Active 332 E-F Site TA-15 Closed 321 R-306 TA-15 Active 43 6 -- 21 4 All other firing sites at TA-15 -36 -39 TOTAL 1 064 Source Becker and Vigil 1999 Using a mass balance approach and the following assumptions Becker and Vigil 1999 estimated beryllium soil concentrations for three firing sites • 160 kg of beryllium expended prior to 1955 • more shots at E-F Site during years prior to 1955 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-9 • 2% of beryllium becomes aerosolized • uniform soil concentration to a depth of six inches The authors of the study found less beryllium in soil than they predicted and so provide possible explanations for the discrepancy such as erosion and non-representative sampling They postulated that the soil sampling might not have been representative of actual onsite contamination or that other processes such as mass movement and erosion removed contamination from the firing sites LANL has conducted open-air dynamic experiments in which weapon components are either detonated or impacted against a target resulting in beryllium contaminated soil Sauer et al 2001 Monthly reports written by the LANL Dynamic Testing Division from December 1975 through December 1987 document fugitive emissions from explosive test shots including released quantities of beryllium During this 13year period 178 kg of beryllium were released as a result of test shots conducted at TA-15 TA-36 and TA-40 According to the monthly reports 98% of the total beryllium emissions occurred between 1977 and 1982 and in 1984 However about one-third of the monthly reports for the 13-year period are missing from the collection identified by the project team and 75% of the missing reports are from the years 1983 1985 1986 and 1987 In the reports that are available 55% of the monthly values are reported as 0 kg The average monthly release is 1 65 kg with a standard deviation of 2 42 kg The median monthly release is 0 02 kg the 95% upper confidence limit on the mean is 2 04 kg and the maximum monthly release is 10 6 kg for November 1976 B-Building Annex The LANL Director’s Office files for 1944 describe a request for four alpha detectors from Chicago for “0 05 d cc s” disintegrations per cubic cm per second in air in a 14 × 25 duct flowing 800 ft3 min-1 and in other ducts Bainbridge 1944 The detector was apparently for B-Building annex which was used for testing initiators and was an unmonitored release point for beryllium and polonium Information regarding the former B-Building Annex at TA-1 was located in source material for the book Critical Assembly LASL 1944-1945 Hoddeson et al 2004 A folder in the LANL Archives contains draft chapters and LANL memos that were referenced in each chapter and describe the gun device and initiator testing The B-Building annex called the “wart on B-Building ” was authorized by J Robert Oppenheimer and constructed by the end of March 1944 It held a 20-mm remotely fired anti-aircraft autocannon used for testing scaled-down versions of gun-assembled atomic weapon components such as initiators By mid-April 1944 the annex was in operation In August 1944 a box called a “coffin” was authorized that operated at negative pressure and had a gas mask filter on its exhaust By the end of 11-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 September the gun had been used in nearly 180 experiments at a frequency of once per day Chapter seven in Critical Assembly does not mention beryllium nor do the assembled memos since beryllium was not viewed as a hazardous material in the early 1940s About 50 lbs per month of beryllium was used for initiator fabrication LASL 1944-1945 Quantities of Beryllium Used at LANL An estimated 1 064 kg of beryllium was used between 1955 and 1997 and another 160 kg was used prior to 1955 at LANL Becker and Vigil 1999 Ninety-four percent of the beryllium was expended at PHERMEX E-F and R-44 firing sites and another 4% was expended at firing site R-306 Detailed information is not available on the remaining 2% but presumably that amount can be divided among the other firing sites According to Becker and Vigil 1999 the greatest annual expenditure of beryllium in excess of 100 kg occurred in 1964 and significant beryllium use occurred between about 1957 and 1971 see Fig 11-2 Beryllium use since 1985 has been relatively low with annual expenditures remaining less than 5 kg Fig 11-2 Annual estimates of beryllium expended in DX-Division dynamic testing operations In a 1977 report LANL scientists estimated that 2% of the beryllium present in test devices becomes aerosolized during dynamic experimentation Dahl and Johnson 1977 Based on this estimate per LANL records calculations indicate that approximately 1 200 kg of beryllium remains in the soil near LANL and approximately 94% or 1 128 kg remains at the E-F R-44 and PHERMEX firing sites FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-11 Monthly reports written by the LANL M-DO Division document fugitive emissions from explosive test shots conducted from December 1975 to December 1987 LANL 1975-1987 The emissions data are shown in Table 11-5 The release locations are the explosive test areas at TA-15 TA-36 and TA-40 Workplace and Environmental Beryllium Monitoring Beryllium air concentrations have been monitored at LANL for both indoor machining and outdoor firing tests operations since 1948 Voelz 1970 Measures to control beryllium exposure were in place at LANL beginning in 1948 based on recommendations from Dr Harriet Hardy an occupational medicine pioneer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT who collaborated with the AEC at LANL LANL’s Industrial Hygiene Program was introduced that same year Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 Table 11-5 Beryllium released to the environment by shots at TA-15 TA-36 TA-40 Year Beryllium kg Beryllium Oxide kg 1975 0 1 0 1976 25 54 0 1977 34 7 3 1978 29 2 0 1979 14 0 1980 9 8 0 1981 10 6 0 1982 26 0 1983 5 0 1984 16 0 1985 0 0 1986 2 1 0 1987 2 0 175 3 TOTAL Source LANL 1975-1987 Beryllium Metal Machining The Industrial Hygiene Group at LANL conducted periodic surveys of beryllium machining operations from early 1948 through August 17 1951 After September 1951 daily air samples were collected whenever beryllium was being machined From September 1951 through 1955 a sampling rate of 20 L min-1 and a filtering velocity of 130 ft min-1 with Whatman #41 filter paper resulted in a collection efficiency of 70% In 1956 a sampling rate of 10 L min-1 and a filtering velocity of 65 ft min-1 with Whatman #44 filter paper resulted in a theoretical collection efficiency of 99 8% 11-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 A continuous air sampler with a sampling rate of 20 L min-1 and a filtering velocity of 130 ft min-1 using Whatman #4 filter paper was used to monitor beryllium air concentrations for short periods of exposure The sampler was set to collect hourly general air samples in the vicinity of the machining operations The reported collection efficiency was 80% Starting in 1954 the hourly samples were only analyzed when an 8-h breathing zone sample approached the tolerance level of 25 μg m-3 Air samples collected to assess beryllium concentrations through June 1950 were collected with an electrostatic precipitator and sent to the University of Rochester for analysis Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 Although air samples were analyzed by the Industrial Hygiene Group beginning in June 1950 samples continued to be collected by the electrostatic precipitator through August 1951 Starting in September 1951 samples were collected using a portable pump connected to a sampling head equipped with filter paper Samples collected after June 1951 were analyzed using a method based on the fluorescence of morin with beryllium in an alkaline solution Sax and Kramlich Beryllium concentrations ranging from 0 05 to 300 µg were adequately detected with this method Air samples were reportedly analyzed by atomic adsorption in the early to mid 1990s while samples collected in the late 1990s were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy Becker and Vigil 1999 From 1950 to 1953 filter type respirators were occasionally used on special jobs In some cases the filters from these respirators were analyzed for beryllium content Analyses of respirator filters used during filter unit cleaning and used during drilling operations without local exhaust ventilation showed beryllium concentrations ranging from 300-400 µg m-3 An experiment performed by the Industrial Hygiene Group in 1951 to determine the greatest sources of exposure during beryllium operations revealed that rough cutting created the heaviest source of dust One air sample collected in the hood eight inches from the cutting tool while rough cuts were being made on a piece of bar stock yielded a beryllium concentration of 725 µg m-3 Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 Routine air samples collected between September 1957 and June 1958 at the machine shop were well below permissible levels LASL 1957 1958 A distinct rise in the average beryllium concentration at the beryllium shop in 1957 was tracked to full time work on a crash program to make special beryllium pieces The number of air samples collected at CMB-6 was also increased greatly during this time frame in conjunction with a research project trying to determine the best method of joining two pieces of beryllium The beryllium machine shop at LANL was cleaned weekly and surface swipe tests were performed to ensure that loose beryllium dust levels were maintained below 15 µg ft-2 Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-13 Firing Sites A 1970 report in the form of a letter from the LANL Health Division Leader to the Deputy Director of Military Application USAEC describes the historical beryllium air sampling near explosive tests at LANL from 1948 to 1959 Voelz 1970 While air samples and fallout trays were used to monitor beryllium during explosive tests starting in 1948 beryllium was involved in relatively few tests until 1954 In 1954 beryllium exposure resulted from test firing of beryllium pieces in conjunction with explosives at TA-39 the Ancho Canyon Site Most of the samples were collected between 1956 and 1959 when all tests occurred at R Site and were conducted by the GMX-4 group In 1955 Group W-3 conducted an experiment at TA-33 in which a device exploded and large pieces of beryllium were scattered over the firing area Tests involving beryllium after 1959 were conducted at Ancho Canyon by GMX-6 and at PHERMEX by GMX-11 Table 11-6 summarizes the data described in the 1970 Voelz letter-report The letter also states that a few of the fallout trays “showed beryllium in the collected material ” but no elaboration is provided The report concludes “Because of our experience with these results shots containing beryllium are not monitored regularly but only when some special conditions of testing are planned ” Table 11-6 Beryllium concentrations measured from LANL explosive tests 1948–1959 μg m-3 No of Shots No of Samples N No of Samples MDC of 0 05 Maximum Onsite Maximum Offsite R-Site 39 156 11 0 66 0 34 1 0 05 2 Ancho Canyon 8 24 1 0 004 3 NR PHERMEX 2 NR 0 NR NR Site MDC minimum detectable concentration NR Not reported 1 Measured 800 y directly downwind from the shot 2 Measured at Ten Site TA-35 3 Measured 150 y from the shot Beryllium air sampling was performed by the LANL Environmental Surveillance program in the early 1970s and again in the 1990s Samples collected on the roof of TA-59-1 during 1971 and 1972 yielded beryllium air concentrations between 0 06 and 0 4 ng m-3 0 00006 and 0 0004 μg m-3 Quarterly samples of airborne beryllium collected onsite at the LANL perimeter and regionally in northern New Mexico in 1990 1992 1993 and 1994 as part of the AIRNET program ranged from 0 002 to 0 061 ng m-3 When quarterly sampling resumed in 1998 quarterly Airnet beryllium values ranged from 0 to 0 1 ng m-3 Area air samples collected in 1998 at two firing sites during dynamic shots ranged from 0 013 to 0 381 μg m-3 of beryllium Becker and Vigil 1999 11-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 Beryllium concentrations in surface water samples collected from the E-F Firing Site TA-15 in March 1985 ranged from 1 – 2 parts per billion ppb in the dissolved fraction and from 1 2 – 11 5 ppb in the suspended fraction One of the research interests of the Off-Site Source Recovery Program at LANL is the environmental fate of beryllium released from disposing neutron sources containing beryllium metal that could not be recycled or reused A 2000 progress report describes the experimental use of beryllium-contaminated soils obtained from LANL Dynamic Experimentation Division firing sites Two samples locations not specified contained 74 and 29 mg kg-1 of beryllium Sauer et al 2000 Table 11-7 summarizes the soil data from six firing sites Cokal and Rodgers 1985 Becker and Vigil 1999 Table 11-7 Beryllium concentrations in soil at firing sites μg g-1 Site Year Samples n Range Mean Background PHERMEX 1987 59 1 – 470 31 5 1 – 2 4 PHERMEX 1993 21 1 – 218 13 4 NR PHERMEX 1998 18 0 14 – 74 7 1 NR E-F 1985 9 2 3 – 14 4 NR NR E-F 1999 60 NR 1 3 NR R-44 R-45 1994 44 NR 7 2 NR TA-39 1995 22 1 3 – 9 1 NR NR TA-40 1995 39 1 3 NR NR NR Not Reported LANL and LLNL groups have studied the aerosolization of beryllium from open-air shots Dahl and Johnson 1977 Dahl and Johnson 1977 determined that 2% of the beryllium mass became respirable 10 μm because of aerosolization For a shot containing 600 g of beryllium the beryllium concentration 4 376 y downwind of the shot would be 0 2 μg m-3 15-30 min after detonation for 1-3 min Shinn et al 1989 found that 8% of the beryllium mass became aerosolized and that the beryllium was largely in the form of insoluble high-fired beryllium oxide For a shot containing 900 g of beryllium the respirable beryllium concentration 55 y from the shot was 3 2 μg m-3 for 10 min Measured soil concentrations at three LANL firing sites however were less than predicted assuming 2% or 8% aerosolization Becker and Vigil 1999 suggesting that aerosolization could be greater than 8% Sauer et al 2001 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-15 Beryllium resuspension has been evaluated in three studies two at LANL and one at Sandia National Laboratories Sandia researchers estimated a resuspension factor of 1×10-7 m-1 for wind blown soil 1 g Be per m2 of soil 0 1 μg m-3 Be in air Luna et al 1983 A LANL researcher predicted that resuspension of beryllium from a firing site could result in worker exposures to 0 6 μg m3 of beryllium Maez 1997 Measured beryllium concentrations during drilling activities at a LANL firing site however were four orders of magnitude lower Mroz 1995 Episodic Releases In a joint effort with the U S Air Force LANL performed an experiment at Beta Site TA-5 to evaluate the potential air or ground contamination that might result from burning a plane containing significant amounts of beryllium LASL 1957 A piece of beryllium was placed above a large quantity of jet fuel and ignited Air and soil monitoring results failed to reveal detectable quantities of beryllium at a range of distances downwind of the fire Waste Disposal Small quantities of beryllium residues were among the chemical waste disposed of in Areas G and L at LANL Waste was disposed of in Areas G and L by placing it in shafts trenches and pits excavated in the Bandelier Tuff at depths up to 65 ft In late 1985 18 boreholes to 100- to 135-ft depths were drilled in Bandelier Tuff from the top of Mesita del Buey Core samples were collected from seven of the boreholes at about 10-ft intervals Only two of the 70 samples that were collected contained concentrations of metals specific metals were not identified above their detection limits Both were acquired at shallow depths 20 ft or less at Area L LANL 1987 All rags and waste from housekeeping activities in the old and new beryllium shops were disposed of in the burial pit Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 Off-Site Area Monitoring Air samples were collected quarterly between 1990 and 1994 in northern New Mexico around the LANL perimeter in Los Alamos in White Rock and Bandelier National Monument and within LANL primarily at TA-52 TA-16 and TA-3 Becker and Vigil 1999 The mean beryllium concentration recorded at the off-site locations during this timeframe was 0 014 ng m-3 while the mean concentration reported at the on-site locations was 0 009 ng m-3 Additional sampling was performed at off-site and on-site locations in 1998 and the mean air concentration recorded at all sampling locations during this year was 0 021 ng m-3 11-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 Exposure Guidelines for Beryllium The U S Atomic Energy Commission issued “Recommendations for Control of Beryllium Hazards” in August 1951 that included three standards a 2 μg m-3 in-plant 8-hr average beryllium concentration a 25 μg m-3 beryllium air concentration that should never be exceeded and a 0 1 μg m-3 monthly average concentration at the breathing zone in the neighborhood of a plant handling beryllium Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 The current OSHA permissible exposure limit PEL for occupational exposure to beryllium is 2 μg m-3 8-h time weighted average A ceiling limit of 5 μg m-3 must not be exceeded during the work shift except that a 30-min excursion over the ceiling limit is allowed so long as the air concentration never exceeds 25 μg m-3 during the 30-min period NIOSH 2003 The current USEPA Reference Concentration RfC for beryllium is 0 02 μg m3 USEPA 2009 The RfC is an estimate with uncertainty spanning an order of magnitude of a daily inhalation exposure of the human population including sensitive subgroups that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime The RfC is based on beryllium sensitization and progression to chronic beryllium disease CBD identified in studies published in 1949 and 1996 Eisenbud et al 1949 Kreiss et al 1996 The Kreiss et al 1996 occupational exposure study identified a LOAEL Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level for beryllium sensitization in workers exposed to 0 55 µg m-3 median of average concentrations A cross-sectional study was conducted of 136 139 of the then-current beryllium workers in a plant that made beryllia ceramics from beryllium oxide powder Measurements from 1981 and later were reviewed that included area samples process breathing-zone samples and personal lapel samples from the last year only The Eisenbud et al 1949 study using relatively insensitive screening methods suggests a NOAEL No Observed Adverse Effect Level of 0 01-0 1 µg m-3 in community residents living near a beryllium plant The LOAEL from the Kreiss et al study was used for the operational derivation of the RfC because the screening method used in the Eisenbud et al 1949 study was less sensitive than the method used in the Kreiss et al 1996 study Beryllium Releases and Exposures at LANL It has been reported that largest number of men at LANL were exposed during beryllium machining although the most difficult processes to control involved using powdered beryllium and soluble beryllium compounds Hyatt and Milligan 1953 Worker exposure to beryllium from dynamic testing was substantially less than that encountered in the machine shop or laboratory settings primarily because beryllium was present during detonations conducted outside under atmospheric conditions and because FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-17 during detonation and afterwards workers were confined to a closed control bunker or detained at road blocks set up ¼ mi or more from the firing site Becker and Vigil 1999 Post-shot beryllium particle dispersion caused by wind was expected to occur rapidly and to significantly dilute beryllium concentrations present in air at the firing sites If exposures to beryllium did occur at firing sites exposures most likely would have occurred during dust resuspension from soil and vegetation during brush removal Secondary occupational exposure of workers’ families significantly increased beryllium intake through dust when clothing of occupationally exposed individuals were not kept at the workplace as was usually the case in the 1940s IPCS 1990 Eisenbud et al 1949 reported that short-term beryllium levels of 125 to 2 000 µg m-3 were measured in the indoor air after clothing from employees at a berylliumproducing plant were shaken The authors estimated that approximately 17 µg d-1 could be inhaled by a person during the laundering of the same clothing However documents indicate that LANL provided its machine shop workers with complete protective clothing and adequate showering facilities Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 This clothing consisted of coveralls underwear socks and safety shoes Canvas booties were worn over the safety shoes before leaving the machine shop to go to the tool crib Likewise employees working at firing sites wore dedicated work shoes that were removed and kept onsite each evening Becker and Vigil 1999 Medical Surveillance of LANL Workers Medical surveillance of workers at LANL began in the 1940s Stefaniak et al 2003 A memo from Dr Cleve Beller of LANL dated January 24 1947 announced that all Sigma Building personnel handling beryllium were examined or had made arrangements to be examined by the Health Group LASL 19441950 A report detailing beryllium use at DX Division Firing Sites Becker and Vigil 1999 noted that nine workers in the DX Division were in the beryllium medical surveillance program None of these individuals reportedly were identified as having chronic beryllium disease or beryllium-associated illness An internal memo from Dr Thomas Shipman of LANL in May 1951 suggests that the health effects associated with beryllium were unknown to LANL until November 1947 when Dr Harriet Hardy of MIT held a meeting to discuss beryllium-related health concerns LASL 1944-1950 The result of this meeting was the ceasing of certain beryllium operations not described and from that point forward using beryllium at LANL was subjected to careful scrutiny A series of memos between Dr Hardy and Dr Thomas Shipman discussed a case of apparent chronic beryllium poisoning LASL 1944-1950 The individual in question worked at LANL from 1946 until 11-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 1949 for P Division in Building U which was documented as being in the vicinity of the beryllium machining shop However this individual’s exposure potential was not limited to that alleged at LANL he was also employed at other facilities including Oak Ridge which also used beryllium A memo from Dr Hardy to Dr Guy Fortney at Oak Ridge in September 1964 reported that the beryllium content in this individual’s lungs at the time of his time of death was 0 021 µg g-1 Two additional cases of apparent berylliosis among LANL personnel were reported in a February 1953 memo from Dr Shipman As of June 1998 110 workers have been diagnosed with chronic beryllium disease the majority of these workers are associated with the Rocky Flats and Y-12 Oak Ridge plants Becker and Vigil 1999 A Former Worker Medical Surveillance Program that included screening for chronic beryllium disease CBD was started in 1999 Stefaniak et al 2003 Beryllium Toxicology and Epidemiology Acute beryllium disease is usually observed at relatively high beryllium exposure levels has a short period of induction and is usually resolved within a couple of months of exposure termination The disease is believed to be an inflammatory response to beryllium and most regions of the respiratory tract are affected some reported symptoms include nasopharyngitis shortness of breath labored breathing and chemical pneumonitis ATSDR 2002 Chronic beryllium disease is a systemic granulomatous disorder that predominantly affects the lungs In general the occurrence of this disease has been confined to workers exposed to beryllium metal and to less soluble beryllium compounds such as beryllium oxide However there have been cases among residents living near beryllium manufacturing facilities and in families of workers who wore contaminated clothing at home Chronic beryllium disease is caused by an immune reaction to the inhaled beryllium that is deposited in lung airspaces and retained for a prolonged period In certain individuals who become sensitized to beryllium the beryllium in the lungs binds to protein peptides in the lungs causing inflammatory cells to accumulate in the lungs which results in granuloma formation and the fibrosis development Susceptibility to chronic beryllium disease is believed to have a genetic component ATSDR 2002 A number of large-scale screening studies have examined beryllium workers and have found beryllium sensitization rates of 1–15% in workers involved in producing beryllia ceramics and nuclear weapons More than half of the beryllium sensitized workers were diagnosed with chronic beryllium disease Several studies attempted to establish associations between beryllium sensitization and or chronic beryllium disease and mean cumulative and peak exposure levels and employment duration In general FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-19 though no consistent associations were found Although the data are insufficient for establishing concentration-response relationships the available occupation exposure studies do indicate exposure levels that may result in beryllium sensitization Beryllium sensitization and or chronic beryllium disease have been detected at exposure levels of 0 5 µg m-3 Respiratory disease is not likely to occur from exposure to beryllium levels in the general environment because ambient air levels of beryllium 0 03–0 2 ng m-3 are very low ATSDR 2002 References ACGIH Beryllium and Compounds Cincinnati OH American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists 2006 ATSDR Toxicological Profile for Beryllium Atlanta GA Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry U S Department of Health and Human Services 2002 Bainbridge KT Memorandum Request for Four Alpha Detectors March 4th 1944 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1944 Becker NM Vigil EA Beryllium associated with DX Division firing sites Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-13645-MS 1999 Breslin AJ Harris W B Health protection in beryllium facilities summary of ten years of experience Health and Safety Laboratory U S Atomic Energy Commission HASL-36 1958 Breslin AJ Harris WB Health protection in beryllium facilities summary of ten years of experience Arch Ind Health 19 596-648 1959 Cokal EJ Rodgers JC Firing Site Project File from LANL Records Center Location F-18-202 TR12210 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1985 Dahl DA Johnson LJ Aerosolized Uranium and Beryllium from LASL Dynamic Experiments Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-77-681 1977 Eisenbud MR Watna RC Dustan RC Steadman LC Harris WB Wolf BS Non-occupational berylliosis Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology 31 282-294 1949 Enders J Monitoring Notes OSU 94 Notebook 1954 11-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 Gutierrez RL Settlement Agreement for the Plutonium Facility PF-4 Beryllium Notice of Violation Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1992 Hanson C The Swords of Armageddon Sunnyvale CA CD ROM produced by Chuckelea Publications 1995 Hardy HL Tabershaw IR Delayed chemical pneumonitis occurring in workers exposed to beryllium compounds J Ind Hyg Toxicol 28 197-211 1946 Hoddeson L Henriksen PW Meade RA Westfall CL Baym G Hewlett R Kerr A Penneman R Redman L Seidel R Critical Assembly A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years 1943-1945 New ed Cambridge University Press 2004 HSDB Beryllium elemental Hazardous Substances Data Bank National Library of Medicine online Available at http toxnet nlm nih gov Hyatt EC Milligan MF Experiences with unusual materials and operations American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal 14 289-293 1953 Hyslop F Palmes ED Alford WC Monaco AR Fairhall LT The toxicology of beryllium U S Public Health Service National Institute of Health Bulletin No 181 1943 IPCS Environmental Health Criteria 106 - Beryllium Geneva Switzerland International Programme on Chemical Safety World Health Organization 1990 JHSPH Development of a Medical Screening Program for Former Los Alamos National Laboratory Workers - Final Phase I Needs Assessment Baltimore MD Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health 1999 Kreiss K Mroz MM Newman LS Machining risk of beryllium disease and sensitization with median exposures below 2 ug m3 American Journal of Industrial Medicine 30 16-25 1996 LANL Toxic Releases from Explosives Testing Data extracted from LANL Division M-DO Monthly Reports for December 1975 through December 1987 by LAHDRA analyst Joel Cehn The source documents were located in the LANL Records Center E-Bay Row 6 Box 49B Los Alamos National Laboratory 1975-1987 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-21 LANL Hydrogeologic Assessment of Technical Area 54 Areas G and L Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LAN 1702-SUMM 1987 LANL The Sigma Complex Materials Science and Technology Division Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LALP-94-171 1995 LASL Memoranda regarding development and testing related to gun-assembled atomic weapons LANL Archives Collection A-1989-092 Folder 13 Memoranda and progress reports Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1944-1945 LASL Workmen Compensation Case Files Memoranda re Beryllium Exposure from LANL Records Center Location E-14-8 Cabinet M-2 TR10392 GAMF-8688 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1944-1950 LASL H-Division Progress Report H267 August 20 - September 20 1957 Los Alamos NM Human Studies Team Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory HSPT-REL-897 1957 LASL H-Division Progress Report H277 May 20 - June 20 1958 Los Alamos NM Human Studies Project Team Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory HSPT-REL-94-904 1958 LASL H-5 Air Sample Data Sheet - Beryllium Shops and Exhaust Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1969 LASL SD-1 Shop 4 Beryllium Shop 1954-1962 Folder from TA-59 EH S Records Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1970 Luna R Parker E Taylor J Final Report YPG dispersal evaluations Albuquerque NM Sandia National Laboratories 1983 Maez L Beryllium firing site emissions and respirable impacts Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1997 Mitchell RN Hyatt EC Beryllium - Hazard Evaluation and Control Covering a Five-Year Study Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory presented at the American Industrial Hygiene Association Meeting 1957 Mroz G Measurements of Airborne Be Pb and U During Drilling Activity at E-F Site internal memorandum to Scott Kinkead of CST-7 dated 31 January 1995 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1995 11-22 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards Washington DC National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Department of Health and Human Services 2003 NRC Managing Health Effects of Beryllium Exposure National Academies Press 2008 OSHA Beryllium and beryllium compounds Z37 29-1970 Occupational Safety and Health Standards Toxic and Hazardous Substances Z37 29-1970 2008 Sauer NN Ding M Ehler DS Foreman TM Kazuba JP Taylor TP Beryllium Fate and Transport in the Environment Modeling and Experimental Studies Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-00-5582 2000 Sauer NN Ding M Ehler DS Foreman TM Kazuba JP Taylor TP Beryllium in the Environment A Review of the Literature and Results from Modeling and Experimental Studies in Support of the Off Site source Recovery Program March 1st 2001 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LAUR-01-1704 2001 Sax NI Kramlich W A Flourophotometric Determination for Beryllium in Microquantities General Electric Data Folder DF 505L100 as cited in Hyatt and Milligan 1953 Smith CS Los Alamos Technical Report Series Volume 10 - Metallurgy Chapter 3 - Beryllium Oxide Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-1236 1945 Stange AW Beryllium Health Surveillance in U S Department of Energy Facilities IRSST Beryllium 2005 2005 Stefaniak AB Weaver VM Cadorette M Puckett LG Schwartz BS Wiggs LD Jankowski MD Breysse PN Summary of the historical beryllium uses and airborne concentration levels at Los Alamos National Laboratory Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene 18 708-715 2003 Tiedman AJ Permit Applications for Beryllium Processing at LANL Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1992 USDOE Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program Final Rule 64 CFR 68854 1999 USEPA Subpart C – National Emission Standard for Beryllium 40 CFR 61 32 b 2004 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 11-23 USEPA Integrated Risk Information System Beryllium and compounds CASRN 7440-41-7 2009 Van Ordstrand HS Hughes R Carmody MG Chemical pneumonia in workers extracting beryllium oxide Report of three cases Cleveland Clin Quart 10 1943 Voelz GM Letter from G M Voelz Health Division Leader LASL to F R Tesche Deputy Director of Military Applications USAEC regarding Beryllium Sampling at Ancho Canyon for the Period 1948 to 1959 September 24th 1970 1970 Voelz GM Jordan HS Effluent monitoring data 1943-1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1974 Weber HH Engelhardt WE Application of the research on dusts from beryllium production Zentrabl f Gewerbehyg u Unfallverhutüng 10 41-47 1993 11-24 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Processing and Testing High Explosives at LANL High explosive research development and testing was conducted at more than 25 different LANL Technical Areas Goldie 1984 LANL 1990 Since the 1940s many new formulations of the conventional explosives HMX RDX and TNT have been synthesized and tested at LANL Dobratz 1995 Other high explosives such as Baratol Comp B Pentolite Torpex and Tetryl were tested at firing sites such as those at TA-14 IT Corporation 1989 The initial plan for the first atomic weapon was for a gun type weapon that would use “slow-burning” propellants When in July 1944 it became clear that the weapon would have to be an implosion design due to the presence of the 240Pu isotope in the active material high explosives became a key component of the plan X-Division The implosion program began in April 1943 with a proposal by S H Neddermeyer on an elementary theory of high-explosives assembly but there was no established art to follow Implosion research began as one small group’s concern and then grew into LANL’s major problem in the early 1940s The first implosion tests at LANL took place in an arroyo on the mesa just south of the laboratory on July 4 1943 The test device consisted of tamped TNT surrounding steel spheres In April 1944 G B Kistiakowsky became the leader for the implosion program Data from photographing the interiors of imploding devices revealed the need for controlled quality of high-explosive HE castings Special photographic techniques were developed at LANL to study the implosion process such as rotating pyramid and rotating mirror photography high-explosive flash photography and flash x-ray photography The Anchor Ranch range TA-9 had been designed for implosion research but a large casting plant and several widely spaced test sites were also needed Casting plant construction began in the winter of 1943 at S Sawmill Site TA-16 S-Site was staffed almost entirely by men from the Army’s Special Engineering Detachment SED since finding men with experience handling explosives was nearly impossible Hawkins 1961 At the end of the war there were over 1 000 SED men assigned to the X-Division Kistiakowsky 1975 In July 1944 a new development in the implosion program involved using explosive lenses that would convert a multiple-point detonation into a converging spherical detonation wave thus eliminating troublesome interaction Designing lens molds was a difficult first step and took several months In the August 1944 reorganization Division X was formed under G Kistiakowsky to experiment with FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 12 12-1 explosive fabrication and production Three groups from the old Ordnance Division E-Division in U Building- Implosion Experimentation HE Development and S-Site Group were transferred to the new Explosives X Division Implosion dynamics and active core design investigation were assigned to the Weapon Physics G Division Hawkins 1961 Explosives Production and Testing X-Division records indicate that about 20 000 experimental quality castings were produced in an 18month period and a much larger number were rejected for quality control reasons The principal types of HE used were Composition B Torpex Pentolite Baranol and Baratol Using risers and overcasting to concentrate imperfections and minimize the very dangerous task of machining HE resulted in over 50 000 machining operations without a detonation Hawkins 1961 According to Kistiakowsky 1975 tens of thousands of castings were made primarily of Comp B and Baratol Baratols with a higher percentage of barium nitrate 76% than TNT was used for the slow component of the lens system whereas cyclotols such as Comp B 60% RDX 40% TNT were used for the fast component Kistiakowsky 1975 Gibbs and Popolato 1980 As described in Wilder 1973 operations at S-Site consisted of melting HE and pouring it into molds that were shaped based on theoretical calculations The initial facilities at S-Site were inadequate especially for machining As a result there was continuous new building planning and construction until just before the Trinity test in July 1945 Casting operations in Building 42 used stainless steel candy kettles that were jacketed and steam heated The molten explosive was poured from the kettle into a rubber bucket and then into steel molds The mold was finished with Cerrotru a low-melting casting alloy around a master shape that was supported in the steel weldment In Wilder’s opinion developing the bomb’s explosive component was greatly facilitated by using self-adhesive tape just about everywhere In addition Building 27 built in 1945 had larger kettles and the temperature of cooling water could be varied After casting the HE was taken by hand truck to Building 43 to be machined The equipment in Building 43 consisted of one K T milling machine and several Delta drill presses Comp B was machined under water and Baratol was initially machined dry but with water later Building 55 housed the one small high-speed hammer mill used for grinding barium nitrate Buildings 31 32 and 33 built in 1945 were machining bays for Fosdick radial-arm drills As S-Site activities expanded they moved into V-Site TA25 Three methods were used to protect the cast HE from chipping In buildings 519 and 520 castings were sprayed with the best “Bar Top” varnish available felt was glued to one of two mating surfaces and 12-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 12 blotting paper was glued to the sides Practice assemblies were made in Gamma Building in the main Technical Area where the floors were padded with wrestling mats The Trinity bomb was assembled in Building 516 All explosive operations produced great quantities of scrap that was collected daily and burned in the area near Building 260 Wilder 1973 According to Hawkins et al 1961 S-Site at its peak used over 100 000 lbs of high explosives per month Dr Kistiakowsky’s recollection was that about 25 tons 50 000 lbs were trucked up the hill per month during the most active HE casting period X-Division Progress Reports indicate that between 140 000 and 170 000 lbs per month of high explosives primarily Comp B TNT and barium nitrate BN were used during the months of May June July and August 1945 see Table 12-4 Precision molds and machining were required and according to Kistiakowsky 1975 there were over 500 machinists and toolmakers available during the peak period A full-size casting weighed about 100 lbs and 1 g of HE reportedly is enough to blow off a hand Kistiakowsky expressed his concerns about using S-Site since five tons of HE had to be trucked past Oppenheimer’s office and T-Division every day on its way to SSite He requested that a new site be established in Pajarito Canyon but his request was denied by Captain Parsons Kistiakowsky 1975 L-Site TA-12 akaTA-67 was constructed in the spring of 1945 and used for one year as an explosives test facility then abandoned in the mid 1950s Soil tests in 1993 identified RDX TNT and picric acid at the open firing pit and firing pad 1 Q-Site TA-14 has been used for developing and testing explosives since 1944 HMX and metals were identified in Q-site soils Harris et al 1993 Sites in the vicinity of TA-16 S-Site formerly used in the1940s for x-ray studies P and T-Sites and assembly operations V-Site and several storage magazines TA-28 29 and 37 were decommissioned and absorbed into the S-Site complex S-Site K-Site and two of the three magazines were still active as of 1994 TA-11 K-Site was originally built to study implosion symmetry and more recently was used for drop tests to study explosive impact initiation The resulting debris in the immediate vicinity of the drop tower is disposed of at the TA-16 burning ground These eight sites are the focus of the Remedial Field Investigation for Operable Unit 1082 LANL 1994 Between 1944 and 1948 eight firing sites A-H were established at TA-15 R-Site Experiments using from 50 lbs up to two tons of HE were conducted at these firing points Firing points E and F were the most active Up to 65 000 kg of uranium and 350 kg of beryllium were expended at these two firing sites Hazardous materials including uranium beryllium and lead have largely been left at these sites where they were deposited by explosions Other materials that may have been deposited at these sites include FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 12 12-3 steel aluminum mercury boron cadmium gold and tritium reportedly in small amounts TA-15 is the focus of the Remedial Field Investigation for Operable Unit 1086 Other Uses of Explosives at LANL During the VJ-Day celebration at LANL Dr Kistiakowsky reportedly borrowed a military jeep with a driver and performed a “21-gun salute” by detonating 21 boxes of Comp B explosive although a celebration party guest reported that there were actually 22 explosions The Pajarito ski hill was also reportedly cleared of trees using plastic explosives Kistiakowsky 1975 Key Facilities for High Explosives at LANL S-Site TA-16 was initially called Sawmill Site after a portable sawmill that had been erected on the site that had left behind huge piles of sawdust its name was eventually shortened to just S-Site Martin 1998 Activities at S-Site have included nuclear weapon warhead system development engineering design prototype manufacture and environmental testing TA-16 is also the site of the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility for tritium handled in glove boxes High explosive plastic and adhesive development and testing as well as process development research for manufacturing items using these and other materials were accomplished in a number of facilities at the site TA-16 facilities included a slurry plant with a capacity of 300 lbs of explosive per batch Cochran et al 1987 The cast was made from a two-phased slurry consisting of a dense solid phase dispersed in molten TNT Hoddeson et al 1993 Initially Torpex was used then PTX-2 Picatinny ternary explosive 2 Comp B Pentolite Baranol and Baratol Earlier operations centered on using high explosives HE and developing HE lenses to bring about implosion LANL workers melted HE and poured it into molds that were shaped based on theoretical calculations Early castings were made from a template using hand tools saws rasps and planes HE compounds used included Comp B TNT and Baratol Early explosives processing facilities included • • S-24 TA-16-42 • TA-16-43 • • TA-16-44 TA-16-45 12-4 possibly a k a TA-16-24 A casting building Casting stainless steel candy kettles jacketed and steam heated with agitator HE was poured into a rubber bucket then to molds Machining K T milling machine drill presses fly cutters Comp B was machined under a stream of water Baratol was initially machined dry because thought water would dissolve the barium nitrate later machined wet Physical inspection dimensional inspection X-ray portable 150- and 220-keV x-ray machines Dark room film processing FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 12 • TA-16-46 • • • • TA-16-48 TA-16-55 TA-16-81 TA-16-260 • • • • TA-16-27 30 thru 34 94 thru 98 16-515 thru 520 HE storage for X-ray “Rest House” for castings during dimensional and x-ray inspection “gamma-graph” facility gamma radiography of large or dense objects Barium nitrate grinding machinery Used to dry nitrocellulose spread out on trays Near the east end of this building was an area for daily burning of scrap sometimes the material exploded instead of burning Built in 1945 to make full-scale castings Built at same time to machine Baratol and Comp B castings from Building 27 Built when it became desirable to machine all surfaces of the HE material Called V-Site Were under a group other than GMX-3 they had a large mechanical shaker that was used to test the first bomb The Trinity bomb was assembled in 516 “Active” per 10 2 84 memo from R Goldie to D Pinyan subject was “Areas Containing or Contaminated by Explosives ” “Mechanical Testing” done here per Repository No 225 c 1981 Some of the early work was considered too dangerous to be performed at TA-1 so these operations were moved to remote locations Alpha Site at TA-4 was used as a firing site for HE it was originally used to fire several charges per day of up to 1000 lbs and was then converted to accommodate studies of small equation-of-state tests that used only a few pounds of HE per shot Beta Site at TA-5 was used extensively in 1945 as a firing site for the pin or electric method of studying implosions Larger charges could be safely used at TA-5 and thus shots of several hundred pounds occurred S-Site at TA-16 was developed to produce HE for use in various tests LANL 1997 In 1944 a small control building and two firing sites were established at TA-15 one for quantities of HE up to 50 lbs and the second for larger amounts These sites most likely became Firing Sites A and B Firing Site A was probably in use by the end of 1944 and Firing Site B shortly thereafter In 1946 TA15 was established as a permanent location for explosives experiments related to nuclear weapons design involving experiments using up to 3 4 tons of HE By 1947 Firing Sites C D E and F were in use In 1948 Sites E and F were designated as one firing site E-F and Firing Sites G and H were added Today Firing Sites A through H are not used and most structures associated with them have been decommissioned and dismantled The hazardous materials used in these explosives tests e g U Be and Pb have largely remained at the firing sites where they were either initially deposited by the explosion or pushed aside to clean the area Other materials that may have been deposited in very small amounts include steel Al Hg boron cadmium gold and 3H Many types of HE were used and while they may have left some residues no unexploded HE have been found in any site soil analyses Site E-F was most heavily used and reportedly contains the largest quantities of hazardous materials Up to 72 tons of uranium and approximately 800 lbs of beryllium may have been expended in tests at Firing Site E-F In FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 12 12-5 the 1950s Firing Sites R-44 and R-45 were completed these sites have been used for various explosives tests R-45 for smaller tests and R-44 for larger ones 1086 RFI Report 10 30 95 TA-15 or R-Site is currently the home of PHERMEX the pulsed high-energy radiographic machine emitting x-rays a multiple-cavity electron accelerator capable of producing a very large flux of x-rays for weapons development testing It is also the site where DARHT the dual-axis radiographic hydrotest facility was constructed This site is also used for the investigating weapon functioning and systems behavior in non-nuclear tests principally through electronic recordings TA-9 Anchor Site East housed teams exploring explosive fabrication feasibility and physical properties new organic compounds were investigated for possible use as explosives Storage and stability problems were also studied The site’s name referred to Anchor Ranch a small cattle operation that was in the area when the MED took over in 1943 Goldie 1984 TA-14 or Q Site is a dynamic testing site used for testing relatively small explosive charges for fragment impacts explosive sensitivities and thermal responses Goldie 1984 References Cochran TB Arkin WM Norris RS Hoenig MM Nuclear Weapons Databook Series Volume III U S Nuclear Warhead Facility Profiles New York NY National Resources Defense Council 1987 Dobratz BM The Insensitive High Explosive TATB Development and Characterization - 1988-1994 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-13014-H 1995 Gibbs TR Popolato A LASL Explosive Property Data Los Alamos Series on Dynamic Material Properties Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1980 Goldie RH Memorandum from R H Goldie HSE-3 to D Pinyan HSE-3 Areas containing or contaminated by explosives 1984 Harris BW McRae D Powell J Wallace H Report of Feild Study at TA-67 12 L-Site and TA-14 QSite Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1993 Hawkins D Manhattan District History Project Y - The Los Alamos Project Vol 1 - Inception Until August 1945 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMS-2532 Vol 1 1961 12-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 12 Hoddeson L P W H Meade R Westfall C Critical assembly - A technical history of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer years 1943-1945 Cambridge University Press 1993 IT Corporation Sampling and Analysis Plan for Mixed Waste Surface Disposal Area at TA-14 1989 Kistiakowsky G Audio tapes of interviews borrowed from LANL Library 1975 LANL Solid Waste Management Units Report Environmental Restoration Records Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory TA-21 1990 LANL Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1993 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12973-ENV 1994 LANL Overview of Los Alamos National Laboratory - 1997 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-97-4765 1997 Martin C Los Alamos Place Names Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos Historical Society 1998 Wilder E Early S-Site Experiences Appendix to “Manhattan District History Nonscientific Aspects of Los Alamos Project Y 1942-1946” by E C Truslow March 1973 1973 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 12 12-7 This page intentionally left blank 12-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 12 Chapter 13 The LANL Health Division Although LANL’s Health Division “H Division” was responsible for monitoring worker health operations or activities that were associated with potential worker exposures were often also associated with potential off-site releases and public health consequences The LAHDRA project team examined a large number of health-related progress reports published by the Health Group Health Division and successor organizations that carried out programs related to worker and environmental health This chapter provides an overview of the organizational structure of the Health Division and its subgroups such as health physics and industrial hygiene and describes the various health and safety activities that those groups conducted over the years at LANL A complete listing of the documents issued by the H Division and it successor groups that the LAHDRA team located and selected as relevant to off-site releases or health effects is presented as an appendix at the end of this chapter The project team located and reviewed approximately 430 documents consisting of Health Division Progress Reports or reports from known successors of the Health Division An example of a successor report might be one named under a different title such as “Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics ” Many division or group reports were published monthly although quarterly and annual reports are available for select years and they were also reviewed The oldest reports available were the Health Group and Health and Safety reports from 1943 to 1945 In early 1946 Louis H Hempelmann M D then acting director of the Health Division wrote a report titled “History of the Health Group A-6 March 1943 – November 1945 ” That report discusses issues relating to safely handling plutonium and polonium and monitoring and preventing worker exposures to these materials Discussions of hazards associated with the RaLa and Omega Site operations as well as other health and safety issues including injuries are also presented in the report Hempelmann 1946a Another early Health Group report titled “Health Hazards of LANL Groups by Division ” is a compilation of letter-reports that provide summaries of early operational hazards and health and safety measures used by LANL to control worker exposures Hempelmann 1946b Many of the these health groups such as occupational medicine industrial hygiene health and safety and health physics remained part of the Health Division through the 1970s In 1975 the Health Division expanded its name to “Operational Environmental Health and Safety ” and then in 1981 changed it to “Health Safety and Environment ” The Division has had other name changes since that time and Divisional activities continue to be published in progress reports under these and other health and safety related division or division group names FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 13 13-1 History of H Division According to the report titled “History of the Health Group ” a November 13 1943 directive from LANL Director J Robert Oppenheimer stated that the medical supervision of technical personnel was to be directed primarily at protecting workers from the hazards of the project Hempelmann 1946 The primary function of the Health Group A-6 at that time was to establish safe tolerance levels develop monitoring methods and to ensure that tolerance levels were not exceeded for worker exposures to hazardous materials Monitoring and controlling workers’ exposures to radioactive materials were of primary concern Preparing routine monitoring procedures for workers was the primary function of each operational unit or lead individual during this early period Effluent or environmental monitoring that would be of interest for a dose reconstruction study is not mentioned in this report The original policy of the Health Group was to depend entirely on information gained from health research and development groups elsewhere such as the “Met Lab” in Chicago The Metallurgical Laboratory or Met Lab at the University of Chicago was part of the Manhattan Project The Met Lab was the organization primarily responsible for Health and Safety during the Manhattan era Hacker 1987 Because that policy and support from outside organizations did not always provide the needed information in time to establish safe operating procedures for use at LANL research sections were set up within the Health Group such as for developing instrumentation and biological methods for testing for overexposure Hempelmann 1946 Approximately half of the 25- to 30-page monthly reports of the era for example describe various areas of research and papers published on the health effects of radiation by H-4 the radiobiology group and instrument development and testing work conducted by the electronic and biophysics sections of Radiologic Safety H-1 Accidents were reported in the Occupational Safety group H-3 section of the division reports On June 1 1947 the Health Group was renamed the Health Division and Louis H Hempelmann M D served as Division leader from 1943 until the end of 1948 Thomas L Shipman M D assumed responsibilities from Hempelmann in 1948 In 1943 the Health Group consisted of 10 staff which expanded to 97 by 1949 by 1951 the group had grown to 158 staff Hempelmann 1946 LASL 1950b 1951 Documentation of H-Division Activities The Health Group reports were typically called Health Reports and the Division reports were called HDivision Progress Reports The Health Reports are organized in three sections radiation problems chemical hazards and general safety By 1951 the Health Division was divided into six groups 13-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 13 Monthly progress reports generally consisted of four to seven sections corresponding to the operating groups in the division The six primary groups that operated under the Health Division included • H-1 Administrative and Medical Records later became Radiologic Safety later renamed H-1 Health Physics H-Division administrative activities were reported separately but not given an H number Radiologic Safety included monitoring electronics and biophysics sections • H-2 Occupational Health included health physics industrial hygiene and occupational biochemistry sections later when Radiologic Safety became a separate group called H-1 Health Physics Occupational Medical was created to maintain responsibility for general clinical functions such as physicals and first aid • H-3 Training of Military personnel and Medical staff LANL employee care later became Occupational Safety and the training function was merged into H-Division Administration • H-4 Radiobiology conducted research on clinical aspects of exposure to chemicals and radionuclides including monitoring programs and instrumentation • H-5 Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Biochemistry sections were split off from H-2 and formed in June 1949 • H-6 Monitoring CMR-12 merged into H-1 and then became Radiologic Physics including the old Biophysics group Special Problems and the Meteorology section Many of the activities performed by these groups are still being performed today under different divisional and or group names Constructed during 1952-54 the Health Research Laboratory at TA-43 is adjacent to the Los Alamos Medical Center in the Los Alamos town site Research performed at this site included structural molecular and cellular radiobiology biophysics mammalian radiobiology mammalian metabolism biochemistry and genetics The Department of Energy Los Alamos Area Office is also located within TA-43 The reference list located at the end of this chapter presents the most up to date list of Health Division progress or related group reports that were located and reviewed by the project team The references are grouped by year and title These reports document and offer insight into LANL’s health and safety program and describe health protection philosophies used to monitor personnel work areas and loss of material to the off-site environment The list indicates which reports are thought to exist but have not been located by the project team as of the writing of this report Some of the missing reports might be FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 13 13-3 missing because a report was not issued for that period or copies may have been lost or perhaps filed differently than other reports of the same type Groups within the Health Division or from other divisions with health and safety responsibilities also published monthly or quarterly progress reports Relevant information pertaining to off-site emissions discovered during document reviews was noted summarized and included as appropriate in other sections of this report Below is a list of H Health Division and group reports and the years for which reports were located and reviewed during the LAHDRA project This list does not necessarily list reports by their exact titles but rather is intended to provide an overview of the types of health-related reports for various periods The reference list at the end of this chapter does identify relevant reports by their actual titles • Health Reports of the LANL formerly LASL Health Division 1943 – 1945 • Health Division monthly and quarterly progress reports 1946 – 1972 • Summary of Research Development and Health Activities in the CMR Division 1944 – 1951 • H-1 Monthly Progress Monitoring Reports DP East and West 1956 – 1966 • H-1 General Monitoring Section 1956 – 1964 • Airborne Contamination Tests – CMR TA-1 and TA-3 1952 – 1973 • CMR-12 Monthly Reports 1945 – 1950 • Air Monitoring Results – DP West 1946 – 1952 • Airborne Contamination Tests – DP West East 1946 -1970 • Weekly Reports of Stack Release Data for DP West 1950 – 1956 • Monthly and Annual Reports DP East 1951 – 1955 • Health Physics Radiation Protection quarterly Reports 1973 – 1991 • Health Safety and Environment quarterly and annual reports 1975 through 1990 • Environment Safety and Health 1990 – 2005 • Environment Health Safety and Quality 2005 – present Health Division Perceptions of Hazards at LANL In 1943 the hazards of the project were reported to be limited to external radiation from the cyclotron the Van de Graaff the D-D source and the radium sources There were also hazards attributed to uranium and the usual chemical laboratory hazards but these were not serious according to Louis H Hempelmann Only one accident was noted as having occurred during the first year of LANL operations it involved overexposure to radiation from the cyclotron The main concern of the Health Group at this 13-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 13 time was interpreting blood counts on exposed personnel to radiation Normal variation in blood counts was not well known at the time Hempelmann 1946 In February 1944 plutonium arrived at LANL in significant quantities The members of the Chemistry and Metallurgy CM Division and the Health Group became concerned about the dangers of working with this material Control of alpha-emitting radioactive materials was described as rather uneventful for the first year After an accident in August 1944 in which a milligram of plutonium blew up in a worker’s face a research program to develop tests for detecting overexposure of personnel with plutonium began A urine test was developed in January 1945 that required a new free of alpha contamination laboratory ML Building to conduct the bioassay tests Following the first human tracer experiment in April 1945 results of the urine tests were evaluated with increased certainty Until the urine test was perfected nose counts were the only index used to monitor personnel exposures Because of the difficult and time consuming nature of the urine test the most heavily exposed persons as indicated by nose counts underwent frequent urinalyses Available alpha monitoring equipment lacked both sensitivity and portability so swipe samples were used to detect contaminated hands nostrils and workplaces A proportional counter using a methane-filled thin windowed tube was developed by D Froman and R Watts at LANL and installed in the D-Building washroom as a hand counter in June 1944 Hempelmann 1946 In September 1944 the CM-1 group was reorganized and many members of the monitoring and decontamination section were transferred to A-6 the Health Group The new structure did not lead to cooperation between the two groups and in January 1945 H-1 CM-12 was given full responsibility for the entire alpha contamination problem in the CM Division At that time it was necessary to redesign the existing facilities in D-Building in order to safely handle the increased amounts of plutonium being used there In July 1945 CM-5 handled amounts of plutonium that exceeded the capacity of its safety equipment and four workers exceeded the safe amount of one microgram of plutonium in their bodies according to urine tests According to Louis Hempelmann polonium was significantly less of a hazard than plutonium Because it was less radioactive easier to test in the urine and most often used in relatively simple technical operations polonium contamination and exposure hazards were minimal By 1946 only two workers had exceeded the tolerance limit for polonium 1500 counts per minute “cpm ” in a 24-h urine sample Hempelmann 1946 The perceived external radiation hazard at LANL did not change until September 1944 when the Water Boiler reactor at Omega Site went into operation Later when a higher powered version replaced it January 1945 there were several instances of overexposure when the exhaust line developed leaks FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 13 13-5 There was also an accident that resulted in serious exposure to several chemists during decontamination of active material By the time of Hempelmann’s 1946 early history summary there had been two serious accidents in critical assembly work at Omega Site one that overexposed four individuals to gamma and neutron radiation and one fatality The report does discuss concerns for off-site emissions monitoring and control measures Hempelmann 1946 During the radioactive lanthanum RaLa implosion tests that started in September 1944 members of the chemistry group CM-4 received periodic overexposures to beta radiation The toxicity and accepted methods for preventing toxicity from exposure to high explosives were more familiar In certain cases safe operational procedures were delayed because of construction inadequacies in the exhaust systems washrooms etc but no serious trouble was encountered between March 1943 and October 1945 according to some H-Division reports Hempelmann 1946 Although monthly H-Division reports from 1947-onward repeatedly mention beryllium hazards there is no mention of beryllium in Hempelmann 1946b Table 13-1 presents a summary of materials of concern in terms of potential health hazard based on review of H-Division reports Table 13-1 Materials of concern from H-Division reports Material of Concern Location of Concern Examples of H-Division Reports LAHDRA Project Repos Number Arsine Benzol DP West Beryllium V Shop Sigma R-Site CMR 2275 2392 2259 2266 2267 2202 2433 2434 2258 2259 2262 2300 2224 2392 2266 2270 2275 2300 2301 2298 2433 2434 2211 2259 2298 2209 2270 2275 2216 2207 2261 2262 2263 2267 2268 2301 2259 2260 2265 2267 2201 2257 2433 2434 2258 2260 2264 2201 2287 2383 2257 2211 2263 2216 2224 2330 2375 7188 124 3049 7188 Fluorides D-Building Lithium Sigma K Mercury spills Omega Site U-14 K bldg Polynuclear Aromatic Hydocarbons scintillation fluids Impurities in RaLa source Bayo Trichloroethylene TU Sandia Omega S-Site TNT S-Site Thorium Uranium TU Sigma HT Plutonium Polonium Incidents Documented in H-Division Reports Following are examples of the type of information contained in the monthly H-Division reports These examples come from reports covering a time period from approximately the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s 13-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 13 and highlight operational conditions at LANL and effluent monitoring activities are relevant to the LAHDRA project Examples of chronic issues or problems cited include • Liquid waste management problems at Ten Site TA-35 for the liquid waste streams generated by the RaLa program Problems with plant capacity and equipment lead to several unplanned discharges of large volumes of radiostrontium-bearing wastes to Mortandad Canyon • Leakage around improperly installed filtration units site-wide For example a report issued on the release of alpha activity from DP West stacks in 1955 states “definitely that the CWS-6 filters are poorly installed and consistently leak contaminated air around the edges of the filters” Shipman 1955 In 1964 in-place DOP-testing of the filters on top of DP West Building 4 showed their efficiency to be “approximately 15%” LASL 1964 • Glove box explosions and fires at DP West Site are reported in numerous reports • Emissions of TNT dust from facilities at S-Site TA-16 are reported in numerous reports • Beryllium contamination of soil at R-site TA-15 The magnitude of the contamination and the potential for resuspension prompted remediation activities on several occasions • Unsatisfactory media and methods for sampling airborne effluent streams for radioactive iodine due to low and unpredictable collection efficiencies This problem was a particular issue for quantifying radioiodine releases from Wing 9 of the CMR Building but it was also seen at Omega Site and DP West Site • Lack of suitable instrumentation and methods for monitoring airborne effluents from the Omega Stack and corresponding uncertainty in assessments of exposure to residents of the old trailer court area most likely the trailer park on DP Road and overlooking Omega Site see Chapter 15 • Lack of appropriate monitoring instrumentation was also a chronic issue at Ten Site where stack effluents during RaLa source preparation activities often could not be assayed because of excessive radioactivity • Containment mechanism failures for samples being irradiated in the Omega West Reactor For example such a failure on August 7 1961 resulted in contamination of cars in the parking lot and in other areas around the building LASL 1961b On December 23 1963 a rather large “sample” was irradiated in the reactor’s vertical port and had to be removed through the roof of the building The sample was then dragged down the road to its storage location Afterward the FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 13 13-7 roof of the building and the road read 50 mR h-1 and 20 mR h-1 respectively from contamination by 122Sb and 124Sb Shipman 1964 • Soil and groundwater contamination downstream from the TA-35 TA-45 and in later years TA-50 liquid waste outfalls were reported during the 1950s and 1960s in various reports Specific examples of contamination being spread to private property include • A contamination incident at the Water Boiler on August 16 1950 resulted in contamination being spread to a private home LASL 1950a • In 1961 a 137Cs contamination incident at TA-48 resulted in contamination being tracked off site by workers 28 homes and 47 vehicles were surveyed for contamination LASL 1961a • 90 Sr contamination was spread to a worker’s vehicle on June 2 1961 from a spill at the H-7 waste treatment laboratory LASL 1961c Specific examples of episodic events and sources of fugitive and unmonitored emissions include • On January 8 1953 LANL discovered that a polonium-beryllium source had ruptured at the Pajarito Site and found that contamination had spread to Los Alamos residential areas Followup monitoring was performed to assess the extent of the unmonitored release Shipman 1953 • Dust from the demolition of contaminated buildings in TA-1 Demolition activities included Buildings CM D HT J-2 M ML and N Debris from these demolition projects was often burned at the contaminated dump site • In 1956 glass vials containing tritium gas were disposed of at Beta Site TA-5 by placing ten at a time in a barrel and dropping a weight on them At one point a tritium concentration of 15 000 µCi m-3 was measured at a distance of 100 ft from the barrel • Unintentional releases of tritium from Building TA-33-86 required the site to be evacuated and access restricted by road blocks on multiple occasions Shipman 1958 1959b • A nuclear criticality accident at DP West Building 2 on December 30 1958 killed one worker and exposed numerous others Shipman 1959a • A fire in a plutonium-contaminated CWS filter at DP West Room 501 on July 15 1959 Highlycontaminated ash was found both inside and outside the building Shipman 1959b Another fire occurred in the incinerator drybox exhaust system in DP West Room 313 on December 8 1959 Buildup of residues allowed the fire to spread throughout the exhaust system The exhaust stack reportedly was red hot up to five feet above the roof LASL 1959 13-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 13 • In 1960 hydrogen sulfide emissions from Building TA-46-1 led to complaints from workers about fumes being drawn back into the building through the intake air system Shipman 1960 References Hacker BC The dragon’s tail - radiation safety in the Manhattan project 1942-46 Berkeley Univ of California Press 1987 Hempelmann LH History of the Health Group A-6 March 1943 - November 1945 from LANL Records Center location E-11-117 TR11921 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1946 Hempelmann LH History of the Health Group A-6 March 1943 - November 1945 from LANL Records Center location E-11-117 TR11921 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1946a Hempelmann LH Health hazards of LASL groups from LANL Records Center location E-13-25 TR6704 Folder 11 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1946b LASL H-Division Progress Report July 20 1950 - August 20 1950 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950a LASL H Division Annual Report 1949 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-1072 1950b LASL H-Division Annual Report 1950 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1951 LASL H-Division Progress Report November 20 1959 - December 20 1959 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1959 LASL H Division Monthly Progress Report April 20 1961 - May 20 1961 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961a LASL H Division Monthly Progress Report July 20 1961 - August 20 1961 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961b LASL H Division Monthly Progress Report May 20 1961 - June 20 1961 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961c LASL H-Division Progress Report July 21 1964 - August 20 1964 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 13 13-9 Shipman TL H Division Monthly Progress Report December 20 1952 - January 20 1953 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1953 Shipman TL H Division Monthly Progress Report H-219 September 20 1955 - October 20 1955 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1955 Shipman TL H Division Monthly Progress Report H-279 July 20 1958 - August 20 1958 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1958 Shipman TL H Division Monthly Progress Report H-285 December 20 1958 - January 20 1959 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1959a Shipman TL H Division Monthly Progress Report May 20 1959 - June 20 1959 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1959b Shipman TL H Division Monthly Progress Report H-299 August 20 1960 - September 20 1960 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1960 Shipman TL H Division Monthly Progress Report December 21 1963 - January 20 1964 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964 13-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 13 Appendix 13A Listing of Reports Issued by the Los Alamos Health Group Health Division and Successor Groups The following compilation of reference documents related to LANL’s Health Division highlights those sources of information that contain information relevant to operational activities and effluent monitoring practices particularly for those early operational years when reporting of source term information i e basic monitoring data sampling methods varied in content both in quantity and quality and are presented in a variety of division and group report formats The reference list is organized chronologically and grouped by report titles 1943 – 1946 Health Group Reports Hempelmann L H 1943a – Health Report LAMS-6 August 9 1943 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7184 Hempelmann L H 1943b – Health Report LAMS-10 September 23 1943 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7185 Hempelmann L H 1943c – Health Report LAMS-23 November 4 1943 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7186 Hempelmann L H 1943d – Health Report LAMS-32 December 9 1943 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7187 Hempelmann L H 1944a – Health Report LAMS-46 January 19 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2963 Hempelmann L H 1944b – Health Report LAMS-67 February 25 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2692 Hempelmann L H 1944c – Health Report LAMS-81 April 14 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7188 Hempelmann L H 1944d – Health Report LAMS-103 May 31 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7191 Hempelmann L H 1944e – Health Report LAMS-126 August 30 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 3953 Hempelmann L H 1944f – Health Report LAMS-157 Month Ending September 30 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2257 Hempelmann L H 1946a History of the Health Group A-6 March 1943 – November 1945 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico April 6 1945 Repos No 978 Hempelmann L H 1946b Health Hazards of LANL Groups by Division Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 136 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-1 1944 – 1945 Health and Safety Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1944a Health and Safety Report – CM Division LAMS-87 April 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7189 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1944b Health and Safety Report – CM Division LAMS-99 May 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7190 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1944b Health and Safety Report – CM Division LAMS-108 June 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7192 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1944b Health and Safety Report – CM Division LAMS-129 August 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7193 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1944b Health and Safety Report – CM Division LAMS-143 September 1944 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 7194 Steinhardt R G 1945 Summary Report on Health Conditions in RaLa Program Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6774 1947 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1947a H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-595 May 20 1947 - July 20 1947 HSPT-REL-94-275 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2202 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1947b H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-610 July 20 1947 - August 20 1947 HSPT-REL-94-310 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2272 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1947c H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-623 August 20 1947 - September 20 1947 HSPT-REL-94-311 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2273 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1947d H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-644 September 20 1947 - October 20 1947 HSPT-REL-94-312 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2274 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1947e H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-651 October 20 1947 - November 20 1947 HSPT-REL-94-277 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2204 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1947f H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-671 November 20 1947 - December 20 1947 HSPT-REL-94-278 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2205 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1947g H Division Annual Report 1947 November 24 1947 HSPTREL-94-276 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2203 1948 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948a H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-687 January 1 1948 - February 5 1948 HSPT-REL-94-279 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2206 13A-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948b H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-700 January 21 1948 - February 20 1948 HSPT-REL-94-280 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2207 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948c H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-716 February 20 1948 - March 20 1948 HSPT-REL-94-281 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2208 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948d H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-726 March 21 1948 - April 20 1948 HSPT-REL-94-282 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2209 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948e H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-741 April 20 1948 - May 20 1948 HSPT-REL-94-283 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2210 Note H Division Monthly Progress Reports for May 20 – June 20 1948 and June 20 – July 20 1948 have not been located at LANL LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948f H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-783 July 20 1948 August 20 1948 HSPT-REL-94-253 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2258 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948fg H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-790 August 20 1948 - September 20 1948 HSPT-REL-94-254 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2259 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948h H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS-803 September 20 1948 - October 20 1948 HSPT-REL-94-257 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2260 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948i H Division Monthly Progress Report October 20 1948 November 20 1948 HSPT-REL-94-258 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2261 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948j H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS 828 November 20 1948 - December 20 1948 HSPT-REL-94-259 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2262 Note An H Division Annual Progress Report for 1948 has not been located at LANL 1949 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949a H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS 846 December 20 1948 - January 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-285 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2211 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949b H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS 805 January 20 1949 - February 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-302 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2266 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949c H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS 877 February 20 1949 - March 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-301 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2265 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-3 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949d H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS 889 March 20 1949 - April 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-260 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2263 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949e H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS 901 April 20 1949 - May 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-262 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2264 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949f H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS 917 May 20 1949 - June 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-264 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2300 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949g H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS 929 June 20 1949 - July 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-266 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2301 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949h H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS 941 July 20 1949 - August 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-304 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2267 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949i H Division Monthly Progress Report LAMS 956 August 20 1949 - September 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-306 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2268 Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for September 20 – October 20 1949 was not located at LANL LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949j H Division Monthly Progress Report October 20 1949 November 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-307 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2271 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949k Abstract - H Division Monthly Progress Report November 20 1949 - December 20 1949 HSPT-REL-94-308 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2269 Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for November 20 1949 - December 20 1949 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950a H Division Annual Report 1949 LA-1072 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2270 1950 Health Division Reports Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for December 20 1949 - January 20 1950 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950b H Division Monthly Progress Report January 20 1950 February 20 1950 HSPT-REL-94-302 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2212 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950c Abstract H Division Monthly Progress Report February 20 1950 - March 20 1950 HSPT-REL-94-287 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2213 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950d Abstract H Division Monthly Progress Report March 20 1950 April 20 1950 HSPT-REL-94-288 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2214 13A-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950e Abstract H Division Monthly Progress Report April 20 1950 May 20 1950 HSPT-REL-94-289 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2215 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950f H Division Monthly Progress Report May 20 - June 20 1950 HSPT-REL-94-290 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2216 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950g H Division Monthly Progress Report June 20 1950 - July 20 1950 HSPT-REL-94-292 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2218 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950h H Division Monthly Progress Report July 20 1950 - August 20 1950 HSPT-REL-94-294 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2219 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950i H Division Monthly Progress Report August 20 1950 September 20 1950 HSPT-REL-94-296 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2220 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950j H Division Monthly Progress Report September 20 1950 October 20 1950 HSPT-REL-94-267 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2302 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950k H Division Monthly Progress Report October 20 1950 November 20 1950 HSPT-REL-94-270 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2304 Note An H Division Monthly progress report for November 20 - December 20 1950 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1951a H Division Annual Report 1950 HSPT-REL-94-354 LA-1256 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2224 1951 Health Division Reports Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for December 20 1950 - January 20 1951 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1951b H Division Monthly Progress Report January 20 1951 February 20 1951 HSPT-REL-94-274 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2201 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1951c H Division Monthly Progress Report February 20 1951 - March 20 1951 HSPT-REL-94-298 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2221 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1951d H Division Monthly Progress Report March 20 1951 - April 20 1951 HSPT-REL-94-300 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2223 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 195e1 H Division Monthly Progress Report April 20 1951 - May 20 1951 HSPT-REL-94-355 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2225 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1951f H Division Monthly Progress Report May 20 1951 - June 20 1951 HSPT-REL-94-357 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2226 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1951g H Division Monthly Progress Report June 20 1951 - July 20 1951 HSPT-REL-94-360 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2227 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1951h H Division Monthly Progress Report July 20 1951 - August 20 1951 HSPT-REL-94-362 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2228 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-5 Shipman T L 1951a H Division Monthly Progress Report August 20 1951 - September 20 1951 HSPT-REL94-326 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2282 Shipman T L 1951b H Division Monthly Progress Report September 20 1951 - October 20 1951 HSPT-REL94-327 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2283 Shipman T L 1951c H Division Monthly Progress Report October 20 1951 - November 20 1951 HSPT-REL94-329 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2284 Shipman T L 1951d H Division Monthly Progress Report November 20 1951 - December 20 1951 HSPTREL-94-330 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2285 Shipman T L 1952a H Division Annual Report 1951 HSPT-REL-94-334 LA-1425 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2287 1952 Health Division Reports Shipman T L 1952b H Division Monthly Progress Report December 20 1951 - January 20 1952 HSPT-REL94-335 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2288 Shipman T L 1952c H Division Monthly Progress Report January 20 1952 - February 20 1952 HSPT-REL-94337 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2289 Shipman T L 1952d H Division Monthly Progress Report February 20 1952 - March 20 1952 HSPT-REL-94338 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2290 Shipman T L 1952e H Division Monthly Progress Report March 20 1952 - April 20 1952 HSPT-REL-94-340 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2291 Shipman T L 1952f H Division Monthly Progress Report April 20 1952 - May 20 1952 HSPT-REL-94-341 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2292 Shipman T L 1952g H Division Monthly Progress Report May 20 1952 - June 20 1952 HSPT-REL-94-344 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2293 Shipman T L 1952h H Division Monthly Progress Report June 20 1952 - July 20 1952 HSPT-REL-94-346 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2294 Shipman T L 1952i H Division Monthly Progress Report July 20 1952 - August 20 1952 HSPT-REL-94-347 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2295 Shipman T L 1952j H Division Monthly Progress Report August 20 1952 - September 20 1952 HSPT-REL94-349 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2296 Shipman T L 1952k H Division Monthly Progress Report September 20 1952 - October 20 1952 HSPT-REL94-350 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2297 Shipman T L 1952l H Division Monthly Progress Report October 20 1952 - November 20 1952 HSPT-REL94-351 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2298 Shipman T L 1952m H Division Monthly Progress Report November 20 1952 - December 20 1952 HSPTREL-94-353 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2299 Shipman T L 1953a H Division Annual Report 1952 HSPT-REL-94-313 LA-1538 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2275 13A-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 1953 Health Division Reports Shipman T L 1953b H Division Monthly Progress Report December 20 1952 - January 20 1953 HSPT-REL94-316 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2276 Shipman T L 1953c H Division Monthly Progress Report January 20 1953 - February 20 1953 HSPT-REL-94318 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2278 Shipman T L 1953d H Division Monthly Progress Report February 20 1953 - March 20 1953 HSPT-REL-94320 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2279 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1953a H Division Monthly Progress Report March 20 1953 - April 20 1953 HSPT-REL-94-322 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2280 Shipman T L 1953e H Division Monthly Progress Report April 20 1953 - May 20 1953 HSPT-REL-94-325 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2281 Shipman T L 1953f H Division Monthly Progress Report May 20 1953 - June 20 1953 HSPT-REL-94-397 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2327 Shipman T L 1953g H Division Monthly Progress Report June 20 1953 - July 20 1953 HSPT-REL-94-398 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2328 Shipman T L 1953h H Division Monthly Progress Report July 20 1953 - August 20 1953 HSPT-REL-94-399 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2336 Shipman T L 1953i H Division Monthly Progress Report August 20 1953 - September 20 1953 HSPT-REL94-400 H-94A Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2337 Shipman T L 1953j H Division Monthly Progress Report September 20 1953 - October 20 1953 HSPT-REL94-401 H-95 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2335 Shipman T L 1953k H Division Monthly Progress Report October 20 1953 - November 20 1953 HSPT-REL94-403 H-96 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2334 Shipman T L 1953l H Division Monthly Progress Report November 20 1953 - December 20 1953 HSPT-REL94-404 H-99 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2333 Shipman T L 1954a H Division Annual Report 1953 HSPT-REL-94-406 LA-1689 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2330 1954 Health Division Reports Shipman T L 1954b H Division Monthly Progress Report H-102 December 20 1953 - January 20 1954 HSPTREL-94-405 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2326 Shipman T L 1954c H Division Monthly Progress Report H-110 January 20 1954 - February 20 1954 HSPTREL-94-407 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2331 Shipman T L 1954d H Division Monthly Progress Report H-113 February 20 1954 - March 20 1954 HSPTREL-94-408 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2332 Shipman T L 1954e H Division Monthly Progress Report H-117 March 20 1954 - April 20 1954 HSPT-REL94-409 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2361 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-7 Shipman T L 1954f H Division Monthly Progress Report H-119 April 20 1954 - May 20 1954 HSPT-REL94-410 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2362 Shipman T L 1954g H Division Monthly Progress Report H-120 May 20 1954 - June 20 1954 HSPT-REL-94412 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2363 Shipman T L 1954h H Division Monthly Progress Report H-122 June 20 1954 - July 20 1954 HSPT-REL-94413 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2364 Shipman T L 1954i H Division Monthly Progress Report H-200 July 20 1954 - August 20 1954 HSPT-REL94-457 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2365 Shipman T L 1954j H Division Monthly Progress Report H-201 August 20 1954 - September 20 1954 HSPTREL-94-458 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2366 Shipman T L 1954k H Division Monthly Progress Report H-202 September 20 1954 - October 20 1954 HSPT-REL-94-459 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2367 Shipman T L 1954l H Division Monthly Progress Report H-204 October 20 1954 - November 20 1954 HSPTREL-94-460 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2368 Shipman T L 1954m H Division Monthly Progress Report H-206 November 20 1954 - December 20 1954 HSPT-REL-94-461 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2369 Shipman T L 1955a Annual Report of the Health Division 1954 LA-1888 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 3053 1955 Health Division Reports Shipman T L 1955b H Division Monthly Progress Report H-207 December 20 1954 - January 20 1955 HSPTREL-94-462 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2370 Shipman T L 1955c H Division Monthly Progress Report H-208 January 20 1955 - February 20 1955 HSPTREL-94-464 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2371 Shipman T L 1955d H Division Monthly Progress Report H-209 February 20 1955 - March 20 1955 HSPTREL-94-465 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2372 Shipman T L 1955e H Division Monthly Progress Report H-210 March 20 1955 - April 20 1955 HSPT-REL94-466 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2373 Shipman T L 1955f H Division Monthly Progress Report H-212 April 20 1955 - May 20 1955 HSPT-REL94-467 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2374 Shipman T L 1955g H Division Monthly Progress Report H-214 May 20 1955 - June 20 1955 HSPT-REL-94415 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2375 Shipman T L 1955h H Division Monthly Progress Report H-215 June 20 1955 - July 20 1955 HSPT-REL-94417 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2376 Shipman T L 1955i H Division Monthly Progress Report H-216 July 20 1955 - August 20 1955 HSPT-REL94-888 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2377 Shipman T L 1955j H Division Monthly Progress Report H-218 August 20 1955 - September 20 1955 HSPTREL-94-889 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2378 13A-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A Shipman T L 1955k H Division Monthly Progress Report H-219 September 20 1955 - October 20 1955 HSPT-REL-94-890 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2379 Shipman T L 1955l H Division Monthly Progress Report H-220 October 20 1955 - November 20 1955 HSPTREL-94-891 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2380 Shipman T L 1955m H Division Monthly Progress Report H-223 November 20 1955 - December 20 1955 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4943 Note An H Division Annual Progress Report for 1955 was not located during project research activities 1956 Health Division Reports Shipman T L 1956a H Division Monthly Progress Report H-225 December 20 1955 - January 20 1956 HSPTREL-94-892 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2381 Shipman T L 1956b H Division Monthly Progress Report H-277 January 20 1956 - February 20 1956 HSPTREL-94-512 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2382 Shipman T L 1956c H Division Monthly Progress Report H-228 February 20 1956 - March 20 1956 HSPTREL-94-513 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2383 Shipman T L 1956d H Division Monthly Progress Report H-230 March 20 1956 - April 20 1956 HSPT-REL94-514 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2384 Shipman T L 1956e H Division Monthly Progress Report H-236 April 20 1956 - May 20 1956 HSPT-REL94-515 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2385 Shipman T L 1956f H Division Monthly Progress Report H-238 May 20 1956 - June 20 1956 HSPT-REL-94517 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2386 Shipman T L 1956g H Division Monthly Progress Report H-239 June 20 1956 - July 20 1956 HSPT-REL-94518 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2387 Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for July 20 – August 20 1956 was not located during project research activities Shipman T L 1956h H Division Monthly Progress Report H-241 August 20 1956 - September 20 1956 HSPTREL-94-519 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2388 Shipman T L 1956i H Division Monthly Progress Report H-242 September 20 1956 - October 20 1956 HSPTREL-94-520 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2389 Shipman T L 1956j H Division Monthly Progress Report H-246 October 20 1956 - November 20 1956 HSPTREL-94-521 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2390 Shipman T L 1956k H Division Monthly Progress Report H-249 November 20 1956 - December 20 1956 HSPT-REL-94-445 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2391 Note An H Division Annual Progress Report for 1956 was not located during project research activities 1957 Health Division Reports Shipman T L 1957a H Division Monthly Progress Report H-250 December 20 1956 - January 20 1957 HSPTREL-94-446 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2488 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-9 Shipman T L 1957b H Division Monthly Progress Report H-255 January 20 1957 - February 20 1957 HSPTREL-94-447 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2393 Shipman T L 1957c H Division Monthly Progress Report H-258 February 20 1957 - March 20 1957 HSPTREL-94-893 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2394 Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for March 20 - April 20 1957 was not located during project research activities Shipman T L 1957d H Division Monthly Progress Report H-262 April 20 1957 - May 20 1957 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4944 Shipman T L 1957e H Division Monthly Progress Report H-262 May 20 1957 - June 20 1957 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4945 Shipman T L 1957f H Division Monthly Progress Report June 20 1957 - July 20 1957 HSPT-REL-94-895 H265 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2411 Shipman T L 1957g H Division Monthly Progress Report H-266 July 20 1957 - August 20 1957 HSPT-REL94-896 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2412 Shipman T L 1957h H Division Monthly Progress Report H-267 August 20 1957 - September 20 1957 HSPTREL-94-897 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2413 Shipman T L 1957i H Division Monthly Progress Report H-268 September 20 1957 - October 20 1957 HSPTREL-94-898 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2414 Shipman T L 1957j H Division Monthly Progress Report H-270 October 20 1957 - November 20 1957 HSPTREL-94-449 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2489 Shipman T L 1957k H Division Monthly Progress Report H-271 November 20 1957 - December 20 1957 HSPT-REL-94-450 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2490 Shipman T L 1958a Annual Report Health Division 1957 HSPT-REL-94-451 LA- 2216 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2392 1958 Health Division Reports Shipman T L 1958b H Division Monthly Progress Report H-272 December 20 1957 - January 20 1958 HSPTREL-94-899 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2415 Shipman T L 1958c H Division Monthly Progress Report H-273 January 20 1958 - February 20 1958 HSPTREL-94-900 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2416 Shipman T L 1958d H Division Monthly Progress Report H-274 February 20 1958 - March 20 1958 HSPTREL-94-901 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2417 Shipman T L 1958e H Division Monthly Progress Report H-275 March 20 1958 - April 20 1958 HSPT-REL94-902 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2418 Shipman T L 1958f H Division Monthly Progress Report H-276 April 20 1958 - May 20 1958 HSPT-REL94-903 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2419 Shipman T L 1958g H Division Monthly Progress Report H-277 May 20 1958 - June 20 1958 HSPT-REL-94904 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2420 13A-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A Shipman T L 1958h H Division Monthly Progress Report H-278 June 20 1958 - July 20 1958 HSPT-REL-94905 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2421 Shipman T L 1958i H Division Monthly Progress Report H-279 July 20 1958 - August 20 1958 HSPT-REL94-906 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2422 Shipman T L 1958j H Division Monthly Progress Report H-282 August 20 1958 - September 20 1958 HSPTREL-94-907 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2423 Shipman T L 1958k H Division Monthly Progress Report H-283 September 20 1958 - October 20 1958 HSPT-REL-94-523 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2509 Shipman T L 1958l H Division Monthly Progress Report H-284 October 20 1958 - November 20 1958 HSPTREL-94-525 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2510 Shipman T L 1958m H Division Monthly Progress Report November 20 1958 - December 20 1958 HSPTREL-94-527 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2511 Note An H Division Annual Progress Report for 1958 was not located during project research activities 1959 Health Division Reports Shipman T L 1959a H Division Monthly Progress Report H-285 December 20 1958 - January 20 1959 HSPTREL-94-528 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2512 Shipman T L 1959b H Division Monthly Progress Report H-287 January 20 1959 - February 20 1959 HSPTREL-94-529 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2513 Shipman T L 1959c H Division Monthly Progress Report February 20 1959 - March 20 1959 HSPT-REL-94531 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2739 Shipman T L 1959d H Division Monthly Progress Report March 20 1959 - April 20 1959 HSPT-REL-94-532 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2514 Shipman T L 1959e H Division Monthly Progress Report April 20 1959 - May 20 1959 HSPT-REL-94-534 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2515 Shipman T L 1959f H Division Monthly Progress Report May 20 1959 - June 20 1959 HSPT-REL-94-908 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2424 Shipman T L 1959g H Division Monthly Progress Report June 20 1959 - July 21 1959 HSPT-REL-94-909 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2425 Shipman T L 1959h H Division Monthly Progress Report July 21 1959 - August 21 1959 HSPT-REL-94-911 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2426 Shipman T L 1959i H Division Monthly Progress Report August 20 1959 - September 20 1959 HSPT-REL94-912 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2427 Shipman T L 1959j H Division Monthly Progress Report September 20 1959 - October 20 1959 HSPT-REL94-482 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2492 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1959a H Division Monthly Progress Report October 20 1959 November 20 1959 HSPT-REL-94-483 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2493 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-11 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1959b H Division Monthly Progress Report H-295 November 20 1959 - December 20 1959 HSPT-REL-94-486 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2494 Note An H Division Annual Progress Report for 1959 was not located during project research activities 1960 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1960a H Division Monthly Progress Report H-296 December 20 1959 - January 20 1960 HSPT-REL-94-487 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2495 Shipman T L 1960a H Division Monthly Progress Report H-297 January 20 1960 - February 20 1960 HSPTREL-94-488 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2496 Shipman T L 1960b H Division Monthly Progress Report February 20 1960 - March 20 1960 HSPT-REL-94491 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2497 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1960b H Division Monthly Progress Report H-298 March 20 1960 April 20 1960 HSPT-REL-94-492 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2498 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1960c H Division Monthly Progress Report April 20 1960 - May 20 1960 HSPT-REL-94-537 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2516 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1960d H Division Monthly Progress Report May 20 1960 - June 20 1960 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4946 Shipman T L 1960c H Division Monthly Progress Report June 20 1960 - July 20 1960 HSPT-REL-94-914 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2428 Shipman T L 1960d H Division Monthly Progress Report July 20 1960 - August 20 1960 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4947 Shipman T L 1960e H Division Monthly Progress Report H-299 August 20 1960 - September 20 1960 HSPTREL-94-916 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2429 Shipman T L 1960f H Division Monthly Progress Report September 20 1960 - October 20 1960 HSPT-REL94-918 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2430 Shipman T L 1960g H Division Progress Report October 20 1960 - November 20 1960 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4948 Shipman T L 1960h H Division Monthly Progress Report November 20 1960 - December 20 1960 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4949 Note An H Division Annual Progress Report for 1960 was not located during project research activities 1961 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961a H Division Monthly Progress Report December 20 1960 January 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-539 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2517 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961b H Division Monthly Progress Report January 20 1961 February 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-541 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2518 13A-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961c H Division Monthly Progress Report February 20 1961 - March 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-542 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2519 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961d H Division Monthly Progress Report March 20 1961 - April 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-544 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2520 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961e H Division Monthly Progress Report April 20 1961 - May 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-546 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2521 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961f H Division Monthly Progress Report May 20 1961 - June 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-548 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2522 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961g H Division Monthly Progress Report June 20 1961 - July 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-549 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2523 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961h H Division Monthly Progress Report July 20 1961 - August 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-551 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2524 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961i H Division Monthly Progress Report August 20 1961 September 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-552 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2525 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961j H Division Monthly Progress Report September 20 1961 October 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-553 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2813 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961k H Division Monthly Progress Report October 21 1961 November 20 1961 File # 00131187 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4950 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961l H Division Monthly Progress Report November 21 1961 December 20 1961 HSPT-REL-94-554 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2526 Note An H Division Annual Progress Report for 1961 was not located during project research activities 1962 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1962a H Division Monthly Progress Report December 21 1961 January 20 1962 HSPT-REL-94-555 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2527 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1962b H Division Monthly Progress Report January 21 1962 February 20 1962 HSPT-REL-94-556 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2528 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1962c H Division Monthly Progress Report February 21 1962 - March 20 1962 HSPT-REL-94-595 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2529 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1962d H Division Monthly Progress Report March 21 1962 - April 20 1962 HSPT-REL-94-596 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2530 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1962e H Division Monthly Progress Report April 21 1962 - May 20 1962 HSPT-REL-94-597 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2531 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-13 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1962f H Division Monthly Progress Report May 21 1962 - June 20 1962 HSPT-REL-94-598 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2532 Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for June 21 - July 20 1962 was not located during project research activities Stoll R D 1962 H Division Monthly Progress Report July 21 1962 - August 20 1962 HSPT-REL-94-599 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2533 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1962g H Division Monthly Progress Report August 21 1962 September 20 1962 HSPT-REL-94-600 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2534 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1962h H Division Monthly Progress Report September 21 1962 October 20 1962 HSPT-REL-94-601 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2535 Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for October 21 - November 20 1962 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1962i H Division Monthly Progress Report November 21 1962 December 20 1962 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4951 Note An H Division Annual Progress Report for 1962 was not located during project research activities 1963 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1963a H Division Monthly Progress Report December 21 1962 January 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-499 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2499 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1963b H Division Monthly Progress Report January 21 1963 February 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-500 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2500 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1963c H Division Monthly Progress Report February 21 1963 - March 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-501 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2501 Shipman T L 1963a H Division Monthly Progress Report March 21 1963 - April 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-602 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2536 Shipman T L 1963b H Division Monthly Progress Report April 21 1963 - May 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-603 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2537 Shipman T L 1963c H Division Monthly Progress Report May 21 1963 - June 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-604 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2538 Shipman T L 1963d H Division Monthly Progress Report June 21 1963 - July 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-605 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2539 Stoll R D 1963 H Division Monthly Progress Report July 21 1963 - August 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-607 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2540 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1963d H Division Monthly Progress Report August 21 1963 September 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-608 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2541 13A-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A Note An H-Division Progress Report for September 21 - October 20 1963 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1963e H Division Monthly Progress Report October 21 1963 November 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-502 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2502 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1963f H Division Monthly Progress Report November 21 1963 December 20 1963 HSPT-REL-94-503 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2503 Note An H Division Annual Progress Report for 1963 was not located during project research activities 1964 Health Division Reports Shipman T L 1964 H Division Monthly Progress Report December 21 1963 - January 20 1964 HSPT-REL-94609 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2812 Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for January 21 – February 20 1964 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964a H Division Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report memorandum from M A Frechette to D D Meyer January 21 1964 - February 20 1964 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4529 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964b H Division Monthly Progress Report February 21 1964 - March 20 1964 HSPT-REL-94-504 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2504 Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for March 21 - April 20 1964 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964c H Division Monthly Progress Report April 21 1964 - May 20 1964 HSPT-REL-94-505 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2505 Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for May 21 - June 20 1964 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964d H Division Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report memorandum from D A McKown to D D Meyer May 21 1964 - June 19 1964 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4529 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964e H Division Monthly Progress Report June 21 1964 - July 20 1964 HSPT-REL-94-507 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2506 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964f H Division Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report memorandum from M F Dean to D D Meyer June 20 1964 – July 20 1964 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4529 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964g H Division Monthly Progress Report July 21 1964 - August 21 1964 HSPT-REL-94-508 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2507 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964h H Division Monthly Progress Report August 21 1964 September 20 1964 HSPT-REL-94-509 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 2508 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-15 Note An H Division Monthly Progress Report for September 21 - October 20 1964 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964i H Division Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report memorandum from D E Hankins to D D Meyer September 21 1964 – October 20 1964 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4529 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1964j H Division Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report memorandum from J E Dummer to D D Meyer October 21 1964 – November 20 1964 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4529 Note H Division Monthly Progress Reports for October 21 - November 20 1964 and November 21 1964 – December 20 1964 were not located during project research activities Note An H Division Annual Progress Report for 1964 was not located during project research activities 1965 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1965a H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report January - March 1965 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6262 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1965b H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report April - June 1965 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6263 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1965c H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report July -September 1965 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6264 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1965d H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report October December 1965 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6265 1966 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1966a H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report January - March 1966 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6266 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1966b H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report April - June 1966 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6267 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1966c H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report July -September 1966 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6268 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1966d H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report October December 1966 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6269 1967 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1967a H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report January - March 1967 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6270 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1967b H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report April - June 1967 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6271 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1967c H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report July -September 1967 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6272 13A-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1967d H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report October December 1967 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6273 1968 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1968a H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report January - March 1968 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6274 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1968b H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report April - June 1968 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos 6275 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1968b H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report July - Spetember 1968 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos 817 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1968c H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report October December 1968 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6276 1969 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1969a H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report January - March 1969 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6277 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1969b H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report April - June 1969 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6278 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1969c H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report July -September 1969 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6279 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1969d H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report October December 1969 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos Nos 4182 and 6280 1970 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1970a H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report January - March 1970 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6281 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1970b H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report April - June 1970 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6282 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1970c H Division Monthly Quarterly Progress Report July -September 1970 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6283 Note Monthly or quarterly H Division Progress reports for the period October - December 1970 were not located during project research activities 1971 Health Division Reports Voelz G L 1971a H Division Progress Report January - March 1971 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4704 Voelz G L 1971b H Division Progress Report April - June 1971 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4705 Voelz G L 1971c H Division Progress Report July - September 1971 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4878 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-17 Voelz G L 1972a H Division Progress Report October - December 1971 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4991 1972 Health Division Reports Voelz G L 1972b H Division Progress Report January - March 1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4992 Voelz G L 1972c H Division Progress Report April - June 1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4990 Note Quarterly Progress Reports for July – September 1972 and October – December 1972 was not located during project research activities 1973 and 1974 Health Division Reports Note H-Division Quarterly Progress Reports from third quarter of 1972 through 1980 were not located during the project Quarterly reports were located for 1981 and second quarter 1982 Additional H-Division reports for this time period and later were not located during project research activities 1981 Health Division Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1981b Health Division Quarterly Report January - March 1981 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 936 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1981c Health Division Quarterly Report April - June 1981 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 936 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1981d Health Division Quarterly Report July - September 1981 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5603 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1981e Health Division Quarterly Report October - December 1981 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 935 1982 Health Division Reports LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory 1982 Health Division Quarterly Report April – June 1982 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 3689 Note Quarterly Progress Reports for January – March 1981 and July – December 1981 were not located during project research activities Note Starting the third quarter of 1972 LASL began to publish quarterly and monthly Health Physics reports 1972 Health Physics Reports Meyer D D 1972a Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics July – September 1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4985 Meyer D D 1972b Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics October - December 1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos 4986 1973 Health Physics Reports Meyer D D 1972b Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics January – March 1973 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4987 13A-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A Meyer D D 1972b Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics April – June 1973 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4988 Valentine A 1973 Quarterly Progress Report for October – December 1973 for Operational Health Physics Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5453 1975 Health Physics Reports Dummer J E 1975a Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics July – September 1975 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392a Dummer J E 1975b Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics October - December 1975 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 448 1976 Health Physics Reports Dummer J E 1977a Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics January - March 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392b Dummer J E 1977b Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics April - June 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392c Dummer J E 1977c Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics July - September 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392d Dummer J E 1977d Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics October - December 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392e 1977 Health Physics Reports Dummer J E 1977a Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics January - March 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392b Dummer J E 1977b Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics April - June 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392c Dummer J E 1977c Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics July - September 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392d Dummer J E 1977d Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics October - December 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392e Note Starting in the third quarter of 1978 Area Heath Physics Group H-1 began reporting activities in separate monthly and quarterly reports The last report with these titles that were located during the project is for January 1981 activities 1978 Health Physics Reports Dummer J E 1978a Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics January - March 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392f Dummer J E 1978b Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics April - June 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392g Dummer J E 1978c Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics July - September 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392h FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-19 Dummer J E 1978d Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics October - December 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392i Note Starting in the third quarter of 1978 Area Heath Physics began reporting activities in separate monthly and quarterly reports Dummer J E 1978e Area Health Physics Monthly Report July 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5470 Dummer J E 1978f Area Health Physics Monthly Report August 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5560 Dummer J E 1978g Area Health Physics Monthly Report September 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5561 Dummer J E 1978h Area Health Physics Monthly Report October 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5562 Dummer J E 1978i Area Health Physics Monthly Report November 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5563 Dummer J E 1978j Area Health Physics Monthly Report December 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5583 1979 Health Physics Reports Dummer J E 1979a Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics January - March 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392j Dummer J E 1979b Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics April - June 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392k Dummer J E 1979c Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics July - September 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392l Dummer J E 1979d Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics October - December 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392m Dummer J E 1979e Area Health Physics Monthly Report January 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5473 Dummer J E 1979f Area Health Physics Monthly Report February 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico 5474 Dummer J E 1979g Area Health Physics Monthly Report March 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5475 Dummer J E 1979h Area Health Physics Monthly Report April 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5476 Dummer J E 1979i Area Health Physics Monthly Report May 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5477 Dummer J E 1979j Area Health Physics Monthly Report June 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5478 13A-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A Dummer J E 1979k Area Health Physics Monthly Report July 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5479 Dummer J E 1979l Area Health Physics Monthly Report August 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5480 Dummer J E 1979m Area Health Physics Monthly Report September 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5481 Dummer J E 1979n Area Health Physics Monthly Report October 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5566 Dummer J E 1979o Area Health Physics Monthly Report November 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5568 Dummer J E 1980a Area Health Physics Monthly Report December 1979 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5567 1980 Health Physics Reports Dummer J E 1980a Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics January - March 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392n Dummer J E 1980b Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics April - June 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392o Dummer J E 1980c Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics July - September 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392p Dummer J E 1980d Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics October - December 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392q Note Starting in the third quarter of 1978 Area Heath Physics began reporting activities in separate monthly reports Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report January 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5569 Dummer J E 1980f Area Health Physics Monthly Report February 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5570 Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report March 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5571 Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report April 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5572 Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report May 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5573 Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report June 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5574 Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report July 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5575 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-21 Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report August 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5576 Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report September 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5577 Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report October 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5578 Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report November 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5579 Dummer J E 1980e Area Health Physics Monthly Report December 1980 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5580 1981 Health Physics Reports Dummer J E 1981a Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics January - March 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392r Dummer J E 1981b Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics April - June 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 448 Dummer J E 1981c Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics July - September 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 448 Dummer J E 1981d Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics October - December 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 448 5580 Note Starting in the third quarter of 1978 Area Heath Physics began reporting activities in separate monthly reports Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981a Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics January 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5581 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981b Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics February 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5582 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981c Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics March 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5584 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981d Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics April 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5585 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981e Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics May 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5586 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981f Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics June 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5587 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981g Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics July 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5588 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981h Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics August 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5589 13A-22 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981i Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics September 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5590 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981j Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics October 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5591 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981k Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics November 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5592 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1981l Health Physics - Group H-1 Monthly Progress Report - Area Health Physics December 1981 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5593 1982 Health Physics Reports Dummer J E 1982a Health Physics Quarterly Progress Report January - March 1982 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6102 Dummer J E 1982b Health Physics Quarterly Progress Report April - June 1982 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6103 Dummer J E 1982c Health Physics Quarterly Progress Report July - September 1982 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6104 Dummer J E 1982d Health Physics Quarterly Progress Report October - December 1982 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6105 1983 Health Physics Reports Dummer J E 1983a Quarterly Progress Report – Group H-1 Health Physics January - March 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392s Note Quarterly Progress Reports – Group H-1 Health Physics for April – June 1983 July – September 1983 and October – December 1983 were not located during project research activities Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983a Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational January 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5653 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983b Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational February 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5654 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983c Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational March 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5655 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983d Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational April 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5656 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983a Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational May 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5657 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983a Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational June 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5659 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983a Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational July 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5658 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-23 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983a Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational August 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5660 Note September 1983 Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports were not located during project research activities Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983a Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational October 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5661 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983a Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational November 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5662 Miller J Gallimore J Stafford R 1983a Health Physics Monthly Activity Reports - Operational December 1983 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5663 1989 Health Physics Reports Valentine A 1989c Radiation Protection Quarterly Report October – December 1989 Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 392aa 1990 Health Physics Reports Graf J M 1990a Radiation Protection Quarterly Report April - June 1990 Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No No 392bb Graf J M 1990b Radiation Protection Quarterly Report July - September 1990 Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No No 392cc Graf J M 1990c Radiation Protection Quarterly Report October - December 1990 Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No No 392dd 1991 Health Physics Reports Graf J M 1991 Radiation Protection Quarterly Report October - December 1990 Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No No 392ee 1975 EHS Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1975a Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities January - March 1975 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6239 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1975b Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities April - June 1975 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6240 Note A Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities for July - September 1975 was not located during project research activities Note A Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities for October – December 1975 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1975c Quarterly Progress Report Health Research Division – Indirect Laboratory Support Activities January - March 1975 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4993 13A-24 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1975d Quarterly Progress Report Health Research Division – Indirect Laboratory Support Activities April - June 1975 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 4994 1976 EHS Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1976a Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities January - March 1976 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6241 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1976b Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities April - June 1976 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6242 Note A Quarterly Progress Report for July - September 1976 was not located during project research activities LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1976d Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities October - December 1976 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6243 1977 EHS Reports LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1977a Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities January - March 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6237 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1977b Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities April - June 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6238 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1977c Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities July -September 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6235 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1977d Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Health and Safety Activities October - December 1977 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6236 1978 ESH Reports Voelz George L 1978a Quarterly Progress Report January - March 1978 Operational Environmental Safety and Health Activities Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No No 893 Voelz George L 1978b Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Safety and Health Activities April - June 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No No 896b Voelz George L 1978c Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Safety and Health Activities JulySeptember 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6234 Voelz George L 1978d Quarterly Progress Report Operational Environmental Safety and Health Activities October - December 1978 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 6244 1979 ESH Reports Voelz George L 1979a Quarterly Progress Report January - March 1979 Operational Environmental Safety and Health Activities Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No No 941 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A 13A-25 Voelz George L 1979b Quarterly Progress Report April-June 1979 Operational Environmental Safety and Health Activities Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No number pending Voelz George L 1979c Quarterly Progress Report July - September 1979 Operational Environmental Safety and Health Activities Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 941 Voelz George L 1979d Quarterly Progress Report October - December 1979 Operational Environmental Safety and Health Activities Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 941 1980 ESH Reports Voelz George L 1980a Quarterly Progress Report January - March 1980 Operational Environmental Safety and Health Activities Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 937 Note A Quarterly Progress Report for April – June 1980 was not located during project research activities Voelz George L 1980b Quarterly Progress Report July - September 1980 Operational Environmental Safety and Health Activities Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 938 LASL Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1981a Health Division Quarterly Report October - December 1980 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 933 1987 HSE Reports LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory 1987 Health Safety Environment Quarterly Report July - September 1987 Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 3126 1988 HSE Reports LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory 1988a Health Safety Environment Quarterly Report January - March 1988 Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 1246 LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory 1988b Health Safety Environment Quarterly Report October December 1988 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 5913 1989 HSE Reports LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory 1989 Health Safety Environment Quarterly Report April - June 1989 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 3570 1990 HSE Reports LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory 1990 Health Safety Environment Update Summary of 1990 Quarterly Reports Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Repos No 878 13A-26 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Appendix 13A Chapter 14 Environmental Monitoring at LANL This chapter presents a summary of environmental monitoring and research data that may be useful for evaluating historical releases from LANL The reports and monitoring data reviewed by the LAHDRA project team represent samples or measurements collected in both on-site and off-site areas potentially affected by past contaminant releases from LANL operations The information presented here is organized chronologically to highlight changes and improvements that have occurred during the evolution of LANL’s environmental monitoring programs since the start of LANL’s operations in 1943 Details on monitoring practices presented in this chapter are more heavily weighted toward pre-1970 monitoring since the largest releases occurred during this time period Overall information availability is summarized in the following sections Brief descriptions of several example environmental studies that are tied to past LANL activities are included It is important to note that while this chapter summarizes a number of environmental monitoring studies it is not a complete historical record of every study conducted to date Many more environmental studies are described and referred to in documents selected by the LAHDRA project team and added to the project information database Areas of Investigation Environmental monitoring and research data reviewed by the LAHDRA project team primarily address sampling and measurement of environmental media such as air water soils sediments biota and foodstuffs that were potentially impacted by radioactive and chemical contaminants released from LANL Monitoring data of interest to this project represent measured concentrations of contaminants at on-site and off-site locations including areas along the site boundary and residential communities that are nearby regional or useful for characterizing background concentrations Historically these data have typically been used by LANL to monitor trends in contaminant releases and or to study the presence migration and fate of releases that have occurred or are occurring through transport mechanisms such as air dispersion leaching or surface flow to important water resources Environmental monitoring data are of interest for potentially filling data gaps that exist in historical effluent monitoring data for various discharge points at LANL FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-1 The following section describes the primary geographical areas of interest during the investigation These areas were selected for investigation based on The LAHDRA project team’s knowledge of the key release sources at LANL Previous environmental studies of on-site and off-site areas Surface waters that have received past LANL emissions Reported areas of contaminant accumulation in surface water sediments and surface and subsurface soils Annual airborne releases and indications of how they have been affected by local and regional wind patterns as well as local and regional topography and Historical environmental surveillance and monitoring and a review of environmental data availability Some environmental monitoring within the laboratory boundary and surrounding areas began within the first few years after the start of LANL operations in 1943 Monitoring was first conducted by members of the Health Group of Project Y the United States Atomic Energy Agency and the U S Geological Survey USGS In more recent years other LANL divisions and the state of New Mexico have also conducted environmental monitoring and or environmental studies Most of the early monitoring involved collecting non-routine air water soil and sediment samples that were then analyzed for radioactive and occasionally elemental or chemical contaminants The early environmental monitoring program was used to identify and characterize the spread of radioactive contamination to surrounding land areas and to estimate potential radiation exposures to workers as a result of laboratory activities and emissions Increased monitoring over the years meant collecting a larger number of routine samples for all types of media and for a growing list of contaminants The frequencies with which samples were collected also increased over the years With the advent of new environmental protection and emission standards in the early 1970s LANL saw the need to further increase its monitoring of the environment both on and off site and to enhance the formats with which it reported measurement results The need to do more monitoring was also brought to LANL’s attention by independent reviewers and experts Parker 1974 Based on reports reviewed to date most of the emphasis for environmental monitoring during the early years was placed on measuring radioactive constituents however beginning in the late 1950s some limited sampling was performed for lead mercury chromium beryllium and other elements and chemicals of interest Early environmental documents pointed out the need to increase sampling for all media and to perform radiochemical analyses for isotopic plutonium and specific fission products 14-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 associated with fall-out from atmospheric weapon tests to better differentiate between global fallout and LANL impacts Parker 1974 The areas of concern for the investigation of environmental data include Los Alamos community Española community White Rock community Surrounding Native American lands Los Alamos Canyon DP Canyon Pueblo Canyon Acid Canyon Rio Grande River Mortandad Canyon Bayo Canyon Pajarito Canyon Sandia Canyon Guaje Canyon Area reservoirs Conditions at LANL and Surrounding Areas The laboratory site and adjacent communities are situated on the Pajarito Plateau which consists of a series of mesas separated by deep canyons These canyons were cut by intermittent streams that trend south-eastward from an altitude of about 2 400 m at the Jemez Mountains to about 1 800 m at the eastern margin where they terminate above the Rio Grande Valley The canyons and mesas areas are underlain by the Bandelier Tuff and are composed of the ashfall ashflow pumice and rhyolite tuff that form the surface of Pajarito Plateau The volcanic ash was deposited following an eruption that occurred about 1 2 million years ago LASL 1980 Surface waters are primarily intermittent streams that begin on the sides of the Jemez Mountains and supply base flow to the upper reaches of some canyons The amount of flow in these streams is typically insufficient to maintain flow across the laboratory area before it is depleted by evaporation transpiration and infiltration However runoff from heavy thunderstorms and significant snowmelts reaches the Rio FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-3 Grande several times a year Over portions of LANL’s operational history its effluents have provided sufficient volume to maintain surface flow in the canyons for distances up to 1 5 km LASL 1980 Several photographs of LANL discharges to area canyons are shown in Fig 14-1 Fig 14-1 Discharges of liquid radioactive waste to Acid Canyon in the mid-1940s left and to DP Canyon in 1973 Photographs courtesy of LANL Groundwater occurs in three modes in the Los Alamos area 1 water in shallow alluvium in the canyons 2 perched water in basalt and 3 the main aquifer of the Los Alamos area Deposited alluvium in the canyons ranges in thickness from 1 to 30 m and is quick permeable in contrast to the underlying volcanic tuff and sediments resulting in a shallow alluvial groundwater that moves down gradient in the alluvium and becomes depleted as it moves into the underlying volcanic deposits In lower Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons a small local body of perched water is formed in the basalts by water filtration This water discharges in the Los Alamos Canyon west of the Rio Grande The main aquifer capable of municipal water supply rises westward from the Rio Grande within the Tesuque Formation into the lower part of the Puye Formation beneath the central and western part of the plateau Depth to the aquifer decreases from 360 m along the western margin of the Plateau to about 180 m at the eastern margin The water is under water table conditions in the western and central part of the plateau and under artesian conditions in the eastern part and along the Rio Grande LASL 1980 14-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 Availability of Environmental Data Much of the environmental monitoring results reported for years prior to 1970 and reviewed by the project team are published in letter-type reports that vary widely in terms of content and detail In some cases only a portion of a report was available for review or a report may only contain limited amounts of monitoring data or may lack a description of the methods and purpose for a monitoring activity Information presented in these earlier documents indicates that environmental monitoring was sporadic and generated a smaller amount of data when compared to results for later years when monitoring activities were much more formalized and comprehensive By the late 1950s LANL attempted to formally consolidate environmental monitoring results into one report One of the first such reports is titled “Los Alamos Environmental Monitoring Program” for the years 1959 and 1960 This report includes results for direct gamma measurements air particulate sampling for analysis of alpha and beta air concentrations and water sampling of potable water supplies surface body waters and test monitoring wells LASL 1960 Not until 1970 however when LANL began to publish its annual environmental surveillance reports were results of monitoring activities routinely reported in a unified and comprehensive manner Monitoring grew substantially over the next 35 years with results published and documented in the annual environmental monitoring reports Many of these annual reports are now available to the public on LANL’s Web site at www lanl gov Chronology of Early Environmental Monitoring at LANL 1943 – 1970 Documents indicate that LANL began its first environmental monitoring activities sometime in 1944 or 1945 Monitoring was designed to measure radioactive and chemical concentrations in water sediments and soils with the intent of defining the impacts to the environment from laboratory liquid waste discharges to nearby canyons or burial grounds The monitoring program evolved in the 1950s and expanded to include additional sampling and radiation surveys Along with increases in water and soil sampling locations and sample collection frequencies LANL began routine gamma radiation measurements and air sampling for gaseous and particulate radionuclides or non-radioactive contaminants LANL periodically reported results for these early sampling and radiation survey activities in brief letter-reports Reports often presented combined results for water and soil samples ambient gamma measurements and air samples Tribby 1945 Kingsley 1947 Tribby 1947 Kennedy 1965 Occasionally LANL reported results for radioactive fallout particulates from LANL operations using “Sticky trays” with gummed-paper to collect the radioactive contamination Kennedy 1958 These early sampling activities were sporadic and often involved non-routine monitoring to study changes in contaminant concentrations over time as well as contaminant movement in the environment FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-5 An independent safety appraisal of the LANL health and safety program conducted in 1947 by the Safety and Industrial Health Advisory Board of the National Safety Council was highly critical of LANL’s ability to control and monitor hazardous material releases to the environment Williams and Board 1948 In addition LANL documents indicate that environmental monitoring lacked continuity and consistency in terms of sampling methods data analysis and reporting Using staff from various groups operating somewhat independently from one another made it difficult to compile routine data into unified and consistent formats with the desired level of data and reporting quality Kennedy 1958 Effluent and environmental monitoring programs were not as well developed as the methods and practices used for monitoring personnel radiation exposures during this time period and it is evident that the health and safety program was primarily directed towards reducing radiation exposures to workers Documents available to the project team indicate that routine environmental air sampling was almost nonexistent until the mid to late 1950s Monitoring of Liquid Waste Releases During early operations in the 1940s liquid waste from the DP site TA-21 and the Original Technical Area TA-1 were released into Los Alamos Canyon and Pueblo Canyon Periodic water and sediment samples were collected in the canyon creeks and drainage areas and in off-site areas such as the Rio Grande and analyzed for radioactive and chemical contaminant concentrations Liquid effluent samples were also collected at discharge points to determine if the amounts of waste released were within the legal or recommended concentration limits for the time which were also used at the Hanford site Tribby 1948 Many of the samples during this time were analyzed for plutonium polonium uranium beta and gamma and occasionally for heavy metals and other elements such as lead bismuth mercury chromium and fluorine Tribby 1945 Kingsley 1947 Kingsley and Tribby 1947 Schnap and Tribby 1948 Shipman 1958 Area supply wells and other potable water supplies were also sampled and tested Wilson and Tribby 1945 The liquid effluent limits at that time were 6 3 x 10-4 μCi L-1 for plutonium and polonium and 5 0 x 10-1 μCi L-1 for mixed fission products such as 140La and 140Ba The earliest LANL documents describing initial monitoring activities and results covered the period 1945 to 1950 Tribby 1945 1947 Schnap and Tribby 1948 Treatment of the liquid waste was initially minimal but did increase as production and liquid waste volumes increased Tribby 1948 The following excerpt from a LANL document depicts the sources of contamination and environmental areas targeted for sampling Tribby 1945 14-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 Fig 14-2 Excerpt from a LANL document depicting the sources of contamination and environmental areas targeted for sampling Tribby 1945 Water sampling was usually conducted after heavy rains since creek beds were often dry during seasonal periods of low precipitation Many of the samples were collected in “pools” of liquid waste discharges and rainwater in lower-lying or down gradient drainage areas Kingsley 1947 Concentrations for radioactive contaminants in water and soil samples were typically elevated at locations near effluent discharge points in the canyons and decreased to undetectable levels within short distances from discharge points Elevated levels were often identified during periods of liquid discharge but concentrations would decrease over time because of decaying short-lived radionuclides such as polonium or because of dilution and movement of longer-lived radioactive contaminants dispersed within surface waters during periods of moderate to heavy precipitation Kingsley 1947 Schnap and Tribby 1948 Records indicate that to reduce contaminants levels released to the canyons or burial grounds LANL began to scale back on its liquid waste discharges to Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons as additional waste treatment facilities at the laboratory became operational LANL found it necessary to expand its waste treatment capacity as growing production and research demands generated larger and larger volumes of liquid and solid radioactive and chemical waste H-7 group became part of the H Division in June 1955 and assumed responsibility for liquid waste treatment and management The H-7 Group also oversaw a growing environmental monitoring program in those areas potentially impacted by liquid and airborne discharges Two liquid waste treatment plants used co- FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-7 precipitation for removing plutonium and one plant was equipped with an ion exchange unit to remove barium-140 and radioactive strontium isotopes Shipman 1958 The Waste Treatment Plant at TA-45 received wastes from TA-1 and TA-3 and discharged treated liquid waste to Acid canyon 11 5 million gallons of waste for example were received in 1957 Treatment of the waste removed roughly 94% of the radioactivity and 99% of the plutonium which allowed the Treatment Plant to meet 10% of the NBS 52 Handbook tolerance for plutonium discharge Shipman 1958 More treatment capacity was added as necessary and as releases of contaminants decreased over time The Ten Site Waste Treatment plant at TA-35 handled liquid waste for the RaLa program with four 50 000 gallon tanks Wastes contained mixtures of 140Ba 140La 89Sr 90Sr 90Y and trace amounts of other radionuclides Waste treatment removed 93% of radioactivity and discharged roughly 92% of liquid waste volume to Mortandad Canyon after treatment Shipman 1958 In coordination with LANL the United States Geological Survey USGS also collected routine water samples from local surface streams the Rio Grande supply wells and monitoring wells and submitted the samples to LANL for radiochemical and water quality analyses Monthly samples were analyzed for gross alpha gross beta plutonium and uranium Samples were also analyzed for pH total hardness potassium sulfur calcium magnesium sodium chloride fluoride total solids NO3 and conductivity Volumetric flow rates for streams located in Pueblo and Los Alamos canyons are also presented in study results These additional samples were also used to assess the potential impacts from LANL operations on water resources and to better understand the rate and direction of groundwater flow in the local and regional area Griffin 1956 Shipman 1956 By the 1970s LANL was conducting water sampling at various locations at distances of 40 to 50 km away from the main laboratory area LASL 1971 Additional examples of early environmental monitoring studies of waterborne contamination are presented in a later section of this chapter Soil Monitoring LANL also conducted soil sampling at on-site and off-site locations to further assess impacts from liquid waste discharges from TA-1 and TA-21 Soil samples were collected in areas along canyon creeks or in dry creek beds and drainage areas Samples were often analyzed for plutonium polonium uranium beta and gamma heavy metals and other elements such lead mercury chromium and fluorine Tribby 1945 Soil sampling results were reported along with results of water monitoring activities Concentration 14-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 results at on-site locations close to discharge points were often reported above detection limits or background levels Results for sampling locations at greater from discharge points were often reported as “negative ” meaning that either concentration levels were below the method detection limits for analytical measurement techniques used at the time or they were below an administrative or regulatory control limit Kennedy 1952 Results for soil samples collected in Acid Canyon discharge from TA-45 plant Mortandad Canyon discharge from TA-35 plant Los Alamos Canyon discharge from TA-21 and at the laundry site were periodically reported in Health Division reports or memoranda Shipman 1958 Samples during this time period were analyzed according to location gross alpha and plutonium at Acid and Los Alamos Canyons and 90Sr and yttrium at Mortandad Canyon In 1955 soil sample results showed strontium contamination in the upper reaches of Mortandad Canyon that exceeded NBS Handbook tolerance levels Shipman 1958 A study of plutonium strontium and cesium movement in tuff materials began during 1957 and reported that very little radioactive material movement had occurred based upon comparison to sampling results for the previous years Soil sampling continued throughout the 1950s and beyond Results consistently showed strontium contamination in the canyon resulting from Ten Site liquid waste discharges Shipman 1956 Grab and composite surface water samples were collected at various locations along the Rio Grande River and the Chama River The rivers had a reported natural uranium background concentration of approximately 10-9 μCi cm-3 Water samples were also collected at seven perennial streams 13 water supply wells and eight test monitoring wells located in various canyons within and surrounding the laboratory Shipman 1956 In 1957 LANL began a study to evaluate the movement of 90Sr 137Cs and 239 Pu released form LANL through the local soils including tuff material Shipman 1958 By the 1970s LANL was conducting soil and sediment sampling at various locations 40 to 50 km away from the site LASL 1971 Additional examples of early soil contaminant monitoring and sampling studies are presented in a later section of this chapter Air Monitoring A variety of air monitoring activities and measurements conducted by LANL were also used as another means of assessing impacts from routine or accidental air effluents from laboratory operations or from resuspension of radioactively-contaminated soils or dry sediments The primary focus of LANL’s early air monitoring program from 1944 to around 1970 was to detect larger accidental releases and as such FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-9 routine sampling results at or below detection limits were not reported on a regular basis These early monitoring stations were equipped with thin-walled GM tubes and a scaler rate m to record results By the late 1950s and 1960s air particulate filters and charcoal canisters were being used at most of these stations to measure gross alpha and beta and radioactive iodine concentrations in air Routine reporting of these early measurements also appear to be sporadic and limited in terms of the amount of data presented in LANL documents Only a limited amount of air monitoring results for 1940s and 1950s and to some extent the 1960s apparently were published by LANL It is also possible that results were published in reports that are now missing were destroyed or simply were not located by the project team Based on available documents reviewed by the project team routine reporting of monitoring results however does not appear to have begun in earnest until 1970 LANL did not have a well established network of air monitoring stations until the late 1950s and documents indicate that 25 to 36 monitoring stations were used from 1958 to 1992 Most of these stations were located on-site within the various Technical Areas at LANL within the Los Alamos town site or within the town’s immediate surrounding areas The two on-site monitoring stations furthest away from the Main Technical area or Los Alamos town site were located in White Rock New Mexico approximately 6 mi to the southeast and at the eastern site boundary The report entitled “Los Alamos Environmental Monitoring in the Vicinity of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory January through June 1971” the predecessor report to LANL’s Annual Environmental Surveillance reports indicates that LANL began to use two remote “off-site” air monitoring stations starting sometime in 1971 One station was placed in Española New Mexico approximately 14 mi northeast of Los Alamos and the other station was located in Santa Fe New Mexico approximately 24 mi southeast of Los Alamos LASL 1972 In 1992 and 1993 LANL expanded the number of on-site monitoring stations to 52 including the addition of regional or remote stations at various locations up to approximately 45 mi northeast of LANL The collective array of air monitoring stations became known as AIRNET monitoring program During this expansion of air monitoring stations LANL also increased the network to six off-site or remote monitoring stations The remote stations since that time were located in Española San Ildefonso Pueblo El Rancho and Jemez Pueblo New Mexico and they are still being used by LANL An additional monitoring station was added within the Santa Fe city limits In 2003 LANL added a seventh remote monitoring station at Picuris Pueblo New Mexico making it the station furthest away from LANL at roughly 45 mi to the northeast Most of these AIRNET stations or predecessor monitoring stations are still in operation today although routine or periodic reporting of monitoring results did not begin until the 1970s with the advent of LANL’s Annual Environmental Surveillance reports LANL 1994 2008 14-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 Starting around the early to mid-1960s air filters were measured for gross alpha and beta activities and then made into composite samples once a month for isotopic analyses of long-lived alpha-emitting radionuclides such as plutonium Charcoal canisters also continued to be analyzed for 131I by way of gamma measurements and water vapor was measured for tritium concentrations via liquid scintillation counting A comparison of environmental air monitoring programs at other DOE sites shows that LANL used similar measurement techniques throughout the years although they did not establish remote off-site monitoring as early as some DOE sites For example the Oak Ridge Reservation ORR sites X-10 Y-12 and K-25 used a formal network of local and perimeter “on-site” samplers and monitors during the 1940s and 1950s but also began using remote “off-site” gamma and air monitoring stations in the early 1960s Eventually the networks of monitoring stations were officially referred to as the local air monitors LAMs perimeter air monitors PAMs and remote air monitors RAMs ORR’s LAM and PAM monitoring stations used during this early period were equipped with ion-chamber type instruments to measure outdoor ambient gamma radiation levels These instruments were later modified to measure beta radiation although laboratory staff discovered the instruments were highly susceptible to weathering and proved to be unreliable for routine measurements ORR eventually used GM tubes with scaler rate m to measure both gamma and beta radiation Charcoal canisters were used at selected stations for iodine measurements and tritium measurements were performed on rain water samples Similar to the practices used by LANL ORR also used film badges and TLDs in later years to measure gamma and beta radiation and air samplers to measure particulate and gaseous airborne concentrations of radioactive materials in order to determine impacts from site effluents and or global nuclear fallout ORR used three remote air monitoring RAM stations as far back as 1956 These stations were also equipped with GM Tubes and scalers gummed-paper trays and rain collectors for measuring air particulate radioactive contaminants fallout and charcoal canisters for measuring radioactive iodine The first three RAMs used were located in Corryton and Kingston Tennessee and Berea Kentucky The Corryton and Kinston stations were only used in 1956 and data for the Berea station is only available for 1957 and 1958 Use of the Berea station was discontinued in 1962 Prior to 1959 seven additional remote air monitoring stations were added at various Tennessee Valley Authority TVA dam locations ranging in distance from approximately 12 to 75 mi from the ORR ORAU Team 2004 In comparison LANL’s primary focus during early air monitoring was not on remote locations as much as it was on monitoring impacts to local residential areas and nearby canyons It wasn’t until around 1970 that LANL began to expand its air monitoring network beyond its site boundary FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-11 Bayo Canyon TA-10 and TA-35 – RaLa Test Shots LANL documents from the 1940s and early 1950s indicate that initial air monitoring conducted by LANL was focused on monitoring radioactive fallout from the RaLa test shots conducted in Bayo Canyon Radioactive and chemical debris from test shots containing 140Ba and 140La was released to the atmosphere using dispersion rates and directional patterns based on weather conditions at the time of each shot Airborne contaminants would typically migrate beyond Bayo Canyon to surroundings areas As discussed in a 1945 LANL document the three primary hazards associated with RaLa shots included external radiation explosive materials and airborne contamination Airborne contamination initially was monitored at the firing location and at other points in the canyon and on the Los Alamos mesa by members of Group A-6 Steinhardt 1945 Measurements were made with film badges mounted three feet above the ground surface on wooden or metal stakes Direct gamma measurements were also collected with a GM tube and a scaler rate m Later fallout trays with gummed-paper were used to collect radioactive debris Radioactive fallout from most test shots was monitored to the extent practical as LANL acknowledged that some downwind areas surrounding Bayo Canyon were inaccessible because of the area’s rugged terrain Following test shots the road from the Main Tech area TA-1 to the East Gate was often closed to vehicle traffic to allow time for radioactive contamination to be removed or decay to levels deemed acceptable for resumption of public access to the roads The radioactive plume from a RaLa shot conducted on April 20 1949 for example passed over and contaminated the area from the East Main Gate to Los Alamos town site The incident required decontaminating the main road Highway 285 before it could be reopened to the public or other workers Because of these incidences LANL sought to improve its weather and fallout predictions by requesting assistance from meteorologists from the Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque LASL 1949c Debris from another shot on May 20 of the same year drifted out of the canyon and contaminated the main road to Los Alamos at the Frijoles junction resulting in maximum gamma-beta readings of 10 mR h-1 LASL 1949a Throughout this time period staff from the Biophysics section focused their efforts on further defining and predicting fallout from the RaLa shots to minimize exposures to workers and members of the public In 1949 the fallout problem became more acute when LANL discovered a new mining operation in Guaje Canyon operated by the Santa Fe Pumice Company located about three mi away from Bayo Canyon To minimize the spread of contamination and better characterize potential environmental and public health impacts from RaLa test shots LANL increased its efforts to measure wind rose patterns including prevailing wind directions and maximum and average wind velocities of 14-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 prevailing winds LASL 1949b As reported in a 1949 monthly H Division progress report the plume from an implosion test shot rose and spread contamination easterly as far as ten mi away at a location known as “Camp May” LASL 1949d Descriptions in the 1952 H Division annual report indicate that LANL continued to monitor dispersion and fallout of radioactive material from Bayo Canyon test shots These surveys focused on tracking contamination in areas north and east of Bayo Canyon White Rock Totavi Puje and Espanola and addressed growing concerns about releases from RaLa shots and from other facilities such as DP Site as production increased significantly during this period The report noted that additional sampling was conducted along East Road to assess impacts and hazards from DP Site as well as from Bayo Canyon releases Health Division members from the H-1 and H-6 monitoring groups also expanded the on-site and off-site monitoring program to further address the growing concerns about environmental impacts Shipman 1953 Laboratory safety personnel also expressed concerns about personnel and public exposures associated with RaLa test shots as well as airborne effluents from RaLa hot cell operations and operations at TA-2 Omega TA-3 CMR Building and TA-21 DP Sites The TA-35 hot cell facility was used to handle store and prepare the RaLa sources for test shots conducted in Bayo Canyon The excerpt from a 1952 LANL document shown in Fig 14-3 represents another example of LANL activities used during this time to assess the impacts from the TA-35 radioactive airborne effluents Aeby 1954 The excerpt from a 1952 LANL document shown in Fig 14-4 further indicates that LANL staff was aware of the importance of predicting weather conditions to minimize the spread of radioactive contamination and so conducted periodic surveys to determine impacts of air effluents Aeby 1954 Other means of tracking cloud dispersions from the RaLa shots was by using air conductivity measurement This technique proved to have advantages over using GM tube instruments particularly when radiation fields approached saturation levels LASL 1951 Based on our review of project documents it is not clear to what extent LANL used conductivity measurements for tracking radioactive explosive cloud dispersions FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-13 Fig 14-3 Excerpt from a 1952 document describing measurements of airborne radioactivity from RaLa processing at TA-35 Aeby 1954 Fig 14-4 Excerpt from a 1952 LANL document describing wind patterns and dispersion of airborne effluents Aeby 1954 14-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 In a series of reports and memoranda from 1956 to 1959 outdoor air concentration and radiation level monitoring within and surrounding TA-35 continued to be used to assess impacts from airborne effluents associated with 140Ba 140La source production LAPRE operations and irradiated reactor fuel analyses including fission products and plutonium experiments in hot cells Griffin 1956 Availability of these environmental monitoring data are limited based on document searches conducted by the project team These types of data could be useful as a tool for evaluating the accuracy of effluent estimates reported by the lab or release estimates derived from basic effluent measurement data Further research including document searches for these early environmental data is recommended as part of any future dose reconstruction study of LANL operations Main Technical Area and Greater Los Alamos and Surrounding Areas In 1951 LANL continued to discuss the need to expand its air sampling program to improve its ability to measure contamination in areas outside of the Main Technical Area and DP Site resulting from laboratory activities Health Division staff were recommending continuous operation of sampling stations at numerous locations adjacent to Los Alamos LASL 1952 In 1954 LANL used ten air particulate monitoring stations within the Los Alamos community to measure airborne alpha concentrations during the demolition of D-Building Johnson 1954 Additional on-site stations were also used to study impacts from LANL operations with a focus on detecting and or measuring radioactive releases from TA-1 Main Technical Area TA-2 Omega reactor TA-3 CMR Building TA-21 DP Sites TA-35 RaLa hot cells LAPRE etc and TA-10 Bayo Canyon During that same year 14 air samplers were used at locations in the Main Technical Area TA-1 and in the Los Alamos town site including residential areas and along the site perimeter LASL 1954a The locations of the 14 air monitoring stations included 1636 34th Street 194 Abbey Street 861 43rd Street 2135 35th Street 2500B 36th 2379B Ivy Street 331A Manhattan Loop South Mesa Road – Contractor Area Adjacent to Foundry Building at TA-1 Roof of O Building at TA-1 Roof of V-Shop at TA-1 Roof of HRL Building at TA-1 Roof of Gamma Building at TA-1 Warehouse 18 at TA-1 Measurement results for 1954 were presented in two data sets LASL 1954a 1954b Monitoring results for previous years were not identified by the project team but further research to locate relevant records FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-15 would likely be warranted during any future LANL dose reconstruction investigation A thorough evaluation of the quality of these data is warranted if it is to be used in the future for evaluating the accuracy of effluent release estimates In 1959 LANL proposed increasing air sampling for particulates to assess impacts from LANL operations on the surrounding communities by placing additional air samples on the rooftops of schools within the Los Alamos community Kennedy 1959 By 1960 LANL’s air environmental monitoring program had grown to 15 sampling locations for monitoring airborne alpha contamination including plutonium and polonium and for assessing any environmental impacts from laboratory operations LASL 1960 During 1965 the number of sampling locations expanded to 25 air stations positioned within the Los Alamos residential areas and population centers such as schools and along perimeter roads throughout LANL’s various technical areas As was the case during previous environmental air sampling activities these samplers were used to measure airborne particulates and short-lived radioactive gases routinely released from LANL or for detecting large amounts of radioactive material released during accidents Kennedy 1965 The air samplers used during this period contained two separate filter media to test for beta and gamma radioactivity Mine Safety Appliance MSA 4-inch diameter CR-17651 respirator particulate filters were analyzed for beta fallout activity using a gas proportional counter calibrated with a 90Sr 90Y standard Samples were collected on a daily basis and also periodically merged into composite samples for analysis of 90Sr 137Cs and 144Ce An MSA BM 2306 charcoal canister was mounted behind the particulate filter and used for measuring gamma radioiodine activity The charcoal canisters were measured for iodine activity on a gamma spectrometer calibrated with a 131I standard Kennedy 1965 A second air particulate sampler was used for measuring long-lived alpha activity such as plutonium Samples were collected on a Gelman AM-3 two inch diameter filters and analyzed on a gas proportional counter calibrated to a 239Pu standard Samples were held for one week prior to counting to allow for the decay of natural radon and thoron The lower limit of detection for these air samples was 4 x 10-15 μCi cm-3 or one-tenth the regulatory limit 4 x 10-14 μCi cm-3 used at that time If results exceeded the regulatory limit then samples were analyzed for radionuclide concentrations using alpha spectroscopy A maximum value of 2 x 10-14 μCi cm-3 was reported for 1959 and 1960 with the average result falling below the method detection limit A charcoal canister was also used on a percentage of these air samplers but documents with a full or partial set of sampling results were not identified during documents performed during the project Kennedy 1965 14-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 In 1993 LANL expanded the number of monitoring stations to 52 including regional locations as far away as Picuris Pueblo New Mexico located roughly 45 mi northeast of LANL LASL 1960 LANL 2008 Global Nuclear Fallout Measurements Around 1958 LANL began specifically collecting air particulate and rain water samples for analyzing beta radioactivity concentrations and performing gamma radiation measurements as part of the U S Public Health Service PHS program for reporting nuclear fallout data LANL was one of eleven U S Atomic Energy Commission sites to participate in the monitoring program and used one monitoring station located on the roof of laboratory’s Administration Building SM-43 at TA-3 for this purpose Kennedy 1960 The PHS program had a total of 44 monitoring stations located throughout the United States Results were reported for airborne beta activity pCi m-3 rain water radioactivity pCi m-2 and gamma radiation mR h-1 Results for the LANL nuclear fallout monitoring station are reported in a series of annual laboratory reports for the years 1958 to 1970 titled “Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico” or “Beta Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico” see Table 14-1 Reports that contain pre-1958 sampling results were not located during this project although it is believed LANL may have conducted these types of measurements prior to these publications Reported monitoring results for measured concentrations or radiation levels were typically consistent with background radiation levels or expected nuclear fallout amounts and did not show elevated levels from LANL operations However the monitoring station was located west or north and most often upwind of LANL’s primary production areas e g TA-3 TA-10 TA-21 TA-35 and would not have been expected to routinely collect and measure activity released from these LANL process operations In March 1963 the H-8 monitoring group relocated their offices to TA-50 and moved the fallout air station to the roof of their new building located about 1 5 mi southeast of the TA-3 Administration Building Aeby and Kennedy 1964 In 1964 LANL published results for long-lived fission products measured in rain water and air particulate samples continuously collected from 1958 through 1963 The purpose of the report was to describe isotopic analyses of composite samples and to present concentration values for 90Sr 137Cs and radioactive rare earth elements Graham 1964 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-17 Table 14-1 LANL publications on nuclear fallout measurements Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for the Period November 17 1958 - December 31 1959 LAMS-2397 Kennedy 1960 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1960 LAMS-2499 Kennedy 1961 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1st Quarter 1961 ER37183 Los Alamos New Mexico Kennedy 1961a Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1961 LAMS-2702 Kennedy 1962 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1962 LAMS-2870 Aeby and Kennedy 1963 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1963 LAMS-3071 Aeby and Kennedy 1964 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1964 LAMS-3245 Aeby and Kennedy 1965 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1965 LAMS-3516 Aeby and Kennedy 1966 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1966 LAMS-3663 Aeby and Kennedy 1967 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1967 LA3887 Aeby and Kennedy 1968 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1968 LA4133 Aeby and Kennedy 1969 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1969 LA4388 Aeby and Kennedy 1970 Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1970 LA4661 Aeby and Kennedy 1971 Gamma Monitoring Direct gamma exposure rates or integrated gamma measurements were used to further define changes in environmental conditions as a result of airborne and waterborne releases from LANL operations As described in a 1948 monthly H Division report film badges on South Mesa were planted for daily monitoring see Fig 14-5 LASL 1948 No further details on when this monitoring began are provided in the report and a search for these monitoring data did not identify any additional records These types of data could provide useful supplemental information regarding impacts from early effluents during the 1940s and could be used to assess direct radiation exposures for periods when effluent amounts are difficult to ascertain because of a lack of effluent monitoring data 14-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 Fig 14-5 Document excerpt discussing planting of film badge dosimeters on South Mesa LASL 1948 Descriptions in another 1948 monthly H Division progress report indicate that the film badges where placed on top of South Mesa to monitor radioactive cloud dispersion associated with RaLa implosion test shots carried out in Bayo Canyon LASL 1948 Sometime during 1949 direct gamma and beta exposure rates were monitored using Geiger-Mueller GM instruments with continuous monitoring and telemetry that reported results to a central location see Fig 14-6 These instruments were deployed in the Los Alamos area at six separate locations to provide another method for monitoring changes to the outside environment resulting from LANL operations Shipman et al 1950 Fig 14-6 Document excerpt discussing development of instruments for beta-gamma monitoring around Los Alamos Shipman et al 1950 Sometime during the 1950s the six stations were expanded to seven locations as described in a 1959 LANL report Twenty-four hour continuous readings were transmitted through telephone lines to a central recording station located at the main Administration Building The transmitted readings were documented on automatic chart recorders Variations in radiation levels were identified and most often determined to be attributable to variations in natural background radiation It appears that these monitors remained in service throughout the 1960s and perhaps longer A directed search for a complete set of these measurement results was unsuccessful during the project FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-19 During the 1950s beta and gamma monitors were designed and built at the laboratory to assess impacts from releases from the Omega Water Boiler reactor though their specific locations were not indicated in the report LASL 1950 Additional ambient gamma exposure levels were routinely measured with film badges mounted on stakes 1 m above the ground surface These badges were exchanged on a monthly basis The film’s reported sensitivity was above ambient background levels and approached the Radiation Protection Guide value used during this period Any measurable dose recorded was then attributed to LANL effluents or other man-made sources of radiation e g nuclear weapon test fallout For 1960 2400 gamma measurements were reported and with the exceptions of two locations all results were less than the 0 5 rem the public dose limit used at the time and recommended by the Federal Radiation Federal Radiation Council 1960 Kennedy 1961 Records that contain detailed results of these measurements were not identified during the project By 1965 LANL used thermoluminescent dosimeters TLDs at 100 locations throughout the Los Alamos residential areas and surrounding areas on LANL property The dosimeters were used to assess ambient gamma radiation levels and detect potential impacts from radionuclide emissions from the laboratory particularly larger releases associated with accidents or other uncontrolled events Kennedy 1965 The dosimeters were collected and analyzed on a monthly basis A directed search for pre-1970 measurement results was unsuccessful during the project By 1970 LANL reduced the number of TLD stations to 60 locations based on prior measurement experience e g redundancy of adjacent monitoring locations and the recognition that for future monitoring one location provided adequate spatial coverage in some areas that had used two to three TLDs during prior monitoring periods However LANL increased the number of TLD locations again in 1981 and has maintained more than 150 since that time Summary of Annual Environmental Surveillance Reports 1970 – 2007 Beginning in 1970 as environmental monitoring increased LANL began to publish annual reports for environmental monitoring results based on sampling and analyses conducted by LANL staff and the USGS These reports contain monitoring results for a variety of environmental sample types including direct radiation readings for alpha beta and gamma radiation outdoor external thermoluminescent dosimeters TLDs surface water including drainage ditches creeks ponds rivers and lakes ground water 14-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 particulate and gaseous air sampling soil and sediment sampling food sources assorted biota and wildlife and special environmental sampling and research studies In the early 1970s environmental samples were collected and analyzed by LANL’s Environmental Services Group Table 14-2 identifies the annual reports that have been published and Table 14-3 presents a summary of chemical and radionuclide monitoring data that are available in the annual environmental surveillance reports FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-21 Table 14-2 Annual environmental monitoring and surveillance reports Beginning in 1970 LANL began publishing annual reports describing annual environmental monitoring results of media sampled both on-site and off-site at the laboratory The data contained in these reports represent a wide range of sample types and sampling frequencies and vary according to the priorities and emphasis placed on monitoring and surveillance during a given year Annual reports available for review during this and any future health studies are listed below Period 14-22 LANL Report No LAHDRA Repos No January - June 1970 none 1000 July - December 1970 LA-4672-MS 2178 January - June 1971 LA-4871-MS 4079 July - December 1971 LA-4970 4079 1972 LA-5184 4078 1973 LA-5586 2161 1974 LA-5977-PR 2133 1975 LA-6321-MS 2158 1976 LA-6801-MS 2159 1977 LA-7263-MS 2069 1978 LA-7800-ENV 953 1979 LA-8200-ENV 2190 1980 LA-8810-ENV 930 1981 LA-9349-ENV 929 1982 LA-9762-ENV 1314 1983 LA-10100-ENV 2342 1984 LA-10421-ENV 654 1985 LA-10721-ENV 1319 1986 LA-10992-ENV 4074 1987 LA-11306-ENV 4075 1988 LA-11628-ENV 4076 1989 LA-12000-ENV 1088 1990 LA-12271-MS 2311 1991 LA-12572-ENV 2189 1992 LA-12764-ENV 1089 1993 LA-12973-ENV 3903 1994 LA-13047-ENV 3857 1995 LA-13210-ENV 3849 1996 LA-13343-ENV 4077 1997 LA-13487-ENV 3863 1998 LA-13633-ENV 3892 1999 LA-13775-ENV 3873 2000 LA-13861-ENV 3875 2001 LA-13979-ENV 6198 2002 LA-14085-ENV 6199 2003 LA-14162-ENV 6200 2004 LA-14239-ENV 6201 2005 LA-14304-ENV 7989 2006 LA-14341-ENV 7990 2007 LA-14369-ENV 7991 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 Data contained in the annual reports represent samples routinely collected in air surface water ground water soils sediments a variety of biota and some food sources The laboratory did not perform any measurements of food sources until the later part of the 1970s The annual reports also contain information about special studies conducted to provide better coverage of areas of particular interest or to study in detail individual sources of contamination For example a study of radionuclide uptake in garden plants grown in the Mortandad Canyon was initiated in 1976 and reported in the “Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1977” report LASL 1978b Additional descriptions of the types of monitoring data contained in the annual reports are presented below Examples of Early Environmental Studies of Interest This section presents various environmental monitoring and research data that describe the historical presence and behavior of contaminants in off-site areas around LANL Media addressed include surface water sediment ambient air aquatic and terrestrial foodstuffs soil drinking water and groundwater Hydrologic and meteorological data are also presented below Descriptions of additional studies will be added to this section as more information becomes available to the project team Historical Surface Water and Sediment Data Sample of available surface water and sediment monitoring data collected in areas of concern described in the above section are presented below Because of the large volumes of data not all of the available data have been summarized for this report Study #1 Radioactivity in Los Alamos and Pueblo Creek 1945-1947 – Some of the earliest measurement results for samples collected from wastewaters released from the Technical Area into Pueblo and Los Alamos Canyons are reported Samples were collected at various points along the creeks which terminated at the Rio Grande River about 0 25 mi downstream of Otowi Bridge Tribby 1945 1947 Samples were analyzed for plutonium and polonium A detection limit of 20 disintegrations per minute per liter of creek water was reported at that time One-liter samples were collected at each location and submitted to a counting laboratory for analyses FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-23 Table 14-3 Data Availabilty - LANL Annual Environmental Surveillance Reports 1971 - 1999 Sampling Airborne releases- rad Airborne releases- chem Air- gross alpha Air- gross beta Air- 241Am Air- 238Pu Air- 239Pu Air- 234U Air- 235U Air- 238U Air- total U Air- 131I Air- 41Ar Air- 3H Air- beryllium Air- lead Air- cadmium Air stations # 1971 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979 • 1980 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 35 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 26 26 • • • 29 • • • • • • 58 36 Fish- 238Pu Fish- 239Pu Fish- 137Cs Fish- 90Sr Fish- uranium Fruits- 238Pu Fruits- 239Pu Fruits- 137Cs Fruits- 90Sr Fruits- tritium Fruits- uranium Groundwater- Rad Groundwater- Chem Liquid releases- Rad Liquid releases- Chem Meteorlogical dataa Milk- Rad Municipal liq discharge Sediment- gross alpha Sediment- gross beta Sediment- gross gamma Sediment- 238Pu Sediment- 239Pu 241 Sediment- Am Sediment- 137Cs Sediment- 90Sr Sediment- tritium Sediment- uranium Page 1 of 2 1982 • • • • • • • 1983 • • • • • • • 1984 • • 1985 • • 1986 • • 1987 • • 1988 • • 1989 • • 1990 • • 1991 • • • • • • • 1981 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 30 25 25 • • • 25 • • • 25 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 26 • • • • • • • 26 • • • • • • • 26 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 26 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 27 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 26 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 25 • • • • • 25 • • • • • • • 28 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1992 • • • • • • • • • • • • 1993 • • • • • • • • • • • • 1994 • • • • • • • • • • • • 1995-2007 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 36 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 36 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 52 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 52 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 46 - 50 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Report of CDC's LAHDRA Project- Chapter 14 Table 14-3 Data Availabilty - LANL Annual Environmental Surveillance Reports 1971 - 1999 Page 2 of 2 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 Soil- gross alpha Soil- gross beta Soil- gross gamma • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Soil- 238Pu Soil- 239Pu Soil- 241Am Soil- 137Cs Soil- 90Sr Soil- tritium Soil- total uranium Surface water- alpha Surface water- beta Surface water- gamma • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Sampling Surface water- 241Am Surface water- 238Pu Surface water- 239Pu Surface water- 137Cs Surface water- 90Sr Surface water- tritium Surface water- uranium Surface water- beryllium Surface water- cadmium Surface water- lead Surface water- mercury Surface water- chemical Vegetables- 238Pu Vegetables- 239Pu Vegetables- 137Cs Vegetables- 90Sr Vegetables- uranium Vegetables- tritium Vegetation- plutonium Water potable - Rad Water potable - Chem Soild Waste Disposal TLD's onsite offsite Radiation Dose Ass Special Studies Honey bees- Rad Unplanned releases • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 58 • • • 59 • • • • 1988 1989 1990 • • • • • • • • • • • • 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995-2007 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 65 • 22 • 44 • • 48 • • 50 • • 55 • • 50 • • 61 • • 152 • • • • • • • • • • 155 • • • • 155 • • • • 155 • • • • 155 • • • • 155 • • • • 155 • • • • 155 • • • • 155 • • • • 151 • • • • 151 • • • • 151 • • • • 166 • • • • 166 • • • • 97 - 150 • • • • • Report of CDC's LAHDRA Project- Chapter 14 Study #2 Radioactivity in Los Alamos and Pueblo Creek 1947-1949 - Samples were collected at various points along streams inside Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons and analyzed for plutonium uranium polonium and gross beta gamma Schnap and Tribby 1948 Four liquid discharge pipes that serviced Technical Area 2 TA-2 and two liquid discharge pipes that serviced Technical Area 3 TA-3 all discharged liquid wastes to separate seepage pit systems These pits were designed to hold the liquids for seepage to underlying soils and evaporation but are reported to have clogged on occasion resulting in release of waste liquids to Pueblo Canyon Radioactive contamination monitoring within the surrounding canyons was performed to determine the impact from these early waterborne releases Documented in reports as early as 1945 direct alpha beta and gamma radiation surveys were conducted by LANL personnel along the discharge drainage areas immediately down-gradient of the discharge pipes i e canyon walls and throughout drainage areas of the canyons Water samples from each discharge pipe were collected and analyzed for plutonium uranium mixed fission products fluorine and toxic metals Plutonium was measured in effluent waters released from TA-1 and TA-2 operations and ranged up to 1% by weight Tribby 1947 During these early years TA-3 did not handle plutonium compounds and concentrations usually averaged around 0 01 dpm L-1 Seepage pits were also surveyed for radioactive contamination and found to be highly radioactive Results for selected soil samples collected around TA-1 and TA-2 seepage pits in 1947 revealed levels of plutonium up to 50 dpm g-1 Polonium levels around TA-3 seepage pits were measured up to 3 000 dpm g-1 In 1947 Tribby reported that plutonium levels on canyon walls and canyon beds near discharge points were quite high and that concentration levels dropped off rapidly 100 ft and beyond release points Waterborne radioactive waste was released without treatment to Acid Canyon from 1944 to 1951 when a treatment plant at TA-45 became operational From 1951 to mid-1953 the TA-45 waste treatment facility only treated liquid waste from TA-1 Beginning in the second half of 1953 wastes from TA-1 and TA-3 were treated at TA-45 From 1953 through the 1960s wastes from TA-1 and TA-3 were treated at the TA-45 Waste Treatment Facility and discharged to Pueblo Canyon Ferric sulfate and lime were added to incoming wastes to form a precipitate of ferric hydroxide which contained most of the plutonium that would in turn settle to the bottom of the waste storage tanks Also during this period liquid wastes from the DP West production area were treated at the DPW Area Waste treatment Plant and released to Los Alamos Canyon 14-26 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 Study #3 Radioactivity in Los Alamos Pueblo and Bayo Canyons 1957–1958 – During 1957 and 1958 the U S Geological Survey collected water samples from streams located in Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons These locations included 1 Pueblo Canyon at Otowi Ruins 2 Los Alamos canyon at Bridge 3 Los Alamos Canyon at Totavi and 4 Bayo Canyon Abrahams 1958 Study #4 Radioactivity in Rio Grande 1957–1958 – During 1957 the U S Geological Survey collected water samples from the Rio Grande Monthly samples were analyzed for gross alpha plutonium and uranium and gross beta Samples were collected at the Embudo Chama Otowi and Cochiti stations Abrahams 1958 Study #5 Radioactivity Chromate and Zinc in DP Los Alamos Pueblo Mortandad and Sandia Canyons 1969-1970 – During 1969 and 1970 LANL H-8 Group reported measured radioactivity levels for surface water samples collected from streams located in DP Los Alamos Pueblo Mortandad and Sandia Canyons Monthly and quarterly samples were analyzed for gross alpha gross beta plutonium-238 plutonium-239 americium strontium cesium tritium and uranium Kennedy 1971 A limited number of samples were also analyzed for hexavalent chromium and zinc Study #6 Plutonium in Pueblo and Acid Canyons 1970 – Sediment samples collected along Pueblo Canyon drainage basin showed a decreasing trend in plutonium levels as a function of distance from LANL discharge points Hanson 1973 Based on a limited number of samples the following plutonium concentrations in sediment were reported 27 pCi g-1 in lower Acid Canyon 4 6 pCi g-1 in Pueblo Canyon 1 mi below Acid Canyon 1 1 pCi g-1 in Pueblo Canyon 2 mi below Acid Canyon 1 pCi g-1 in Pueblo Canyon 0 1 mi above the junction with Los Alamos Canyon Detailed survey results are reported in document LA-4561 and will be reviewed by the project team for the next version of this report The reported estimate of plutonium releases from TA-1 and TA-45 to Pueblo Canyon from 1944 to 1964 is 170 mCi Hanson 1973 Plutonium measured in surface water samples collected in Acid and Pueblo Canyons averaged 20 pCi L-1 during this period compared to 1 5 and 0 22 pCi L-1 in Mortandad and Los Alamos Canyons respectively FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-27 Study #7 Radioactivity in Bayo Canyon 1977 – In 1977 LANL collected surface water samples from Bayo Canyon Radiochemical analysis of samples showed that residual 90Sr concentrations in soil averaged for the time period were 1 4 pCi g-1 LASL 1978a Historical Soil Monitoring Data Samples of available soil monitoring data collected in areas of concern described in the above section are presented below Study #1 Radioactivity in Los Alamos Canyon 1947 – Soil samples were collected along the canyon walls and at various locations along the canyon floor and analyzed for plutonium polonium uranium other unspecified radionuclides fluorine and unspecified toxic metals Tribby 1947 The available copy of this memo report reviewed by the project team appears to contain limited data for these surveys and or is missing some of the sample results and warrants further research for data of this time period Study #2 Radioactivity in Los Alamos and Pueblo Creek 1947 – Soil samples were collected at various points along streams inside Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons and analyzed for plutonium uranium polonium and gross beta gamma Schnap and Tribby 1948 Study #3 Radioactivity in Bayo Canyon 1973-1977 – In 1977 LANL collected soil samples from Bayo Canyon and analyzed them for radioactivity Study results showed that residual 90Sr concentrations in soil averaged 1 4 pCi g-1 LASL 1978a Previously reported surveys cited in this report include measured soil concentration results for gross alpha gross beta cesium plutonium and uranium Historical External Radiation Monitoring Data Samples of available external radiation monitoring data collected in areas of concern described in the above section are presented below Study #1 Direct Radiation Readings in Los Alamos Canyon 1947 – Direct radiation measurements with a Geiger Mueller survey m were collected throughout Los Alamos Canyon and were some of the first reported measurements of this type The discharge line the canyon walls directly below the wastewater discharge point and the canyon floor exhibited the highest readings up to 20 000 counts per minute of alpha radioactivity Tribby 1947 Study #2 Radiation Levels in Mortandad Canyon 1952 – In 1952 LANL scientists conducted a series of radiation surveys throughout Mortandad Canyon following an accidental release of 2000 to 3000 14-28 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 gallons of “hot water” from waste storage tanks located at the TA-35 Liquid Waste Treatment Plant Survey results indicated that migration of measurable radioactive contamination had occurred several mi downstream in the canyon Reported radiation dose rate readings ranged from 0 5 milliroentgens mR per hour at a distance of three mi to 300 mR h-1 at the TA-35 perimeter fence Aeby 1952 The report also discussed a planned release to the canyon of 50 000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste with a concentration of 1 5 mCi L-1 significantly above the tolerance limit Specific isotopes were not stated in the memo report Based on other information obtained about operations at the TA-35 for this time period though the released waste most likely contained 140Ba 140La trace amounts of 89Sr 90Sr and other radionuclides Study #3 Radioactivity in Bayo Canyon 1973-1977 – Direct radiation measurements throughout Bayo canyon were taken with ion chambers and germanium detectors LASL 1978a Historical Ambient Air Monitoring Data Samples of available ambient air monitoring data including meteorological collected in areas of concern described in the above section are presented below Study #1 LANL Meteorological Data 1956 to 1971 – Measured wind temperature pressure humidity and precipitation collected at various locations throughout Los Alamos and surrounding areas were presented LANL 1975 Study #2 Beta Gamma Concentrations at LANL 1961 – Airborne radioactive particulate samples collected on filter paper were reported for an air sampler located on the roof of the Administration Building SM-43 Air samples were collected every 24 h and 72 h over weekends LASL 1961 The report contains sampling results for the first quarter 1961 Historical Groundwater Water Supplies Monitoring Data Samples of available groundwater monitoring data collected in areas of concern described in the above section are presented below Study #1 Radioactivity in Los Alamos Pueblo and Guaje Canyons 1957-1958 – In 1958 groundwater water supplies and springs located in the Los Alamos area and in Los Alamos Pueblo and Guaje Canyons were sampled by the U S Geological Survey The samples were analyzed for pH gross FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-29 alpha plutonium uranium gross beta total hardness potassium sulfur calcium magnesium sodium chloride fluoride total solids NO3 and conductivity Abrahams 1958 Study # 2 Radioactivity and Other Constituents in U S Geological Water Samples 1960 – In 1960 groundwater and water supplies were sampled by the U S Geological Survey The samples were analyzed for pH gross alpha plutonium uranium gross beta total hardness calcium magnesium sodium chloride fluoride total solids and conductivity USGS 1961 Study #3 Chromate and Zink in Sandia Canyon 1969-1970 – During 1969 and 1970 LANL H-8 Group reported hexavalent chromium and zinc levels in groundwater samples collected from monitoring wells located in Sandia Canyon Kennedy 1971 References Abrahams JH Quarterly Progress Report on Work at Los Alamos New Mexico U S Geological Survey January - March 1958 1958 Aeby JW Monitoring in Mortandad Canyon October 28th 1952 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1952 Aeby JW Letter sent to Dean Meyer Contaminated water dumped into canon Mortandad since 9-1-51 dated August 12 1954 1954 Aeby JW Kennedy WR Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Almos New Mexico for 1963 Los Almos NM Los Almos Scientific Laboratory 1964 Federal Radiation Council Radiation protection guidance for federal agencies Federal Reg 25 44024403 1960 Graham ER Strontium-90 Cesium-137 and Radioactive Rare Earths in Environmental Rain and Air at Los Almos New Mexico 1958 June 1963 LAMS 2878 Los Almos NM Los Almos Scientific Laboratory 1964 Griffin G Rupture of heat exchange tube Lapre I effects observed from this happening with ideas of what might happen after long time operation H-1 Sent to Dean D Meyer dated March 8 1956 1956 Hanson WC Plutonium-239 Concentrations in Acid Pueblo Canyons Memo H8-73-207 1973 14-30 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 Johnson WS Memo Increase in Environmental Background on April 5 1954 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1954 Kennedy WR Area Survey - North of DP Site Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1952 Kennedy WR Environmental Sampling H-6 dated March 28 1958 1958 Kennedy WR Air Sampling in the Los Alamos Community Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1959 Kennedy WR Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for the period November 17 1958 through December 31 1959 LAMS 2397 Los Alamos Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1960 Kennedy WR Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos New Mexico for 1960 LAMS 2499 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961 Kennedy WR Los Alamos Environmental Monitoring Program Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1965 Kennedy WR Second Quarter Radiochemical and Chemical Analyses for Water Samples Collected During the Period September 1969 through December 1970 Los Alamos Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory H-8-468 1971 Kingsley WH Survey of Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyon for Radioactive Contamination and Radioassay Tests Run on Sewer-Water Samples and Water and Soil Samples taken from Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyon LANS 516 1947 Kingsley WH Tribby JF Survey of Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons for Radioactive Contamination in May 194 LANS 516A 1947 LANL LANL Meteorological Data for 1956-1971 1975 LANL Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1993 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12973-ENV 1994 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-31 LANL Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos during 2007 LA-14369-ENV Los Alamos National Laboratory 2008 LASL H-Division Progress Report July 20 1948 - August 20 1948 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1948 LASL H-Division Progress Report April 20 1949 - May 20 1949 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMS-901 1949a LASL H-Division Progress Report August 20 1949 - September 20 1949 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMS-956 1949b LASL H-Division Progress Report March 20 1949 - April 20 1949 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMS-889 1949c LASL H-Division Progress Report October 20 1949 - November 20 1949 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1949d LASL H-Division Progress Report May 20 1950 - June 20 1950 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory HSPT-REL-94-290 1950 LASL H-Division Annual Report 1950 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1951 LASL H-Division Annual Report 1951 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-1425 1952 LASL Airborne Alpha Activity d m m3 Townsite Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory ERID 3001 1954a LASL Airborne Contamination Tests 8 4 54 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory ERID 3053 1954b LASL Los Alamos Environmental Monitoring Program 1960 Summary Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1960 LASL Beta-Gamma Radioactivity in Environmental Air at Los Alamos 1st Quarter 1961 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1961 14-32 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 LASL Data Summary and Statistical Analysis of Surface Waters Ground Waters and Waste Discharges 1952 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1971 LASL Environmental Monitoring in the Vicinity of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-4871-MS 1972 LASL Draft Radiological Resurvey and Evaluation of Bayo Canyon 1978a LASL Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1977 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-7263-MS 1978b LASL Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1979 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-8200-ENV 1980 ORAU Team NIOSH Dose Reconstruction Project Technical Basis Document for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory -- Occupational Environmental Dose ORAUT-TKBS-0012-4 NIOSH 2004 Parker HM Brief Review of the LASL Environmental Surveillance Program Battelle Northwest Laboratories 1974 Schnap BF Tribby JF Radioassay and Spectrochemical Analysis of Water and Soil Samples Collected from Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMS709 1948 Shipman TL Health Division Annual Report LA-1538 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1953 Shipman TL Environmental Studies Tuft Studies and Cyanide Waste Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1956 Shipman TL Annual Report of the Health Division 1957 LA-2216 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1958 Shipman TL White TN Grier RR Reider R Langham WH Schulte HF Health Division Annual Report LA-1072 Los Alamos Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1950 Steinhardt RG Summary Report on Health Conditions in Rala Program dated June 28 1945 Sent to Joseph G Hoffman 1945 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 14-33 Tribby JF Report on the Contamination of Creek Water Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory ER 3018 1945 Tribby JF The Canyon Problem at Los Alamos Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1947 Tribby JF Report on Radioactive Tolerances for Waste Effluents and Waste Gases and Radioactive Dusts dated February 17 1948 LAMS 689 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1948 USGS USGS Water Samples - December 1960 United States Geological Survey 1961 Williams SJ Board SaIHA Safety and Health in AEC The Atomic and Energy Commission Operations dated April 2 1948 Chicago IL National Safety Council 1948 Wilson JR Tribby JF Report on the Contamination of Creek Water dated October 15 1945 1945 14-34 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Development of Residential Areas Around LANL For a radionuclide or chemical that was used at LANL to have posed a health hazard to members of the public each of the following elements must have existed • A contaminant source that released the material into the environment • A transport medium that carried the contaminant off site to a location where exposure took place the most common media being air and water and • An exposure route through which the contaminant entered an individual’s body to produce adverse health effects Examples of exposure routes include inhalation ingestion and immersion in airborne contamination Evaluation of off-site exposures from activities at LANL technical areas will require documentation of the development of nearby residential areas over time While it was initially thought that the 31 houses commandeered from the Los Alamos Ranch School and Anchor Ranch would provide sufficient housing for the projected staff of 30 scientists and their families Martin 2000 it soon became clear that the challenge of providing housing for LANL staff had been severely underestimated The scarcity of housing in Los Alamos was problematic during World War II and remained so for years to follow Hiring at LANL was severely restricted at times because there was nowhere for new employees to live This pressure to provide housing and the limited availability of suitable land in the region of finger-like mesas and canyons led to the development of housing that in some cases was much closer to operational areas than has become customary for government facilities that undertake nuclear material and high explosive processing and or reactor or high-energy particle accelerator operations Development of Housing Areas in Los Alamos In response to the atomic weapons race of WWII in 1943 Los Alamos New Mexico home of the Los Alamos Ranch School was chosen as the location of key Manhattan Project operations Initially the 54 buildings of the private boys’ school 27 of which were houses were thought to be satisfactory for housing the projected staff of scientists and their families Martin 2000 Hunner 2004 Soon after the project began though the need for further housing became inevitable and construction of the Sundt apartments began to the west and north of the Ranch School buildings Martin 2000 The population of FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-1 Los Alamos continued to grow during 1944 and 1945 and in response several temporary housing developments were erected in the vicinity of the original town site The LAHDRA Project Reference Map provided with this report shows the different residential areas of Los Alamos and depicts the periods of their development the periods they remained in use and the proximity of the different housing areas to operational areas of potential interest The original Technical Area TA-1 and wartime and early postwar housing in Los Alamos are shown in Figure 15-1 which is also included as an inset map in the Project Reference Map With the success of the Trinity Test in July 1945 and the ultimate ending of WWII in the September that followed the original mission of the Manhattan Project was accomplished Martin 2000 Many scientists and their families unsure of the future of LANL returned to pre-war careers and lives in different locations In 1946 over 1 000 residents left the town of Los Alamos Hunner 2004 The temporary housing constructed during the war was deteriorating and in 1946 the laboratory began developing the first permanent housing in the Western Area of Los Alamos to encourage the residents to remain in the town Martin 2000 Hunner 2004 After realizing that LANL was to become a permanent location for research turnover slowed and hiring increased LASL 1956 Expansion of the Western Area and town site continued through the late 1940s in response to overcrowding The Los Alamos population grew from approximately 7 000 people in 1947 to over 8 500 people in 1949 Hunner 2004 The main areas of residential development in Los Alamos from 1946 through 2000 are shown in Figure 15-2 As a result of President Truman’s decision to further research hydrogen bomb development in 1949 significant amounts of money flowed into LANL to support new laboratory research and handle the arrival of new personnel Hunner 2004 The population grew from slightly over 8 500 in 1949 to 12 800 by 1952 Hunner 2004 Residential areas began to expand northward into the North Community and expansion continued into the early 1950s Temporary housing constructed during the war years began to be replaced with permanent housing in the mid 1950s LASL 1956 Martin 2000 The LANL facilities began to be moved from the Ashley Pond area to the South Mesa To support the necessary construction crews and their families in 1949 White Rock construction camp was erected on a level plain near the rim of White Rock Canyon and Totavi trailer camp was erected on San Ildefonso Pueblo land to the east of Los Alamos along New Mexico Highway 502 Martin 1998 2000 Hunner 2004 Both camps were short-lived however with White Rock nearly closing by 1953 and entirely shutting down in 1957 and Totavi shutting down in 1953 Martin 1998 2000 15-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 The government maintained ownership of all property in Los Alamos until 1958 when Barranca Mesa was opened for private ownership on the mesa north of Bayo Canyon Martin 2000 Development continued on Barranca Mesa through the mid-1960s and continued growth forced expansion onto the narrow neck of the mesa in the late 1970s and early 1980s Martin 2000 The area of White Rock reopened to house low-income families in 1962 and growth continued throughout the 1960s and 1970s Martin 2000 To accommodate the seemingly continuous shortage of housing construction on the North Mesa began for both subdivisions and mobile home parks in 1977 Martin 2000 Following several years of rapid development Los Alamos experienced relatively slow growth throughout the 1980s Martin 2000 New construction returned in the mid-1990s with the development of Ponderosa Estates near the Guaje Pines Cemetery in the northern part of the town In 2000 the devastating Cerro Grande Fire destroyed over 400 homes in the Western Area and North Community Martin 2000 Rebuilding the burned areas continues today and new developments such as the Quemazon Community in the northwest area of town are being erected Kron personal communication 2005 Locations of Interest When Considering Historical Operations Based on reviews of historical documents performed to date the following locations are among the sites where historical operations took place that appear to warrant evaluation in terms of potential off-site releases or health effects • D-Building at the original technical area TA-1 • DP West TA-21 with released primarily from Building 12 stacks • DP East TA-21 with released primarily from Buildings 152 and 153 • Omega Site Reactors TA-2 • TA-3 the current main Technical Area • The LAMPF now LANSCE accelerator complex • High explosives manufacturing areas example used is S-Site TA-16 • High Explosives firing sites example used is R-Site TA-15 • Bayo Canyon firing site TA-10 site of radioactive lanthanum test shots FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-3 For evaluation of potential health effects from historical releases each of these locations should be evaluated with regard to its relationship to Los Alamos housing areas and public facilities that were occupied during time periods that correspond to periods when operations of interest were also active Philomena’s restaurant which began operating in the late 1970s has been an area of interest due to its proximity to the LAMPF now LANSCE facility Although not a Los Alamos housing area San Ildefonso Pueblo land is also considered important to evaluate due to its close proximity to LANL operations The housing areas and public facilities that will be most important for a given location of operations depend on a number of factors including • The distance from the contaminant source to the housing area • The direction from the contaminant source to the housing area and • The prevalence of winds from the contaminant source towards the housing area Detailed dose assessment typically utilizes air dispersion modeling based on actual locations of release points and potentially exposed people using meteorological data that reflect any diurnal or seasonal variations in air flow patterns As preliminary indicators of residential areas that may be of concern however it is useful to examine distance direction and wind prevalence for relevant source-receptor combinations 15-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Figure 15-1 The original Los Alamos Technical Area lower left corner and wartime and early postwar housing Back of Figure 15-1 11×17 15-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Figure 15-2 Main residential areas of Los Alamos mesa-top areas above and White Rock area right Detail of the area in the rectangle shown above around the center of Los Alamos townsite is shown in Figure 1 for the wartime and early postwar period Maps are from the LAHDRA Project Reference Map produced by cARTography by Andrea Kron Data source LANL GISLab Back of Fig 15-2 11×17 15-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Locations of Interest When Considering Historical Operations Based on reviews of historical documents performed to date the following locations are among the sites where historical operations took place that appear to warrant evaluation in terms of potential off-site releases or health effects • D-Building at the original technical area TA-1 • DP West TA-21 with released primarily from Building 12 stacks • DP East TA-21 with released primarily from Buildings 152 and 153 • Omega Site Reactors TA-2 • TA-3 the current main Technical Area • The LAMPF now LANSCE accelerator complex • High explosives manufacturing areas example used is S-Site TA-16 • High Explosives firing sites example used is R-Site TA-15 • Bayo Canyon firing site TA-10 site of radioactive lanthanum test shots For evaluation of potential health effects from historical releases each of these locations should be evaluated with regard to its relationship to Los Alamos housing areas and public facilities that were occupied during time periods that correspond to periods when operations of interest were also active Philomena’s restaurant which began operating in the late 1970s has been an area of interest due to its proximity to the LAMPF now LANSCE facility Although not a Los Alamos housing area San Ildefonso Pueblo land is also considered important to evaluate due to its close proximity to LANL operations The housing areas and public facilities that will be most important for a given location of operations depend on a number of factors including • The distance from the contaminant source to the housing area • The direction from the contaminant source to the housing area and • The prevalence of winds from the contaminant source towards the housing area Detailed dose assessment typically utilizes air dispersion modeling based on actual locations of release points and potentially exposed people using meteorological data that reflect any diurnal or seasonal FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-9 variations in air flow patterns As preliminary indicators of residential areas that may be of concern however it is useful to examine distance direction and wind prevalence for relevant source-receptor combinations A 16-sector wind direction frequency distribution based on LANL measurements over a ten-year period was used to determine the prevalence of winds from release points of interest towards housing areas and public facilities That wind frequency distribution is shown in Table 15-1 This table reflects a wide variation in wind direction when all data are included By instead examining data from specific times of the day recognizable diurnal air flow patterns emerge As observed in many mountainous areas air flow is typically up-valley during the day as solar heating causes air to rise and down-valley at night as cooling air drains to lower elevations These patterns are not seen in the general wind direction data shown in Table 15-1 but they are important to consider when evaluating releases that may have only occurred during daylight hours versus those that may have occurred around the clock Tables 15-2 through 15-10 summarize information relevant to evaluating the potential importance of public areas in terms of releases from the identified locations of interest In instances where the operational location of interest was large or had numerous release points the distance was measured from the middle of the complex which was necessary with the current main technical area TA-3 and LAMPF now LANSCE Distance was measured in increments of 0 25 mi and always rounded down to the closer distance if a point fell between two distances In most cases the distance between the location of interest and the various public areas is presented as a range from the closest to the farthest possible points Direction however was determined by using the public area closest to the location of interest Housing areas irrelevant to operations of a particular facility that is they did not exist when that facility was operational are shown in gray instead of black in Tables 15-2 through 15-10 to indicate that residential exposures were not possible Because of its close proximity to LANL operations San Ildefonso Pueblo land is also considered an area of interest The vast amount of land there makes it necessary to determine which of the land areas were historically used for residential purposes Traditionally Pueblo members lived near their central plaza and had fields that they tended outside of this area ChemRisk Inc 2006 According to a 1953 USGS map of Espanola New Mexico the concentration of San Ildefonso Pueblo people nearest to Los Alamos was north of the current Highway 502 and east of the Rio Grande ChemRisk Inc 2006 15-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Table 15-1 Wind direction frequency distribution based on 10 years of LANL data Sector Wind from Wind towards Percentage 1 N S 3 4233 2 NNE SSW 3 6218 3 NE SW 3 3293 4 ENE WSW 3 1224 5 E W 3 4616 6 ESE WNW 3 3936 7 SE NW 3 718 8 SSE NNW 6 0108 9 S N 8 8439 10 SSW NNE 8 2649 11 SW NE 7 7308 12 WSW ENE 8 1937 13 W E 11 4148 14 WNW ESE 11 9399 15 NW SE 9 2887 16 NNW SSE 4 2424 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-11 Table 15-2 D-Building at the Original Technical Area operational from 1943 to 1953 Public Area Period Occupied Distance from D-Building mi Direction from D-Building Winds in this direction % NW NE WNW NW NE ENE NNE SE NNE NE N E E SE SE E 3 7 7 7 3 4 3 7 7 7 8 2 8 3 9 3 8 3 7 7 8 8 11 4 11 4 9 3 9 3 11 4 Distance from DP West mi Direction from DP West Winds in this direction % 0 75-2 0 5-2 5 2 25-2 75 1 75-3 25 0 5-2 25 0 25-0 5 1 5-2 25 0 75 0 75-1 75 1 5-1 75 2-2 5 1 25 WNW NW WNW NW WNW NNW N SW NNW NE NNW 3 4 3 7 3 4 3 7 3 4 6 0 8 8 3 3 6 0 7 7 6 0 E 11 4 E SE SE ENE 11 4 9 3 9 3 8 2 Wartime Housing 1943-1945 0 1-0 75 Early Postwar Housing 1946-1960s 0 25-1 Western Area 1946-present 0 25-1 5 North Community 1948-present 0 75-2 Replacement Housing 1953-present 0 25-0 75 Group 18 Homes by Airport 1957-present 0 75-1 25 Barranca Mesa 1958-present 1 5-2 5 Royal Crest Trailer Park 1960-present 0 75 North Mesa 1977-present 0 75-2 25 Otowi Mesa Expansion late 1970s-present 2 25-3 Ponderosa Estates Mid 1990s-present 1 5-2 East Gate Philomena’s Late 1970s-present 2 25 Totavi Camp 1949-1953 7 White Rock Camp 1949-1953 1957 6 25-7 White Rock Community 1962-present 5 75-8 San Ildefonso Pueblo Lands 1598-present 10 25 Public areas in gray were not in existence during site operation period Table 15-3 DP West Site at TA-21 operational from 1945 to 1973 Public Area Period Occupied Wartime Housing Early Postwar Housing Western Area North Community Replacement Housing Group 18 Homes by Airport Barranca Mesa Royal Crest Trailer Park North Mesa Otowi Mesa Expansion Ponderosa Estates 1943-1945 1946-1960s 1946-present 1948-present 1953-present 1957-present 1958-present 1960-present 1977-present late 1970s-present Mid 1990s-present East Gate Philomena’s Late 1970s-present Totavi Camp 1949-1953 5 5 White Rock Camp 1949-1953 1957 5 25 White Rock Community 1962-present 5-7 San Ildefonso Pueblo Lands 1598-present 9 Public areas in gray were not in existence during site operation period 15-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Table 15-4 DP East Site at TA-21 operational from 1945 to 1970 Public Area Wartime Housing Early Postwar Housing Western Area North Community Replacement Housing Group 18 Homes by Airport Barranca Mesa Royal Crest Trailer Park North Mesa Otowi Mesa Expansion Ponderosa Estates East Gate Philomena’s Totavi Camp White Rock Camp White Rock Community San Ildefonso Pueblo Lands Period Occupied Distance from DP East mi Direction from DP East Winds in this direction % 1943-1945 1946-1960s 1946-present 1948-present 1953-present 1957-present 1958-present 1960-present 1977-present late 1970s-present Mid 1990s-present Late 1970s-present 1949-1953 1949-1953 1957 1962-present 1598-present 1 25-2 25 1-2 75 2 75-3 25 2-3 75 1-2 75 0 5-0 75 1 5-2 25 1 0 75-2 25 1 5 2 25-3 0 75 5 5 4 5-7 8 25 WNW WNW WNW NW WNW NW NNW WSW NNW NNE NNW E E SE SE ENE 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 7 3 4 3 7 6 0 3 1 6 0 8 3 6 0 11 4 11 4 9 3 9 3 8 2 Public areas in gray were not in existence during site operation period Table 15-5 Omega Site Reactors at TA-2 operational from 1943 To 1992 Public Area Period Occupied Distance from Omega Site mi Wartime Housing 1943-1945 0 25-1 25 Early Postwar Housing 1946-1960s 0 25-1 75 Western Area 1946-present 1 5-2 25 North Community 1948-present 1 25-2 25 Replacement Housing 1953-present 0 25-0 75 Group 18 Homes by Airport 1957-present 0 5-0 75 Barranca Mesa 1958-present 1 75-2 25 Royal Crest Trailer Park 1960-present 0 25 North Mesa 1977-present 1-1 5 Otowi Mesa Expansion late 1970s-present 2-2 5 Ponderosa Estates Mid 1990s-present 1 75-2 25 East Gate Philomena’s Late 1970s-present 1 75 Totavi Camp 1949-1953 6 25 White Rock Camp 1949-1953 1957 5 75 White Rock Community 1962-present 5 25-7 25 San Ildefonso Pueblo Lands 1598-present 8 5 Public areas in gray were not in existence during site operation period Direction from Omega Site Winds in this direction % WNW N WNW NW N NE NNE S N NE NNW E E SE SE ENE 3 4 8 8 3 4 3 7 8 8 7 7 8 3 3 4 8 8 7 7 6 0 11 4 11 4 9 3 9 3 8 2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-13 Table 15-6 TA-3 the current main technical area operational from 1953 to present Public Area Period Occupied Distance from TA-3 mi Direction from TA-3 Winds in this direction % NE NE N N NE ENE NE E NE NE NNE E E SE SE ENE 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 7 7 8 2 7 7 11 4 7 7 7 7 8 3 11 4 11 4 9 3 9 3 8 2 Direction from LAMPF Building Winds in this direction % Wartime Housing 1943-1945 0 75-1 75 Early Postwar Housing 1946-1960s 1-2 Western Area 1946-present 0 5-1 North Community 1948-present 1 25-2 25 Replacement Housing 1953-present 0 5-2 Group 18 Homes by Airport 1957-present 2-2 5 Barranca Mesa 1958-present 2 25-3 5 Royal Crest Trailer Park 1960-present 1 75 North Mesa 1977-present 1 75-3 25 Otowi Mesa Expansion late 1970s-present 3 5-4 Ponderosa Estates Mid 1990s-present 2-2 5 East Gate Philomena’s Late 1970s-present 3 5 Totavi Camp 1949-1953 8 White Rock Camp 1949-1953 1957 7 25 White Rock Community 1962-present 6 5-9 San Ildefonso Pueblo Lands 1598-present 11 5 Public areas in gray were not in existence during site operation period Note – Distance from TA-3 is measured from middle of complex Table 15-7 LAMPF now LANSCE operational from 1968 to present Public Area Period Occupied Distance from LAMPF Building mi Wartime Housing 1943-1945 2-3 Early Postwar Housing 1946-1960s 1 75-3 5 Western Area 1946-present 3 25-4 North Community 1948-present 2 75-4 25 Replacement Housing 1953-present 1 75-3 5 Group 18 Homes by Airport 1957-present 1 25-1 75 Barranca Mesa 1958-present 2 25-3 25 Royal Crest Trailer Park 1960-present 1 75 North Mesa 1977-present 1 25-3 Otowi Mesa Expansion late 1970s-present 1 75-2 25 Ponderosa Estates Mid 1990s-present 3 25-3 75 East Gate Philomena’s Late 1970s-present 0 5 Totavi Camp 1949-1953 4 5 White Rock Camp 1949-1953 1957 4 White Rock Community 1962-present 3 75-6 San Ildefonso Pueblo Lands 1598-present 8 Public areas in gray were not in existence during site operation period Note – Distance from LANSCE building is measured from middle of complex 15-14 WNW WNW WNW NW NW NW NNW W NNW N NW NNE E SE SE ENE FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 7 3 7 3 7 6 0 3 5 6 0 8 8 3 7 8 3 11 4 9 3 9 3 8 2 Table 15-8 High Explosives Manufacturing Area – S-Site TA-16 operational 1944 to present Public Area Wartime Housing Early Postwar Housing Western Area North Community Replacement Housing Group 18 Homes by Airport Barranca Mesa Royal Crest Trailer Park North Mesa Otowi Mesa Expansion Ponderosa Estates East Gate Philomena’s Totavi Camp White Rock Camp White Rock Community San Ildefonso Pueblo Lands Period Occupied Distance from SSite mi Direction from S-Site Building Winds in this direction % 1943-1945 1946-1960s 1946-present 1948-present 1953-present 1957-present 1958-present 1960-present 1977-present late 1970s-present Mid 1990s-present Late 1970s-present 1949-1953 1949-1953 1957 1962-present 1598-present 3-3 75 3 25-3 75 2 75-3 25 3 5-4 25 3-3 75 3 75-4 4 75-5 25 3 3 75-4 75 5 25-5 75 4 25-4 75 4 75 9 5 7-7 5 6 25-8 12 5 NNE NNE NNE N NNE NE NE NE NNE NE NNE NE ENE ESE ESE ENE 8 3 8 3 8 3 8 8 8 3 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 3 7 7 8 3 7 7 8 2 11 9 11 9 8 2 Table 15-9 High Explosive Firing Site – R-Site TA-15 operational from 1944 to present Public Area Wartime Housing Early Postwar Housing Western Area North Community Replacement Housing Group 18 Homes by Airport Barranca Mesa Royal Crest Trailer Park North Mesa Otowi Mesa Expansion Ponderosa Estates East Gate Philomena’s Totavi Camp White Rock Camp White Rock Community San Ildefonso Pueblo Lands Period Occupied Distance from RSite mi Direction from R-Site Building Daytime Winds in this direction % 1943-1945 1946-1960s 1946-present 1948-present 1953-present 1957-present 1958-present 1960-present 1977-present late 1970s-present Mid 1990s-present Late 1970s-present 1949-1953 1949-1953 1957 1962-present 1598-present 2 5-3 2 5-3 25 2 5-3 5 3 25-4 25 2 5-3 2 75-3 4-4 5 2 3 25-3 75 4 25-4 5 3 75-4 25 3 5 7 5 5 25-6 25 4 75-6 25 10 5 N NNE NNW N NNE NNE NNE NNE N NNE N NE ENE ESE ESE ENE 8 8 8 3 3 4 8 8 8 3 8 3 8 3 8 3 8 8 8 3 8 8 7 7 8 2 11 9 11 9 8 2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-15 Table 15-10 Bayo Canyon Firing Site operational from 1944 to 1961 Public Area Period Occupied Distance from Bayo Canyon Firing Site mi Wartime Housing 1943-1945 2-3 Early Postwar Housing 1946-1960s 1 5-2 5 Western Area 1946-present 3 25-4 North Community 1948-present 2 5-4 Replacement Housing 1953-present 1 75-3 25 Group 18 Homes by Airport 1957-present 1 25-1 75 Barranca Mesa 1958-present 0 75-2 25 Royal Crest Trailer Park 1960-present 2 25 North Mesa 1977-present 0 5-2 25 Otowi Mesa Expansion late 1970s-present 0 25-0 75 Ponderosa Estates Mid 1990s-present 2 5-3 East Gate Philomena’s Late 1970s-present 1 Totavi Camp 1949-1953 5 White Rock Camp 1949-1953 1957 5 25 White Rock Community 1962-present 5-7 25 San Ildefonso Pueblo Lands 1598-present 8 Public areas in gray were not in existence during site operation period Direction from Bayo Canyon Firing Site Winds in this direction % WSW WSW WSW W WSW SW NW SW WSW N WNW S ESE SSE SSE E 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 5 3 1 3 3 3 7 3 3 3 1 8 8 3 4 3 4 11 9 4 2 4 2 11 4 Based on examination of the information presented in Tables 15-2 through 15-10 and information from historical documents reviewed by the LAHDRA project team following are discussions of public areas that may be of importance in terms of evaluating releases from the historical operations of interest listed above a D-Building at TA-1 D-Building at the original Technical Area was the site of plutonium processing during the war years Specifically D-Building housed plutonium purification and recovery metal conversion metallurgy weapon component fabrication and coating application After DP West site became operational in late 1945 D-Building continued to house activities that involved plutonium including chemical and metallurgical research and analysis until a “new D-Building” was completed on South Mesa in the form of the CMR Building within Technical Area 3 Coffinberry and Miner W N eds 1961 D- Building was razed in 1953 Alquist et al 1977 Due to D-Building’s period of operation and proximity to the town site Wartime Housing and Early Postwar Housing are public areas of interest in terms of historical releases from D- Building Wartime housing ranged from 0 1-0 75 mi from D-Building and the closest occupants were northwest of the D- 15-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Building in the Sundt apartments Wind blew in the northwest direction 3 7% of the time as averaged over a ten year period Early Postwar Housing ranged from 0 25 Hanford Houses to 1 mi Denver Steel and Ft Leonard Wood Houses to the northeast of D-Building with the wind blowing to the northeast 7 7% of the time Figures 15-3 15-4 and 15-5 show the original Technical Area with wartime housing in the form of Sundt apartments located nearby D Building Nearest Sundt apartments Figure 15-3 This November 1946 aerial photograph looking south shows Sundt apartments west to the right of the Technical Area on both sides of Trinity Drive which crosses from the upper left to the lower right of the photo Photo courtesy Los Alamos Historical Society LAHM-P1990-40-1-3028 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-17 Nearest Sundt apartments C Building D Building Figure 15-4 This December 4 1946 aerial photograph looking north shows the Sundt apartments dark buildings in upper left immediately west and north of the Technical Area The large building at the lower right is D-Building The largest white Technical Area building nearest the Sundt Apartments photo upper center is C-Building which housed shops and was the site of a January 1945 fire that prompted of the need for replacement facilities for processing plutonium Photo courtesy Los Alamos Historical Society LAHM-P1990-40-1-3029 15-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Figure 15-5 Location of D-Building within the original Technical Area relative to some Los Alamos wartime and early postwar housing Sundt apartments are in the upper-left portion of the figure The green buildings are administrative and service buildings not residents From a map produced by Barry Moore for the Los Alamos Historical Society and modified by cARTography by Andrea Kron b DP West TA-21 with Releases from Building 12 stacks In response to fire hazard and safety concerns most plutonium processing operations moved to DP West in late 1945 Building 12 was the filter building for all of the plutonium processing buildings 2 3 4 and 5 and remained so until 1973 A public area of interest in terms of releases from Building 12 stacks is the Group 18 Housing west of the airport Figures 15-6 and 15-7 show the locations of DP Site and relevant housing areas The closest of these homes were 0 25 mi from DP West and winds blew in their direction NNW an average of 6 0% of the time Other Los Alamos housing areas of interest include Early Postwar Housing such as the Denver Steel Ft Leonard Wood Hanford and Wingfoot housing developments These areas were located 0 5 to 2 5 mi northwest of DP West and winds blew in this direction 3 7% of the time The trailer park south of DP Road should also be considered since it was located 0 5 mi directly west from DP West and winds blew in this direction 3 5% of the time Finally the Replacement Housing see symbol C in Figure 15-6 is an area of interest since it was constructed as close as 0 5 mi west-northwest of DP West and wind blew in this direction 3 4% of the time FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-19 Fig 15-6 Location of DP Site relative to LANL housing areas Group 18 housing west of the airport housing symbol D was established 1957-1958 Replacement housing symbol C established 1953-57 took the place of wartime and early postwar housing See Figure 6-1 of which the closest to DP Site would have been the trailer park south of DP Road Map is based on the LAHDRA Project Reference Map produced by cARTography by Andrea Kron Data source LANL GISLab c DP East TA-21 with Releases from Buildings 152 and 153 DP East started up in 1945 and processed polonium and actinium and to produce initiators Building 153 served as the exhaust building for DP East until it shut down in 1970 A public area for consideration in terms of DP East operations is Group 18 Housing by the airport see Figures 15-6 and 15-7 These homes were 0 5 to 0 75 mi northwest of DP East and the wind blew in their direction approximately 3 7% of the time Before the housing by the airport was established Wartime and Early Postwar Housing and Replacement Housing would be areas for consideration The trailer park south of DP Road was approximately 0 9 mi WNW of DP East and the wind blew in that direction 3 4% of the time d Omega Site Reactors Omega Site was established in 1943 and has housed three different reactors the Water Boilers three versions the Plutonium Fast Reactor and the Omega West Reactor Because of the perceived danger of the work to be performed Omega Site was built at the bottom of Los Alamos Canyon away from the original Technical Area LANL 1997 Hunner 2004 Initially a flexible off-gas line carried reactor effluents from the bottom of the canyon to the top of South Mesa for discharge LASL 1947 In later years a more conventional stack was built on top of South Mesa Royal Crest Trailer Park which sits on South Mesa 0 25 mi south of Omega Site and the trailer park just south of DP Road which around 1948 15-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 through 1963 was situated on Los Alamos Mesa directly above Omega Site are potential public areas of consideration for the Omega Site releases see Figures 15-8 and 15-9 Western Area TA-1 Eastern Area Site of Group 18 housing after 1956 Los Alamos Canyon DP Canyon DP West DP East Fig 15-7 Aerial view of Los Alamos circa 1947 looking west shows DP East lower center DP West above it and Los Alamos townsite in the background Residential areas shown include Western Area at the upper left Eastern Area in the upper center and the area west of above the airport that became the site of Group 18 housing at the upper right Photo courtesy Los Alamos Historical Society LAHM-P1990-40-1-3114 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-21 Omega Site TA-2 Reactor Buildings Trinity Dr DP Road Trailer Park Figure 15-8 This 1949 photo shows a mobile home park located south of DP Road close to Trinity Drive Located directly above the Omega Site reactor buildings in Los Alamos Canyon upper left corner the park included both private mobile homes and Wingfoot trailers supplied by the government This area eventually became known as Royal Crest park By August 30 1963 all occupants were required to move out some relocated to the “new” Royal Crest trailer park on East Jemez Road Los Alamos Monitor August 23 1963 West of above the park are Zia Company warehouses and service buildings that supported TA-1 Photo courtesy Los Alamos Historical Society LAHM-P1989-13-1-1917 15-22 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Figure 15-9 Location of Omega Site and associated reactor stacks relative to several Los Alamos housing areas The trailer park south of DP Road was established around 1948 remained in use through at least 1963 and was gone by 1979 Royal Crest Trailer Park was established in 1960 and remains in use Reactors operated at Omega Site until 1992 Map is based on the LAHDRA Project Reference Map produced by cARTography by Andrea Kron Data source LANL GISLab e TA-3 the current main Technical Area In 1953 LANL main technical facilities moved from TA-1 across Los Alamos Canyon to TA-3 Various buildings at TA-3 have housed plutonium uranium machining and accelerator operations over the years An area of interest for releases from TA-3 is the Western Area located 0 5 to 1 mi north of the center of TA-3 see Figures 15-10 and 15-11 LANL winds blew toward the north 8 8% of the time Other possible housing areas to consider in terms of TA-3 are Replacement Housing which were constructed beginning in 1953 and Royal Crest Trailer Park which opened in 1960 The closest Replacement Housing to TA-3 which is approximately 0 5 mi northeast of TA-3 lies south of Trinity Drive and east of Diamond Drive Winds blew in the northeast direction 7 7% of the time as averaged over a ten year period Winds blew toward Royal Crest Trailer Park about 11 4% of the time FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-23 Western Area Los Alamos Canyon Diamond Dr CMR Building Figure 15-10 This aerial photo circa 1967 looks across TA-3 and Los Alamos Canyon to the Western Area and the Jemez Mountains The “H”-shaped LANL Administration Building and surrounding structures are in the foreground Diamond Drive runs through the lower right quadrant of the frame and part of the CMR Building is visible at the lower left edge Photo courtesy Los Alamos Historical Society LAHM-P2000-2-1-7144 15-24 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Fig 15-11 Location of TA-3 lower left established 1953 to some Los Alamos housing areas Western Area housing symbol A was established in 1946 replacement housing symbol C was constructed 1953-1957 and Royal Crest Trailer Park opened in 1960 Map is based on the LAHDRA Project Reference Map produced by cARTography by Andrea Kron Data source LANL GISLab f LAMPF now LANSCE LAMPF Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility which is now called LANSCE Los Alamos Neutron Science Center is a large accelerator complex located on Mesita de Los Alamos Figure 15-12 Construction began in 1968 and the facility still operates today The location of the off-site maximally exposed hypothetical individual in LANL’s annual environmental radiological dose assessments has typically been at the East Gate Philomena’s area on State Road 502 where it enters the east side of Los Alamos County LANL 2001 This location was selected because of its proximity to LANSCE which is reflected in Figure 15-13 Philomena’s restaurant was once located 0 5-mi north-northeast of the center of the LANSCE complex According to the ten year average wind rose the LANL winds blew in this direction 8 3% of the time FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-25 Figure 15-12 Aerial view of LANSCE looking towards the southwest Photo courtesy of LANL Figure 15-13 Location of LANSCE relative to several public areas near LANL Map is based on the LAHDRA Project Reference Map produced by cARTography by Andrea Kron Data source LANL GISLab 15-26 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 g High explosives manufacturing areas Since the 1940s high explosive research development and testing at LANL has been conducted in over 25 different Technical Areas The S-Site was chosen as the high explosive manufacturing area example for the purposes of this report because it was the main site of early explosives processing facilities S-Site Figure 15-14 was developed in 1943 for the high explosive production and remains in operation today A public area of interest for the S-Site is the Western Area which is located 2 75 mi north northeast of this site see Figure 15-15 The winds blow from the S-Site and in the direction of the Western Area 8 3% of the time Other areas to consider with regards to the S-Site are Wartime Housing Replacement Housing and Early Postwar Housing all of which were located approximately three mi from S-Site and experienced winds in their direction about 8% of the time Figure 15-14 High explosives manufacturing facilities were constructed in areas more distant from residential areas than original Technical Area buildings and wider separation between buildings reflected the more readily recognized safety hazards of associated operations This August 1952 aerial view of TA-16 shows Building 260 in the upper right of the image These buildings for machining high explosives were made of concrete and had special walls in the back that were built to blow out in the event of an accident The image shows forested land above and below TA-16 Photo courtesy Los Alamos Historical Society LAHM-P1990-40-3138 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-27 Fig 15-15 Location of TA-16 S-Site relative to public areas of Los Alamos Map is based on the LAHDRA Project Reference Map produced by cARTography by Andrea Kron Data source LANL GISLab 15-28 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 h High Explosives Firing Sites There have been a number of high explosive firing sites at LANL R-Site was chosen as the example for this report Eight firing sites A-H were established at R-Site between 1944 and 1948 and operations at R-Site continue today Royal Crest Trailer Park which is located 2 mi north-northeast of the site is the closest public area to R-Site and is an area of interest see Figure 15-16 According to the LANL wind data winds blow from R-Site towards the trailer park 8 3% of the time Since R-Site began operations in 1944 earlier housing should also be considered when evaluating R-Site releases Wartime Housing Early Postwar Housing and Replacement Housing were all about 2 5 mi to the north north-northeast and north-northeast respectively Winds blow in these directions 8% to 9% of the time Figure 15-16 Location of TA-15 R Site relative to public areas of Los Alamos Map is based on the LAHDRA Project Reference Map produced by cARTography by Andrea Kron Data source LANL GISLab FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-29 i Bayo Canyon Firing Site The Bayo Canyon Site TA-10 was used between 1944 and 1962 for experiments using conventional high explosives radioactive lanthanum RaLa and in some cases depleted or natural uranium Its location is shown in Figure 15-17 A public area of interest for the Bayo Canyon site is the Totavi Camp located five mi east-southeast of the site down the Bayo Canyon Since operations at this site were conducted in a canyon that runs approximately east to west wind tends to blow back and forth down this canyon The Totavi Camp was located east south east of the Bayo Canyon site and wind traveled in this direction 11 9% of the time Also of interest because of these canyon winds is the North Community which is located 2 5 mi directly west of the Bayo Canyon site Winds blew in the direction of the North Community 3 5% of the time North Community Figure 15-17 Location of Point Able site that was the location of many RaLa shots between 1944 and 1962 The North Community established in 1948 is at the left of the figure labeled with housing symbol B and San Ildefonso Pueblo lands are east of the LANL boundary at the lower right Areas associated with housing symbols A E G and H indicate residential areas that were established in 1946 1958 1977 and the late 1970s respectively Map is based on the LAHDRA Project Reference Map produced by cARTography by Andrea Kron Data source LANL GISLab References Alquist AJ Stoker AK Trocki LK Radiological Survey and Decontamination of the Former Main Technical Area TA-1 at Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-6887-MS 1977 ChemRisk Inc Personal communication between K Robinson and A Kron 1 20 2006 B Goldman 1 24 2006 R McKee 1 26 2006 and G Kalavaza 1 30 2006 regarding San Ildefonso Pueblo Lands - Areas of Occupancy 2006 15-30 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Coffinberry AS Miner W N eds The Metal Plutonium Chicago IL University of Chicago Press 1961 Hunner J Inventing Los Alamos The Growth of an Atomic Community Oklahoma City OK University of Oklahoma Press 2004 LANL Overview of Los Alamos National Laboratory - 1997 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-97-4765 1997 LANL Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos during 2000 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-13861-ENV 2001 LASL Manhattan District History Supplement to Book VIII LA Project Y Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LAMD-155 1947 LASL The Housing Manual for Laboratory Employees and Supervisors Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California 1956 Martin C Los Alamos Place Names Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos Historical Society 1998 Martin C Quads shoeboxes and sunken living rooms A history of Los Alamos housing Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos Historical Society 2000 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 15-31 This page intentionally left blank 15-32 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Events at LANL An important part of the historical record review of LANL operations focused on Health Division and other records that included descriptions of accidents or incidents that were potentially associated with off-site releases or health effects Some of the incidents of interest include chemical releases fires explosions radiation exposures to workers and other notable accidents that occurred at LANL The incidents that are potentially relevant to off-site releases or health effects are of particular importance The LAHDRA team based on its review of reports and correspondence compiled a partial chronology of accidents incidents and events that occurred at LANL The information presented in Table 16-1 is a partial chronology however because the information was collected from many sources and so it is unlikely that all reports documenting accidents and incidents were found Minor worker contamination incidents were not included nor were easily cleaned up spills of small amounts of low toxicity materials onto solid surfaces The quantity and type of contamination released is reported when available Health Division reports in the database were first reviewed for incidents of interest Next the LAHDRA DocSleuth database was searched for selected document types such as health reports and quarterly or monthly H Division progress reports to obtain additional documents to review The additional documents identified via that search were reviewed and incidents of interest were recorded Next the search was expanded to include documents relevant to criticality incidents explosions and RaLa shots In Table 16-1 the first column lists either the stated date of the incident or event or an estimated date based on the date of the source document The second column contains a brief description of the incident or event Any qualitative descriptions or impressions given are those of the original document’s authors as are any release quantities or off-site measurements The original document text is available for viewing in case questions arise or additional information or context is desired FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT- Chapter 16 16-1 The third column in the table contains a categorization of each event Each event was categorized based on the incident type and the potential for off-site release or possible adverse health effects The categories used were • Accident – An incident not involving radioactive or dangerous material • Air Release – An incident involving the release of air contamination • Criticality – An event in which a mass of radioactive material went “critical” • Equipment Malfunction – An incident resulting from equipment failure • Explosion – An incident involving an explosion • Fire – An incident involving fire • Liquid Release – An incident involving the release of liquid contamination • RaLa Shot – An explosive test event involving radioactive lanthanum • User Error – An event involving a human error • Contamination Event – Any additional unclassifiable contamination event The fourth column contains the LAHDRA Repository Number of the source document In some cases documents contained so many pages that their image files were divided into pieces to facilitate downloading In these cases the Repository Number may be followed by a letter “338f ” for example would indicate the sixth part of a large document having at least six PDF image files The fifth and final column in Table 16-1 contains the page number at which the description of the described incident or event begins This page number refers to the PDF file which in many cases may differ from the page number shown on the original document page since cover pages and early pages of a printed document are often not numbered or in some cases not all pages from the source document were requested by the LAHDRA document analysts or released by LANL Over 30 000 pages in over 500 documents were reviewed in order to prepare the chronology of accidents and incidents These documents included 16-2 • Contamination incident reports • Incident report investigation files • Miscellaneous laboratory incident memorandums • Radiation occurrence reports • A review of criticality accidents FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT- Chapter 16 • A survey of liquid waste management problems at LANL • Monthly and annual reports of DP West Site operations • Annual reports of the Health Division • Health physics radiation protection quarterly reports • Incidents and accidents involving explosives at LANL • Reports of the Bayo Canyon Radioactive Lanthanum RaLa Program • Airborne Contamination Annual Summaries • Summaries of LANL Health Hazards FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT- Chapter 16 16-3 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 9 21 1944 10 4 1944 10 14 1944 10 26 1944 11 3 1944 12 1 1944 12 10 1944 12 14 1944 12 20 1944 12 28 1944 2 7 1945 2 11 1945 2 13 1945 2 18 1945 2 24 1945 3 3 1945 4 1 1945 4 9 1945 Description RaLa shot # 1 took place on 9 21 1944 at 1610 hours The shot involved 25 to 60 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa shot # 2 took place on 10 4 1944 at 1937 hours The shot involved 120 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa shot # 3 took place on 10 14 1944 at 1651 hours The shot involved 60 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa shot # 4 took place on 10 26 1944 at 1540 hours The shot involved 185 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa shot # 5 took place on 11 3 1944 at 1645 hours The shot involved 113 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa at dwelling T-846 near the present corner of Rim and Canyon Roads which was the nearest habitation to the firing point The purpose was apparently to detect any radioactivity that might be carried to the Los Alamos town site although whether or not Los Alamos was downwind was not recorded The air samplers were run during each shot and for some time after the shot was fired The results of each sample were negative indicating that no radioactivity from these shots reached the town site RaLa shot # 6 took place on 12 1 1944 at 1630 hours The shot involved 280 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative RaLa shot # 7 took place on 12 10 1944 at 635 hours The shot involved 90 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative RaLa shot # 8 took place on 12 14 1944 at 2158 hours The shot involved 110 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative RaLa shot # 9 took place on 12 20 1944 at 1445 hours The shot involved 82 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative RaLa shot # 10 took place on 12 28 1944 at 1535 hours The shot involved 47 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative RaLa shot # 11 took place on 2 7 1945 at 1310 hours The shot involved 220 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative On February 11 1945 there was a criticality incident involving UH 3 pressed in styrex The assembly went prompt critical during the dropping of a slug of the active material through a vertical hole The UH3-styrex cubes were swollen and blistered from the heat of the reaction 6 x 10 15 total fissions were involved RaLa shot # 12 took place on 2 13 1945 at 1945 hours The shot involved 240 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative RaLa shot # 13 took place on 2 18 1945 at 1626 hours The shot involved 240 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative RaLa shot # 14 took place on 2 24 1945 at 1644 hours The shot involved 135 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative RaLa shot # 15 took place on 3 3 1945 at 2226 hours The shot involved 70 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative RaLa shot # 16 took place on 4 1 1945 at 1645 hours The shot involved 290 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs An air sampler was set up at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa as described for shot 5 on 11 3 1944 The results of each sample were negative The date for one of the air samples was recorded as March 31 1945 however no shot was fired on that date Since shot #16 was fired on April 1 1945 the March 31 1945 date is believed to be in error RaLa shot # 17 took place on 4 9 1945 at 120 hours The shot involved 530 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs The cloud tracked toward the ESE An air sampler was run on Los Alamos Mesa location unknown during the shot and for 8 hours afterward No activity was found Page 16-4 Page 1 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 2 2 all all all all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Criticality 6206 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 4 15 1945 4 20 1945 4 26 1945 5 11 1945 5 22 1945 5 26 1945 5 30 1945 6 4 1945 6 6 1945 6 8 1945 6 13 1945 6 16 1945 6 22 1945 6 26 1945 6 29 1945 7 6 1945 7 14 1945 7 16 1945 8 3 1945 8 6 1945 8 9 1945 8 10 1945 8 15 1945 8 21 1945 8 24 1945 9 1 1945 9 8 1945 Description RaLa shot # 18 took place on 4 15 1945 at 2035 hours The shot involved 215 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs The cloud tracked toward the ESE An air sampler was run at Technical Area 1 TA-1 the main technical area for 24 hours to check for contamination A reading of 50 counts per minute cpm gamma radiation was found “This was the first time that any airborne contamination associated with Bayo Canyon was picked up on the mesa ” RaLa shot # 19 took place on 4 20 1945 at 1841 hours The shot involved 220 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 20 took place on 4 26 1945 at 2143 hours The shot involved 150 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs On May 11 1945 an accident occurred in Room B2 of Gamma Building A rotating shield struck a piece of Po metal sending contamination through out the lab RaLa shot # 21 took place on 5 22 1945 at 1547 hours The shot involved 620 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 22 took place on 5 26 1945 at 1700 hours The shot involved 450 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 23 took place on 5 30 1945 at 1500 hours The shot involved 342 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa shot # 24 took place on 6 4 1945 at 1630 hours The shot involved 900 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs On June 6 1945 there was a criticality incident involving 35 4 kg U-235 in 1 2-inch cubes The pseudo sphere went critical during water seeping between the blocks 3x 10 16 total fissions were involved RaLa shot # 25 took place on 6 8 1945 at 1545 hours The shot involved 795 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 26 took place on 6 13 1945 at 1535 hours The shot involved 569 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa shot # 27 took place on 6 16 1945 at 1508 hours The shot involved 367 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs A high-capacity air sampler was run at the edge of Los Alamos Mesa in front of civilian dwelling T-843 probably T-846 Thirteen thousand five hundred 13 500 liters of air were sampled and the beta plus gamma activity on the filter was less than 10 cpm background Another sampler was set up at TA-1 in front of Q Building Results were also negative RaLa shot # 28 took place on 6 22 1945 at 1530 hours The shot involved 1060 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 29 took place on 6 26 1945 at 1724 hours The shot involved 737 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 30 took place on 6 29 1945 at 1700 hours The shot involved 393 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 31 took place on 7 6 1945 at 1718 hours The shot involved 343 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 32 took place on 7 14 1945 at 1715 hours The shot involved 190 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs The world's first nuclear explosion took place at the Trinity site in southern New Mexico at 5 29 a m RaLa shot # 33 took place on 8 3 1945 at 2145 hours The shot involved 471 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs Little Boy gun type atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima Japan Fat Man implosion type atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki Japan RaLa shot # 34 took place on 8 10 1945 at 1531 hours The shot involved 240 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs RaLa shot # 35 took place on 8 15 1945 at 1530 hours The shot involved 168 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs On August 21 1945 there was a criticality incident involving 6 2 kg gamma-phase Pu An experimenter was hand stacking tungsten carbide blocks around a Pu mass The experimenter accidentally dropped a block allowing the Pu to go critical 1 death and 1 injury resulted from the accident 1016 total fissions were involved RaLa shot # 36 took place on 8 24 1945 at 1556 hours The shot involved 1200 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 37 took place on 9 1 1945 at 1620 hours The shot involved 1050 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 38 took place on 9 8 1945 at 1740 hours The shot involved 628 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs Page 16-5 Page 2 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 all all Contam Event 3496 8 RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 2 2 all all all all Criticality 6206 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 all all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot all all all all all RaLa Shot 2 2 2 2 2 various 2 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 all all Criticality 6206 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 2 all all all Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 9 13 1945 9 20 1945 9 25 1945 9 26 1945 10 1 1945 10 6 1945 10 12 1945 11 28 1945 12 14 1945 12 28 1945 1 4 1946 1 11 1946 1 17 1946 1 24 1946 1 31 1946 2 7 1946 2 14 1946 3 21 1946 3 28 1946 4 12 1946 4 15 1946 4 25 1946 5 2 1946 5 3 1946 5 9 1946 5 16 1946 5 21 1946 5 23 1946 5 29 1946 6 6 1946 6 27 1946 Description Page 3 of 32 Incident Type RaLa shot # 39 took place on 9 13 1945 at 1615 hours The shot involved 440 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 40 took place on 9 20 1945 at 1415 hours The shot involved 380 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 41 took place on 9 25 1945 at 1740 hours The shot involved 1291 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa Shot There was a fire in the contaminated pit September 26 1945 Contamination was found on the fence surrounding the area and on the guard tower next Fire to the dump RaLa shot # 42 took place on 10 1 1945 at 1716 hours The shot involved 772 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 43 took place on 10 6 1945 at 1605 hours The shot involved 446 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 44 took place on 10 12 1945 at 1620 hours The shot involved 516 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa Shot On November 28 1945 in Room 76 of DP Site a worker noticed that a container of Po had leaked The room was decontaminated Liquid Release RaLa shot # 45 took place on 12 14 1945 at 1655 hours The shot involved 345 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 46 took place on 12 28 1945 at 1620 hours The shot involved 1340 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 47 took place on 1 4 1946 at 1628 hours The shot involved 954 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 48 took place on 1 11 1946 at 1600 hours The shot involved 647 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 49 took place on 1 17 1946 at 1530 hours The shot involved 459 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 50 took place on 1 24 1946 at 1610 hours The shot involved 1712 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the W The maximum radiation measured at distance mR h was 0 046 mR h at 2 miles The cloud from the shot drifted toward TA-1 Gamma radiation measurements throughout the technical area ranged from 0 028 to 0 046 mR h Normal background is about 0 028 mR h RaLa shot # 51 took place on 1 31 1946 at 1555 hours The shot involved 1057 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa shot # 52 took place on 2 7 1946 at 1537 hours The shot involved 654 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 53 took place on 2 14 1946 at 1602 hours The shot involved 454 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa shot # 54 took place on 3 21 1946 at 1520 hours The shot involved 1034 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 55 took place on 3 28 1946 at 1447 hours The shot involved 848 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 56 took place on 4 12 1946 at 1555 hours The shot involved 315 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs There was a tuballoy fire in the Tech area on April 15 1946 Firemen were exposed directly to tuballoy smoke without protective equipment RaLa shot # 57 took place on 4 25 1946 at 1520 hours The shot involved 1324 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 58 took place on 5 2 1946 at 1500 hours The shot involved 890 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs There was a explosion in a drybox in Room 107 of D Building on May 3 1946 The room and adjoining hallway were contaminated RaLa shot # 59 took place on 5 9 1946 at 1440 hours The shot involved 600 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa shot # 60 took place on 5 16 1946 at 1535 hours The shot involved 279 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs On May 21 1946 there was a criticality incident involving 6 2 kg of delta-phase Pu An experimenter was holding two hemispheres of Pu apart with a screw driver as a demonstration to a group When the screw driver slipped it allowed the spheres to come together to form a critical mass 1 death and 7 injuries resulted from the accident 3X10 15 total fissions were involved RaLa shot # 61 took place on 5 23 1946 at 1440 hours The shot involved 1274 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 62 took place on 5 29 1946 at 1450 hours The shot involved 931 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 63 took place on 6 6 1946 at 1445 hours The shot involved 539 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 64 took place on 6 27 1946 at 1440 hours The shot involved 1494 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs Page 16-6 Initial Repos Page of No Interest 2 2 2 all all all 4525 3-5 2 2 2 4525 2 2 2 2 2 all all all 2 all all all all all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot Fire RaLa Shot RaLa Shot Explosion RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 2 2 2 2 4285 2 2 4526 2 2 all all all all all all 11 all all 2 all all Criticality 6206 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 2 2 all all all all Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description Page 4 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest 7 3 1946 7 11 1946 7 11 1946 7 18 1946 RaLa shot # 65 took place on 7 3 1946 at 1625 hours The shot involved 976 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs Pu metal turnings caught fire in a drybox in Room 317 on July 11 1946 The room was highly contaminated RaLa shot # 66 took place on 7 11 1946 at 1423 hours The shot involved 702 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa shot # 67 took place on 7 18 1946 at 1530 hours The shot involved 516 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs RaLa Shot Fire RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 4526 2 2 all 4 all all 8 1 1946 The first fatality involving energetic materials at Los Alamos was at the Omega-West Reactor Site in August 1946 Thre employees mixed potassium chlorate sugar magnesium turnings and red phosphorous One person died when the mixture ignited and two others were injured Explosion 6203 9 RaLa shot # 68 took place on 8 28 1946 at 2245 hours The shot involved 1026 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs There was a fire in the contaminated dump on November 15 1946 RaLa shot # 69 took place on 12 19 1946 at 1640 hours The shot involved 1261 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 70 took place on 12 27 1946 at 2202 hours The shot involved 610 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 71 took place on 1 3 1947 at 1920 hours The shot involved 467 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs On January 16 1947 a worker cutting Pu NO 3 4 spilled approximately 70 mg of solution on their pants and the floor of D-146 RaLa Shot Fire RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot User Error 2 4526 2 2 2 3482 all 1 all all all 2 User Error 3482 4 RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 all all all all all all all all all all all all all all all all all all all Fire 4285 8 RaLa Shot 2 all 8 28 1946 11 15 1946 12 19 1946 12 27 1946 1 3 1947 1 16 1947 On January 23 1947 a worker with a sledge hammer hit a 5 gallon bottle containing plutonium residue releasing approximately 30 mg of Pu in the basement of D Building The ground was dug up and buried in the waste disposal pit 3 10 1947 RaLa shot # 72 took place on 3 10 1947 at 2200 hours The shot involved 570 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 3 14 1947 RaLa shot # 73 took place on 3 14 1947 at 1758 hours The shot involved 720 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 3 19 1947 RaLa shot # 74 took place on 3 19 1947 at 1952 hours The shot involved 630 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 4 11 1947 RaLa shot # 75 took place on 4 11 1947 at 140 hours The shot involved 480 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 4 16 1947 RaLa shot # 76 took place on 4 16 1947 at 1832 hours The shot involved 640 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 5 6 1947 RaLa shot # 77 took place on 5 6 1947 at 1540 hours The shot involved 1341 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 5 13 1947 RaLa shot # 78 took place on 5 13 1947 at 1655 hours The shot involved 1141 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 5 21 1947 RaLa shot # 79 took place on 5 21 1947 at 1926 hours The shot involved 574 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 6 18 1947 RaLa shot # 80 took place on 6 18 1947 at 1438 hours The shot involved 170 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 6 25 1947 RaLa shot # 81 took place on 6 25 1947 at 1319 hours The shot involved 1290 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 7 2 1947 RaLa shot # 82 took place on 7 2 1947 at 1800 hours The shot involved 1320 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 7 10 1947 RaLa shot # 83 took place on 7 10 1947 at 1703 hours The shot involved 851 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs 7 30 1947 RaLa shot # 84 took place on 7 30 1947 at 1850 hours The shot involved 1070 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 8 6 1947 RaLa shot # 85 took place on 8 6 1947 at 1706 hours The shot involved 700 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 8 13 1947 RaLa shot # 86 took place on 8 13 1947 at 1545 hours The shot involved 680 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs 8 27 1947 RaLa shot # 87 took place on 8 27 1947 at 2022 hours The shot involved 1610 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 9 4 1947 RaLa shot # 88 took place on 9 4 1947 at 1655 hours The shot involved 925 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 9 11 1947 RaLa shot # 89 took place on 9 11 1947 at 1625 hours The shot involved 670 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 9 18 1947 RaLa shot # 90 took place on 9 18 1947 at 1420 hours The shot involved 438 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs A fire was detected on October 22 1947 in the contaminated dump The results of monitoring during and after the fire reportedly indicated that there 10 22 1947 was no significant exposure to radioactive materials 10 29 1947 RaLa shot # 91 took place on 10 29 1947 at 1543 hours The shot involved 1670 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 1 23 1947 Page 16-7 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description 11 5 1947 RaLa shot # 92 took place on 11 5 1947 at 1522 hours The shot involved 946 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 11 7 1947 On November 7 1947 pressurized radioactive spray was released from a line of the peroxider unit contaminating one worker 11 12 1947 11 27 1947 12 3 1947 12 10 1947 12 18 1947 1 29 1948 2 5 1948 2 19 1948 2 27 1948 4 1 1948 4 9 1948 4 16 1948 RaLa shot # 93 took place on 11 12 1947 at 1543 hours The shot involved 730 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 94 took place on 11 27 1947 at 1755 hours The shot involved 720 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 95 took place on 12 3 1947 at 1735 hours The shot involved 1056 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 96 took place on 12 10 1947 at 1816 hours The shot involved 706 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 97 took place on 12 18 1947 at 1529 hours The shot involved 619 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 98 took place on 1 29 1948 at 1436 hours The shot involved 1240 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 99 took place on 2 5 1948 at 1906 hours The shot involved 1010 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 100 took place on 2 19 1948 at 1459 hours The shot involved 590 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 101 took place on 2 27 1948 at 1440 hours The shot involved 310 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 102 took place on 4 1 1948 at 1630 hours The shot involved 980 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 103 took place on 4 9 1948 at 1517 hours The shot involved 620 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 104 took place on 4 16 1948 at 1455 hours The shot involved 400 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs On June 16 1948 there was a fire in the drybox of Room D-115 The fire was believed to have been caused by spontaneous combustion of U-235 6 16 1948 lathe turnings 8 4 1948 RaLa shot # 105 took place on 8 4 1948 at 1626 hours The shot involved 590 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 106 took place on 8 12 1948 at 1540 hours The shot involved 771 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the SW No activity above background was measured in the vicinity of the airstrip now Los Alamos Airport The roads north and 8 12 1948 south of the airstrip were checked A film badge planted at the east end of the airstrip had only 0 003 R exposure which is close to the limit of sensitivity for this device 8 19 1948 RaLa shot # 107 took place on 8 19 1948 at 1625 hours The shot involved 547 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 9 10 1948 RaLa shot # 108 took place on 9 10 1948 at 1721 hours The shot involved 1735 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs On September 14 1948 workers cleaned out a drybox in Room 126 The material was taken to the hood in Room 119 where it was accidentally 9 14 1948 released The room was decontaminated the following day 9 21 1948 RaLa shot # 109 took place on 9 21 1948 at 1543 hours The shot involved 1006 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 9 28 1948 RaLa shot # 110 took place on 9 28 1948 at 1538 hours The shot involved 487 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 10 7 1948 RaLa shot # 111 took place on 10 7 1948 at 1410 hours The shot involved 362 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 10 14 1948 RaLa shot # 112 took place on 10 14 1948 at 1442 hours The shot involved 205 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 10 21 1948 RaLa shot # 113 took place on 10 21 1948 at 1411 hours The shot involved 123 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs Page 16-8 Page 5 of 32 Incident Type RaLa Shot Equipment Malfunction RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot Initial Repos Page of No Interest 2 all 3482 11 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 all all all all all all all all all all all all Fire 1184 65 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 all all User Error 3485 7 RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 2 2 2 all all all all all Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description RaLa shot # 114 took place at 1608 hours The shot involved 480 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the south H-1 leader T N White observed the cloud to drift a few points west of south and most of it appeared to settle down into Pueblo Canyon just north of main hill road White also saw a wisp go over Emilio Segre's old laboratory East Gate Laboratory at the extreme eastern end of Los Alamos 12 1 1948 Mesa White went there with a radiation survey meter and was able to locate activity at the tip of the mesa A few specks gave a reading that was close to the maximum with the beta shield open 20 mR h There was no activity a hundred feet or more to the west of the mesa tip Following this observation White expressed concern to D Mueller the leader of the Bayo Canyon experimenters that it was undesirable to set off shots without regard to wind direction and velocity 12 8 1948 RaLa shot # 115 took place on 12 8 1948 at 2039 hours The shot involved 463 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 116 took place on 12 15 1948 at 1345 hours The shot involved 317 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud 12 15 1948 tracked toward the E The wind speed was 10 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 76 mR h at 0 25 miles 1 25 1949 RaLa shot # 117 took place on 1 25 1949 at 405 hours The shot involved 452 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 351 to 600 lbs 2 1 1949 RaLa shot # 118 took place on 2 1 1949 at 1630 hours The shot involved 487 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 3 4 1949 RaLa shot # 119 took place on 3 4 1949 at 1359 hours The shot involved 693 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 3 8 1949 RaLa shot # 120 took place on 3 8 1949 at 1413 hours The shot involved 604 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 3 31 1949 RaLa shot # 121 took place on 3 31 1949 at 1647 hours The shot involved 1096 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 122 took place on 4 20 1949 at 1846 hours The shot involved 422 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs A monthly progress report of the Health Division stated “The radioactive cloud from the Bayo shot of April 20 passed over and contaminated the area of the main 4 20 1949 gate to Los Alamos The Fire Department washed off the most heavily contaminated section of the road shortly thereafter ” No survey report has been found 4 27 1949 RaLa shot # 123 took place on 4 27 1949 at 2045 hours The shot involved 1244 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 5 4 1949 RaLa shot # 124 took place on 5 4 1949 at 2045 hours The shot involved 1740 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs 5 11 1949 RaLa shot # 125 took place on 5 11 1949 at 1950 hours The shot involved 1393 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs RaLa shot # 126 took place on 5 17 1949 at 2030 hours The shot involved 871 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs A day after 5 17 1949 the last Bayo Canyon shot #126 “activity was discovered at a point about two miles north of the Bayo firing site The general background activity meaning contamination in this area was of the order of 1 mr hr beta plus gamma ” presumed to be at waist height RaLa shot # 127 took place at 1830 hours The shot involved 588 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the ESE The wind speed was 10 mph The cloud from the shot crossed State Road 4 between Station 101 a temporary guard gate at the access road to Bayo Canyon and the McKee Trailer Camp on State Road 4 Roadblocks were established at the Main Gate and lower Bayo Canyon road junction with the main hill road Following the shot the blocked-off section of the road and a section running about 1 mi east were monitored and found to be free of contamination the roadblocks were removed Shortly thereafter a second monitoring patrol discovered contamination on the road to the east of Frijoles Junction the White Rock Y at the intersection of main hill road and State Road 4 which had been thought to be clean Roadblocks were re­ established at the Main Gate The most heavily contaminated stretch of road ran about 0 75 miles east of Frijoles Junction The highest readings were 5 to 10 mR h 12 inches from the ground 5 20 1949 Page 16-9 Page 6 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 2 2 2 all all all all all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot RaLa Shot 2 2 2 all all all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Page 7 of 32 Initial Repos Page of No Interest Date of Incident Description Incident Type 6 2 1949 RaLa shot # 128 took place at 1417 hours The shot involved 1933 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the north The wind speed was 12 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 5 mR h at 1 5 miles “Flypaper and pans adhesive fallout collectors distributed in Guaje Canyon previous to the shot were collected approximately two hours afterwards and were found to have no contamination The following afternoon however approximately 15 mr hr beta and gamma background assumed at 12 inches was found in the region over which the cloud passed ” Because “the meteorologist estimated that the cloud reached this position about five minutes after the shot ” the conclusion can be reached that the flypaper and pans were not located in the main path of the fallout RaLa Shot 2 all 6 6 1949 RaLa shot # 129 took place at 2206 hours The shot involved 1630 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the SE The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 5 mR h at 2 5 miles Adverse weather continued until after the shot “An attempt was made by Health Division personnel to postpone the shot until such time that conditions were more favorable but the decision was made to continue ” After the shot it became apparent that a portion of the main road to Los Alamos SR 502 would become contaminated Road blocks were placed at the west end of the airstrip the junction of SR 4 and Sandia Canyon and above Totavi Camp Monitoring on the main road showed contamination from the pump house at the Bayo Canyon turnoff to 0 5 miles above Totavi a distance of about 1 5 miles The highest reading obtained was about 15 mR h beta plus gamma at the main hill road and SR 4 junction This measurement was taken at 12 inches above the road surface rather than at the usual 3 feet as was adopted later RaLa Shot 2 all 6 10 1949 RaLa shot # 130 took place on 6 10 1949 at 933 hours The shot involved 1280 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NW The wind speed was 6 mph “Considerable effort was made by all persons involved to plan this particular operation so that the difficulties encountered in previous operations would not be present ” Continuous weather predictions were done until after the shot “The cloud drifted off in a northwesterly direction Although the main portion of the cloud did not pass over any of the previously placed trays and flypaper in Guaje Canyon a small amount of background was found seven hours later on two of them located at one edge of the cloud path ” RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Fire 1184 169 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all 7 28 1949 8 3 1949 8 9 1949 8 18 1949 8 31 1949 9 14 1949 9 23 1949 RaLa shot # 131 took place on 7 28 1949 at 1204 hours The shot involved 1387 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N NE RaLa shot # 132 took place on 8 3 1949 at 1258 hours The shot involved 936 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N NE RaLa shot # 133 took place on 8 9 1949 at 957 hours The shot involved 713 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N NE On June 27 1949 there was a fire outside of TU Buildings Fire resulted from the spontaneous combustion of TU shavings stored outside TU Building Surrounding area was highly contaminated RaLa shot # 134 took place on 8 31 1949 at 1200 hours The shot involved 715 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs Rala shot # 135 took place on 9 14 1949 at 1202 hours The shot involved 356 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs Flypapers placed on North Ridge the closest northern approach to Bayo Canyon about 0 5 miles north a little west and 400 feet above of the firing site about 50 paces apart read 3 to 4 mR h at 1 inch with a closed-shield GM survey meter RaLa shot # 136 took place on 9 23 1949 at 1018 hours The shot involved 346 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the SE The wind speed was 8 mph Nine flypapers placed on North Ridge read 0 15 to 1 0 mR h at I inch with a closed-shield GM survey meter the maximum reading was recorded 300 paces from the eastern-most station the pattern appears to be skewed to the west Page 16-10 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description RaLa shot # 137 took place on 10 19 1949 at 1007 hours The shot involved 1385 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N NE The wind speed was 15-20 mph Flypapers placed on North Ridge read from 0 1 to 0 3 mR h at 1 inch measured with a 10 19 1949 closed-shield GM survey meter The maximum flypaper reading was recorded 150 paces west of the eastern edge of the array The ground measured 0 07 mR h near and in good agreement with one of the flypapers which read 0 1 mR h The dose rate recorder at the same location reached 1 5 mR h as the cloud passed A survey made the next day in Rendija Canyon about a mile east of the Sportsman's Club showed a maximum of 0 07 mR h 11 2 1949 RaLa shot # 138 took place at 1205 hours The shot involved 1614 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the W The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 8 mR h at 2 5 miles T Shipman reported “an abrupt and temporary shift in the wind resulted in blowing the cloud across the Technical Area TA-1 As far as health and safety are concerned no significant levels of radiation have been found There is however sufficient contamination so that the background in certain counting procedures may be disturbed ” “Demonstrable contamination was found as far away as Camp May a distance often miles' west but at no place were levels of contamination found to be very high ” Levels of radiation were three times background at the Base Radio Station on North Mesa The tip of Center Mesa read 0 6 mR h the Chapel Apartment area on Rose Street read 0 8 mR h Manhattan Loop read 0 3 to 0 4 mR h the peak at the main gate was 1 0 mR h gamma 1 5 mR h beta plus gamma Measurements made on North Ridge were all background RaLa shot # 139 took place on 11 8 1949 at 1243 hours The shot involved 1064 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 7-9 mph The cloud moved west up canyon and then northeast missing the North Ridge flypaper array No record of radiation measurements in surrounding areas was found On November 14 1949 an accident occurred between two security trucks One truck was carrying wooden crates of steel cylinders that contained 11 14 1949 plutonium Only one wooden crate was damaged and no contamination occurred 11 8 1949 12 1 1949 12 8 1949 In December 1949 there was a criticality incident involving 1 kg 235U UO2 NO3 2 in 13 6 liters water during the manual withdrawal of two poison control rods 3 4x10 16 total fissions were involved RaLa shot # 140 took place on at 1532 hours The shot involved 2635 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 8-12 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 6 mR h at 2 miles Readings from the North Ridge flypapers ranged from background to 2 5 mR h at 1 inch measured with a closed-shield GM survey meter The maximum reading was found on the station 50 paces from the eastern end of the nine-station array The Point Pluto labeled 23 recorder showed cloud passage and the collected air sample was “3X normal 0 015 mr hr ” At Point Claim the cloud passed and a sample read “0 6 mr hr gammas only ” Guaje Canyon was monitored the next day and a maximum of 0 2 mR h was found opposite Pt Claim Also recorded are some GMX-5 data giving 1 2 mr hr in Rendija Canyon N of 12 and 0 5 mr hr N of 10 RaLa shot # 141 took place at 1739 hours The shot involved 1539 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NW The wind speed was 2-3 mph The maximum reading on flypaper on North Ridge read 1 mR h at 1 inch measured with a closed-shield GM survey meter The cascade impactor at Point Claim showed most of the activity to be collected on the final filter stage 0 7-micron particles if density 12 16 1949 2 5 is assumed Another handwritten description of the December 16 shot exists and has some valuable contemporary thinking comparing RaLa with radium and some dimensional help But again all discussion was aimed as were the previous flypaper measurements at showing whether providing an asphalt pad under the shots would reduce fallout It apparently did The writer calculated the effect of the worst-case wind conditions RaLa source size fallout on the Guaje reservoir a partial source of Los Alamos water at that time to be 0 1 uCi L or 1 mR day for continuous intake Page 16-11 Page 8 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Accident 3484 7 Criticality 6206 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description Page 9 of 32 Incident Type RaLa shot # 142 took place at 1632 hours The shot involved 1132 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward 12 22 1949 the SW The wind speed was 3-5 mph A “mild degree of contamination” was recorded in some parts of TA-1 No health hazard occurred however RaLa Shot background activity may have been elevated enough to affect some TA-1 laboratory counting procedures RaLa shot # 143 took place at 1248 hours The shot involved 2065 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked 1 13 1950 RaLa Shot toward the E SE The wind speed was 25 mph RaLa shot # 144 took place on 1 17 1950 at 1347 hours The shot involved 1715 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud 1 17 1950 RaLa Shot tracked toward the north and then east The wind speed was 4-7 mph RaLa shot # 145 took place on at 1138 hours The shot involved 1737 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked 1 24 1950 RaLa Shot toward the E NE The wind speed was 25-30 mph The cloud from the shot remained in Bayo Canyon RaLa shot # 146 took place on 1 31 1950 at 1417 hours The shot involved 981 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud RaLa Shot 1 31 1950 tracked toward the E NE The wind speed was 9-17 mph RaLa shot # 147 took place on 3 24 1950 at 1323 hours The shot involved 1665 Curies of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud RaLa Shot 3 24 1950 tracked toward the E The wind speed was 28-42 mph A B-17 flight took place RaLa shot # 148 took place at 1416 hours The shot involved 1743 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward the W WNW and NNE The wind speed was 2-8 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 2 mR h at 3 miles “ a slight amount of contamination from fall-out was observed throughout the town site and Tech Area TA-1 ” following shot #148 It was obvious that weather conditions would not be ideal at shot time but there was reluctance to cancel the shot for the day since weather predictions for the remainder of the 3 29 1950 week were no better H Division authorized continuation of the operation “The vast majority of it the cloud apparently moved out to the northwest RaLa Shot toward the upper portions of Guaje Canyon A small portion of the cloud took a southerly course and left detectable contamination in parts of the Los Alamos housing area particularly in the Denver steel area which was the housing area closest to Bayo Canyon and also in the Tech Area The average levels of activity found were in the vicinity of 0 2 mr h Beta gamma There certainly is no reason to feel that the situation produced any health hazard whatsoever ” RaLa shot # 149 took place at 1330 hours The shot involved 1306 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward 4 6 1950 RaLa Shot the NNW NNE The wind speed was 18-37 mph A B-17 flight took place RaLa shot # 150 took place at 1431 hours The shot involved 3334 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud tracked toward 4 20 1950 RaLa Shot the N NW The wind speed was 4-12 mph Rala shot # 151 took place on 4 26 1950 at 1400 hours The shot involved 2496 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud 4 26 1950 tracked toward the E SE The wind speed was 5-30 mph The Point Myrtle weather observer was directly under the cloud as it passed over but “he RaLa Shot experienced no contamination ” Rala shot # 152 took place on 5 12 1950 at 1359 hours The shot involved 1355 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud 5 12 1950 RaLa Shot tracked toward the S SW The wind speed was 10-15 mph Rala shot # 153 took place on 5 24 1950 at 1152 hours The shot involved 391 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The cloud 5 24 1950 RaLa Shot tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 6-15 mph 5 29 1950 On May 29 1950 the contaminated waste disposal pit caught fire Fire Contam Event 6 27 1950 On June 27 1950 -250 g of UO 3 were spilled during the transfer from a cabinet to the hood Rala shot # 154 took place on 7 13 1950 at 1410 DST hours The shot involved 1000 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 601 to 750 lbs The 7 13 1950 cloud tracked toward the NE and N The wind speed was 8-26 mph The cloud motion observer's report stated “The cloud track given herein applies to RaLa Shot only a small segment of the cloud The bulk of the cloud seemed to dissipate without ever rising above the canyon walls ” Page 16-12 Initial Repos Page of No Interest 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 3483 3483 7 8 2 all Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description Page 10 of 32 Incident Type 8 18 1950 10 3 1950 On August 18 1950 a tank containing contaminated ammonium nitrate was found leaking The floor and area was decontaminated Liquid Release On October 3 1950 a container of PuO 2 was opened and contaminated Room 513 of CMR 12 User Error On February 1 1951 there was a criticality incident involving remote control operation of 2 cylinders of U-235 The cylinders weighted 24 4 kg and 2 1 1951 38 5 kg of 93% U-235 The 2 cylinders were in a water reflected system There was slight oxidation of the uranium 1017 total fissions were Criticality involved 9 13 1951 On September 13 1951 in Room 201 of DP West a drybox caught fire contaminating the room Fire 9 29 1951 On September 29 1951 a bottle containing 10 grams of enriched U-235 was dropped in Room 307 spilling the contents on the floor Contam Event An accident occurred on October 6 1951 and high levels of contamination were spread in Building 52 of DP East Everyone leaving was monitored 10 6 1951 Air Release and two cars were found to be contaminated and they were cleaned before the employees left for home On October 23 1951 a beaker containing 8 hydroxy quinoline and plutonium exploded releasing contamination into Room D-304 The filter queen 10 23 1951 located in D-304 was changed immediately and very high levels of contamination were found The amount of Pu present in the solution was not over Explosion 1-2 milligrams Rala shot # 155 took place on 3 26 1952 at 1652 hours The shot involved 270 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the SE The wind speed was 20 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 15 mR h at 1 5 miles Radiation monitoring started from Point Weather westward and included the northern part of the Los Alamos housing area 0 04 mR h was recorded 0 1 miles from Point 3 26 1952 RaLa Shot Weather No activity above background was detected elsewhere on return to TA-1 A second monitor started from the Main Hill Road intersection with State Road 4 and found no activity except “0 15 mr h in the vicinity of the first large bend in the road east of the main guard gate ” No activity was detected in TA-1 Criticality 4 18 1952 On April 18 1952 there was a criticality incident involving 92 4 kg U metal 93% 235U due to computation error 1 5x10 16 total fissions were involved 6 16 1952 On June 16 1952 plutonium metal ignited in an open port drybox in D-138 of D Building The fire was quickly quenched with water Fire Rala shot # 156 took place on 8 11 1952 at 1755 hours The shot involved 2400 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs Monitoring began from Point Weather where activity of 0 05 mR h was recorded At the picnic grounds on North Mesa background activity was recorded At 8 11 1952 RaLa Shot the Sportsman's Club and 35th and Diamond Drive less than 0 1 mR h was recorded Throughout North Community activity was less than 0 05 mR h The survey sheet noted “ before shot background was 0 15 after shot 0 1 mr ” Initial Repos Page of No Interest 3483 3483 8 13 1571 6206 5 all 3486 3486 7 9 3486 9 3486 9 2 all 6206 3495 all 9 2 all 8 21 1952 Rala shot # 157 took place on 8 21 1952 at 1151 hours The shot involved 2900 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N High-volume air samplers located at Station 20 on Puye Road White Rock Well #3 just east of Guaje pumice mine and Totavi gave the following results 239 689 460 and 931 cpm respectively Five-stage cascade impactor data were as follows at White Rock all five stages—0 cpm at Well #3 4th stage—31 cpm 5th stage Whatman #41 paper —4 cpm Totavi 5th stage molecular filter —16 cpm RaLa Shot 2 all 8 29 1952 Rala shot # 158 took place on 8 29 1952 at 1259 hours The shot involved 800 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E NE Air samplers run in Espanola and on Puye Road showed activity in the 30- to 100-nCi range “Good coverage was obtained on the last Bayo shot #158 and evaluation of these data has been completed showing no hazard in any inhabited areas ” RaLa Shot 2 all 12 9 1952 On December 9 1952 in S-104 uranium in a furnace caught fire and was contained in the furnace Clean-up of S-104 was conducted on December 11 and 12 Fire 3495 11 1 8 1953 On January 8 1953 Po contamination was discovered at Pajarito Site Room 119 of Building 30 Employees of W-2 were exposed over a period of at least a week and several employee homes were contaminated By January 13 1953 all of W-2 and W-5 and SD houses were decontaminated As much as 2 Ci of Po were released Contam Event 124 3492 1 Page 16-13 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description On April 3 1953 the city dump was possibly contaminated with 125 lbs of tuballoy 26 lbs were recovered and the remainder was incinerated The top layer of ashes was removed and three truck loads of dirt were placed over the contamination site Rala shot # 159 took place on 6 10 1953 The shot was not fired the explosive burned Fallout trays on the main hill road and one high-volume air 6 10 1953 sampler in Guaje Canyon showed measurable activity The monthly progress report of H-1 the Health Physics Group stated “Although the east project access road main hill road was contaminated the levels were low enough that they did not constitute a health hazard ” 6 26 1953 On June 26 1953 there was a small fire in a flask containing uranium hydride in D-151 On June 29 1953 an employee spilled approximately 40 µg of plutonium nitrate in Z Building on the floor The area was decontaminated the 6 29 1953 following day 8 10 1953 On August 10 1953 a dissolver exploded releasing U-235 over the entire room Rala shot # 160 took place on 8 14 1953 at 1402 hours The shot involved 600 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud 8 14 1953 tracked toward the SE The wind speed was 10 mph 9 10 1953 Rala shot # 161 took place on 9 10 1953 at 1400 hours The shot involved 250 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs 10 9 1953 Rala shot # 162 took place on 10 9 1953 at 1300 hours The shot involved 215 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs 11 12 1953 On November 12 1953 there was an undetermined explosion in Room 501 that contaminated the room 12 5 1953 On December 5 1953 a glass furnace in a vacuum hood exploded releasing 40g of uranium 1 28 1954 On January 28 1954 a fire occurred at the contamination dump There have been 8 accidental prompt-critical excursions at Pajarito Site to date The dates of the accidents are February 1951 April 1952 February 1954 July 1956 February 1957 June 1960 December 1962 May 1967 The only notable damage that occurred was in the February 1954 event 2 1 1954 During that even there was a slight warping of the U 93 pieces but no measurable fission-products were released This was the second Lady Godiva accident 4 3 1953 2 3 1954 2 8 1954 2 12 1954 3 8 1954 3 19 1954 3 29 1954 4 14 1954 4 19 1954 On February 3 1954 there was a criticality incident involving 53 kg U metal 93% 235U due to incorrect operation at the Lady Godiva reactor There was a slight warping of the pieces 5 6 x 1016 total fissions were involved On February 8 1954 in CMR- 4 tritium was released when a U-tube cracked under a hood Rala shot # 163 took place on 2 12 1954 at 1620 hours The shot involved 2730 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE Two air-sampling count data sheets provided the following information one for Puye Road background activity one for Espanola 44 net cpm no conversion to disintegrations per minute are given Rala shot # 164 took place on 3 8 1954 at 1615 hours The shot involved 2000 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E Rala shot # 165 took place on 3 19 1954 at 1130 hours The shot involved 150 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs On March 29 1954 an 800-pound pig slipped and dropped off the tailgate of a pickup dumping a white powder on the truck and the dock The area became contaminated with Sr-90 and was decontaminated No one was allowed to wear contaminated clothing home Rala shot # 166 took place on 4 14 1954 at 1345 hours The shot involved 190 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the SE No radiation was detected Fallout was monitored starting at the main gate Otowi ruins White Rock Mora's Castle also known as the Duchess' Castle Otowi Bridge and 5 miles up Espanola highway State Road 5 were surveyed from the main hill road No readings above background were obtained On April 19 1954 a mixture containing 5 milligrams of americium exploded Page 16-14 Page 11 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest User Error 191 53 RaLa Shot 2 all Fire 3491 4 Contam Event 3491 5 Explosion 3491 9 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot RaLa Shot Explosion Explosion Fire 2 2 3491 3491 1184 all all 12 13 233 Criticality 3167 3168 18 1 Criticality 6206 all Air Release 3493 2 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all User Error 3493 13 RaLa Shot 2 all Explosion 3493 14 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description Page 12 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest Equipment Malfunction 2364 3 7 31 1954 RaLa shot # 167 took place at 1605 hours The shot involved 1400 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 5 mR h at 2 25 miles The cloud started to the NE with very little velocity the wind shifted shortly after the shot took place and spread fallout to the SE and S A rain shower occurred in Bayo Canyon 35 minutes after the shot Activity was detected between SR 4 and the Sandia Canyon guard station one-half mile east of SR 4 Measurements in White Rock showed background activity The next evening 1 mR h was measured at Otowi ruins A hand-drawn fallout map was made from which D Meyer deduces “Fallout area was approximately 4 square miles average reading was 0 5 mr hr with shield open at waist level This equals to about 1 mr hr at contact shield open or 0 15 mr hr shield closed at 6” from ground ” RaLa Shot 2 all 8 5 1954 RaLa shot # 168 took place at 1830 hours The shot involved 1500 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 0 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 4 mR h at 2 5 miles 0 15 mR h at 12 miles The team made background readings in Rendija Canyon to the north and northeast several hours before the shot finding elevated background activity from the previous shot #167 After the shot a counterclockwise survey began reaching Totavi at 1845 The team returned up Guaje Canyon encountering new fallout measuring 0 4 mR h at the pumice mine background in the morning was 0 04 mR h but found no further increase over the earlier background activity as far as the junction of Guaje and Rendija canyons The team returned down Guaje Canyon and proceeded toward Espanola encountering activity 4 5 miles south of Espanola with a maximum of 0 2 mR h at the Puye Road turnoff Activity was 0 15 mR h at Santa Clara Pueblo and 0 1 to 0 15 mR h in Espanola The team returned to Puye Road the next morning and found slightly lower readings than the day before RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all 7 2 1954 Glass tube holding plutonium covered wire broke releasing Pu at Y Building on July 2 1954 9 9 1954 9 16 1954 RaLa shot # 169 took place at 1518 hours The shot involved 265 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the S The wind speed was 1 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance 0 1 mR h at 1 mile 0 45 mR hr at 2 miles 0 3 mR hr at 2 5 miles 0 18 mR hr at 4 miles The survey team passed the Los Alamos airstrip at 1538 where fallout was encountered a maximum of 1 1 mR h was recorded 1 4 miles east of the airport Team members completed the survey including west up Guaje Canyon all readings were background which varied between 0 03 and 0 05 mR h More readings were taken the next day on other roads further south a fallout map was prepared showing a relatively narrow fall­ out pattern to the south-southwest over laboratory property crossing Sandia Canyon 0 45 mr hr and other east-west roads in the laboratory area RaLa shot # 170 took place at 1458 hours The shot involved 300 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NW No radiation was detected The team started a clockwise survey from TA-1 before 1500 and continued on to Espanola and Riverside east side of Espanola No fallout above background was detected A map was made 10 21 1954 An electrode broke within a flask causing tritium to be released into the hood in Room 220 of HRL Building on October 21 1954 10 24 1954 U-235 material ignited spontaneously in the sigma vault on October 24 1954 RaLa shot # 171 took place at 1335 hours The shot involved 2200 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The wind speed was 7 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 3 mR h at 1 5 miles The team started a clockwise perimeter 11 4 1954 survey from TA-1 at 1600 background activity was 0 03 mR h All readings were background to State Road 4 The team returned up Guaje Rendija Canyons and measured 0 3 mR h for about 0 5 miles beginning 1 5 miles east of the Sportsman's Club Apparently the activity was missed or had not yet arrived on the first pass Page 16-15 Equipment Malfunction Fire 2368 3 2368 3 RaLa Shot 2 all Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description RaLa shot # 172 took place at 1500 hours The shot involved 2440 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 3 mR h 3 5 miles 0 2 mR h at 5 miles The team began a clockwise perimeter survey at 1538 and encountered fallout in Guaje Canyon about 1 1 mile west of State Road 4 with a maximum of 0 2 mR h at 1 mile west of State Roads 4 The 11 16 1954 team checked Totavi background and then started north on the Espanola Road State Road 5 Very low readings 0 04 to 0 075 mR hr were found in the first 1 9 miles north of State Road 4 and 5 junction The team returned west up Guaje Canyon the measured maximum of 0 3 mR h was again found 1 mile up canyon essentially the same as before Background seemed quite variable on this survey RaLa shot # 173 took place at 1645 hours The shot involved 1585 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNW The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 mR h at 1 5 miles Team members began a clockwise survey from TA-1 before 1730 12 2 1954 background was 0 04 to 0 05 mR h They encountered fallout at the Sportsman's Club which continued for 2 5 miles the maximum reading of 1 0 mR h was recorded 0 5 miles west of the Rendija Canyon gate On December 7 1954 Room 5006 of CMR Building was found to be highly contaminated The exhaust fan for this room is not filtered 12 7 1954 contamination was probably released into the environment 12 9 1954 RaLa shot # 174 took place on 12 9 1954 at 1604 hours The shot involved 500 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs RaLa shot # 175 took place on 12 30 1954 at 1445 hours The shot involved 320 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE No radiation was detected The team surveyed Rendija and Guaje canyons No readings above background were found though 12 30 1954 spurious readings were encountered between the Sportsman's Club and the Rendija Canyon gate These readings were explained as residual from previous shots Although we have no fallout data on the previous shot it seems unlikely that this explanation is valid because of the decay time 1 1 1955 1 6 1955 1 12 1955 1 13 1955 3 9 1955 3 17 1955 Page 13 of 32 Incident Type RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Air Release 3493 21 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all 3053 53 2 all 2 all 3489 4 2383 2 2 all On one occasion during the year it was suspected that the city water line was contaminated due to corrosion Tests did not detect contamination but Liquid Release the repairs were made RaLa shot # 176 took place on 1 6 1955 at 1415 hours The shot involved 134 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 7 mR h at 1 5 miles A clockwise perimeter survey monitored Rendija and RaLa Shot Guaje canyons as far as the well-drilling site below the Guaje pumice mine Readings were 2 times background 0 07 mR h from the Rendija Canyon gate to 0 6 miles east of the gate All other readings were background RaLa shot # 177 took place on 1 12 1955 at 1415 hours The shot involved 180 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNE The maximum radiation measured at distance mR h was 0 12 mR h at 1 3 miles Two surveys were made in Rendija and RaLa Shot Guaje canyons to about I mile past the pumice mine Twice background 0 07 mR h was measured from the Rendija Canyon gate about 0 6 miles east All other readings were background On January 13 1955 a ampule of americium curium mixture exploded spreading contamination on two workers The workers rinsed off in a sink and Explosion drove to the hospital The route to the hospital and the vehicle was decontaminated Uranium was released into the hood of Room 121 at TA-46 on March 9 1954 Air Release RaLa shot # 178 took place on 3 17 1955 at 1255 hours The shot involved 3160 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 201 to 350 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE No radiation was detected A northern perimeter survey was done in Rendija and Guaje canyons down and back All readings RaLa Shot showed background activity Page 16-16 Initial Repos Page of No Interest Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 3 23 1955 3 30 1955 4 7 1955 4 22 1955 4 28 1955 5 5 1955 5 12 1955 5 12 1955 Description RaLa shot # 179 took place at 1315 hours The shot involved 2260 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 8-15 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 3 mR h at 3 miles A clockwise perimeter survey starting about 1400 found only background activity in Rendija and Guaje canyons The team encountered fallout just east of Totavi 0 1 mR h which increased through Totavi and reached 0 3 mR h at 0 2 miles west of Totavi and continued for 0 3 miles The team retraced its route to check further east of Totavi to Otowi Bridge readings showed background activity Activity at the White Rock Y intersection of main hill road and State Road 4 measured 0 1 mR h measurements taken towards and in White Rock were all background A reading of 1 mR h was recorded at Otowi ruins by another team A rough map was drawn RaLa shot # 180 took place at 1315 hours The shot involved 2642 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 6-10 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 6 mR h at 2 miles The general background activity in the Los Alamos area was elevated because of fallout from the Nevada Test Site NTS Background activity of 0 5 mR h was measured in TA-1 0 1 to 0 2 mR h on State Road 4 to Totavi and 0 1 to 0 15 mR h on North and Tank Barranca mesas The Guaje-Rendija survey passed the Sportsman's Club at 1415 where the background due to NTS fallout was 0 3 mR h The team found readings in excess of this background and attributed these readings to activity from this shot for about 1 mile west of the Guaje pumice mine to the mine RaLa shot # 181 took place at 1522 hours The shot involved 2080 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The wind speed was 5 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 7 mR h at 1 2 miles The team stalled the Rendija and Guaje canyons survey from TA-1 at 1600 encountering activity 1 9 miles past the Sportsman's Club This activity continued for about 1 mile with a maximum of 0 07 mR h measured 0 1 miles east of the Rendija Canyon gate to 0 5 miles past the Guaje pumice mine Here the team turned around and retraced its path At 1654 the reading at the Sportsman's Club had increased to 0 075 mR h It was noted that “residual readings of 0 04 to 0 06 mr hr from NTS test fallout a week ago prevailed throughout the survey area ” RaLa shot # 182 took place at 1810 hours The shot involved 700 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 4 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began to survey Rendija and Guaje canyons at 1845 background activity was 0 03 mR h Activity was encountered 2 3 miles past the Sportsman's Club and continued for about 1 mile with a maximum of 0 4 mR h 2 3 miles past the Sportsman's Club RaLa shot # 183 took place at 1515 hours The shot involved 3200 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs RaLa shot # 184 took place at 1540 hours The shot involved 2560 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 2 mR h at 2 miles A team surveying Rendija and Guaje canyons passed the Sportsman's Club at 1625 background was 0 02 to 0 04 mR h The team encountered fallout 2 miles further at Rendija Canyon gate fallout continued to 0 7 miles past the Guaje pumice mine A maximum reading of 0 2 mR h was measured 0 4 miles east of the junction of Rendija and Guaje canyons All other readings were background On May 12 1955 a small furnace erupted releasing an unknown quantity estimated at less than one kilogram of uranium in Room 102 of Sigma Building There was a tuballoy fire in Sigma Building Room 103 on May 12 1955 Page 14 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Explosion 2374 6 Fire 3489 10 5 12 1955 RaLa shot # 185 took place at 1625 hours The shot involved 2100 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 10 mph No radiation was detected Rendija and Guaje canyons were surveyed All readings showed background activity RaLa Shot 2 all 5 20 1955 RaLa shot # 186 took place at 1845 hours The shot involved 1470 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 5 mR h at 1 5 miles Rendija and Guaje canyons were surveyed Activity at the Rendija Canyon gate was 0 18 mR h At 0 2 miles east of the Rendija Canyon gate the reading was 0 5 mR h All other readings were 0 08 to 0 1 mR h RaLa Shot 2 all Page 16-17 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Page 15 of 32 Date of Incident Description Incident Type 5 26 1955 RaLa shot # 187 took place at 1154 hours The shot involved 520 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The wind speed was 4-7 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 mR hr at 1 2 miles Rendija and Guaje canyons were surveyed All readings were background which was noted as “elevated from previous shot ” A reading of 1 mR h was recorded at Otowi ruins RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 188 took place at 1345 hours The shot involved 490 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 10 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 16 mR h at 1 5 miles Rendija and Guaje canyons were 6 2 1955 RaLa Shot surveyed The path of fallout extended 0 3 miles west of the Rendija Canyon gate to 0 8 miles east The highest reading was 0 16 mR h D Meyer's handwritten note says “no fallout found” we assume he interpreted the fallout as resulting from previous shot s 7 21 1955 On July 21 1955 some normal uranium caught fire in Room 1131 Fire On August 3 1955 a mock fission polonium source containing 25 2 curies of Po exploded in the basement of the Physics Building Contamination 8 3 1955 Explosion was spread through out the Physics Building 8 19 1955 On August 19 1955 an employee dropped a test tube containing one gram of normal uranium in Wing 2 of CMR Building User Error 9 6 1955 On September 6 1955 a radiation contamination incident occurred in Room 1 of ML Building Contam Event RaLa shot # 189 took place at 1455 hours The shot involved 2600 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 2 mR h at 2 miles The team began a clockwise perimeter survey from Point Weather at 9 16 1955 1500 background was 0 03 mR h The highest reading of 0 2 mR h was measured at Point Weather which must have been direct radiation from the RaLa Shot firing pad reading 65 R h at a meter above the firing pad after the shot Fallout was encountered in Guaje Canyon at the pumice mine continuing for 1 2 miles with a maximum of 0 2 mR h recorded 0 3 miles east of the pumice mine RaLa shot # 190 took place at 1631 hours The shot involved 2600 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward 9 28 1955 RaLa Shot the NE The wind speed was 10 mph RaLa shot # 191 took place at 1515 hours The shot involved 2200 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNE The wind speed was light The maximum radiation measured at distance was 2 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from TA-1 at 1555 background was 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered 1 4 miles east of the Sportsman's Club which continued about 0 6 miles down 10 7 1955 RaLa Shot Rendija Canyon The team continued west up Guaje Canyon encountering fallout 0 2 miles west up canyon this fallout continued for 1 1 miles with a peak of 1 mR h recorded 0 8 miles west up canyon The team completed the survey down Guaje Canyon and returned through Totavi All activity was background RaLa shot # 192 took place at 1720 hours The shot involved 2000 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 5 mR h 6 miles The team began a counterclockwise survey past the main gate at 1800 background was 0 01 to 0 03 mR h The team encountered activity 0 4 miles north on Espanola Road State Road 5 which continued for about 3 10 19 1955 miles A maximum reading of 0 5 mR h was measured The team surveyed around the gravel pits near the Rio Grande south of Pajarito Village a RaLa Shot maximum of 2 mR h probably was influenced by several particles judging from the lower readings on State Road 5 One particle read 1 4 mR h beta plus gamma at “contact ” and another read 11 mR h gamma at 6 inches using a Cutie Pie ion-chamber survey instrument Later photomicrographs autoradiographs and activity determinations of two particles were made each particle measured over 300 microns in the longest dimension Page 16-18 Initial Repos Page of No Interest 2 all 2 all 1184 466 2377 3 3489 3489 14 14 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description RaLa shot # 193 took place at 1630 hours The shot involved 3987 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 mR h at 3 miles 0 1 mR h at 10 miles The team began a counterclockwise perimeter survey from TA-1 at 1725 background was 0 03 mR h All readings showed background activity until 5 4 miles past Totavi on Espanola Road State 10 26 1955 Road 5 where fallout was encountered that continued to Santa Clara Pueblo a maximum of 0 15 mR h was found at Puye Road The team returned up Guaje Canyon encountering fallout 1 8 miles west up canyon which continued for about 1 mile The maximum reading of 1 0 mR h was recorded 1 mile east of the Guaje pumice mine The remainder of the perimeter survey readings showed background activity Page 16 of 32 Incident Type RaLa Shot RaLa shot # 194 took place at 1605 hours The shot involved 3500 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNE The wind speed was 7 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 6 mR h at 1 5 miles 3 0 mR h at 2 miles 0 2 mR h at 5 miles The team began a clockwise perimeter survey from TA-1 at 1645 background activity was 0 04 mR h Fallout was encountered 2 1 miles past the Sportsman's Club and continued for about 1 mile A maximum reading of 1 6 mR h was recorded 0 3 miles further on The team went west up RaLa Shot 11 3 1955 Guaje Canyon encountering fallout 0 3 miles up canyon The fallout continued for about 1 mile with a maximum of 3 0 mR h recorded between 0 6 to 0 7 miles west up canyon The remainder of the perimeter survey was completed down Guaje Canyon through Totavi and back to TA-1 All readings showed background activity The following morning Puye Road was surveyed with readings fluctuating between 0 1 and 0 2 mR h from the Espanola Road State Road 5 to the Puye Ruins RaLa shot # 195 took place at 1354 hours The shot involved 1600 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 8-10 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 65 mR h at 1 5 miles 0 3 mR h at 2 miles The team began a 11 17 1955 clockwise perimeter survey from TA-1 at 1430 background was 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered 0 7 miles past the Sportsman's Club and RaLa Shot continued for 1 4 miles with a maximum of 0 65 mR h recorded 1 7 miles past the Sportsman's Club The team surveyed west up Guaje Canyon a maximum of 0 3 mR h was recorded 2 miles up the canyon RaLa shot # 196 took place at 1535 hours The shot involved 780 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 5-7 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 7 mR h at 1 5 miles 0 4 mR h at 2 miles The team began a clockwise perimeter survey from TA-1 at 1625 background was 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered at the Rendija Canyon gate and continued for 0 8 11 29 1955 RaLa Shot miles with a maximum of 0 7 mR h measured 0 4 miles beyond The fallout pattern also crossed upper Guaje Canyon with a maximum of 0 4 mR h about a mile west up canyon Above-background readings were recorded for about 3 miles to Guaje Canyon gate where the team completed the survey through lower Rendija and Guaje canyons to Totavi Only background activity was found RaLa shot # 197 took place at 1443 hours The shot involved 1300 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E No radiation was detected The team began a special survey from TA-1 at 1500 background activity was 0 05 mR h Since the cloud remained in 1 27 1956 RaLa Shot Bayo Canyon the team surveyed only in the eastern part of the canyon to the Otowi ruins recording a maximum of 0 4 mR h at 0 3 miles west up Bayo Canyon from State Road 4 A rough sketch was made 2 1 1956 In 1956 approximately 1 Ci of Sr was released into Mortandad canyon when a line broke on a full tank of waste Liquid Release During the week of February 11 1956 a pipe carrying water near Ten Site developed a leak releasing 35 000 gallons of contaminated water into 2 11 1956 Liquid Release Mortandad canyon RaLa shot # 198 took place at 1805 hours The shot involved 2100 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 7 mR h at 3 miles The team began a clockwise perimeter survey from TA-1 at 1830 2 21 1956 background activity was 0 05 mR h The picnic grounds and stables on North Mesa and Tank Mesa Barranca Mesa were surveyed background RaLa Shot activity was recorded Fallout was encountered 1 1 miles past the Guaje pumice mine and continued for 1 3 miles with a maximum of 0 7 mR h recorded 0 6 miles past the mine Page 16-19 Initial Repos Page of No Interest 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 2 all 1733 20 2382 2 2 all Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 3 1 1956 Description Page 17 of 32 Incident Type RaLa shot # 199 took place at 1540 hours The shot involved 1400 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 7 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 0 mR h at 2 miles The team began a counterclockwise perimeter survey from TA-1 at 1630 the background activity was 0 03 to 0 05 mR h Fallout was encountered in Guaje Canyon just east of the pumice RaLa Shot mine and continued for almost 3 miles A maximum of 1 0 mR h was recorded about 0 2 miles past the Rendija Guaje Y The team returned west up Rendija Canyon measuring 0 1 to 0 2 mR h for about 0 8 miles Tank Mesa Barranca Mesa and North Mesa were surveyed only background activity was noted On March 9 1956 a spill of uranium flowed into the bottom of the furnace in Room 21 of the Sigma Building Contam Event RaLa shot # 200 took place at 1730 hours The shot involved 435 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the RaLa Shot E The wind speed was 8-12 mph Initial Repos Page of No Interest 2 all 2383 2 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all 4 12 1956 RaLa shot # 204 took place at 1455 hours The shot involved 3740 Ci of Rala with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The wind speed was 12 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 7 mR h at 1 5 miles 0 07 mR h at 5 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from TA-1 at 1555 background activity was 0 03 mR h Down Rendija Canyon 2 miles past the Sportsman's Club the team encountered fallout measuring 0 05 mR h with a maximum of 0 7 mR h recorded 2 5 miles beyond Activity slowly decreased to background activity within half a mile The team continued down Guaje Canyon to State Road 4 and north to Puye Road junction and then west encountering 0 07 mR h 6 to 6 4 miles west on Puye Road essentially directly in line with the previous encounter in Guaje Canyon The next morning the team monitored in Espanola Riverside and Fairview areas east and north of Espanola only background activity was detected RaLa Shot 2 all 4 20 1956 RaLa shot # 205 took place at 1436 hours The shot involved 3200 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNE The wind speed was 8 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 4 mR h at 2 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from TA-1 at 1506 background activity was 0 03 mR h Team members encountered fallout about 0 7 miles past the Sportsman's Club Activity was 0 09 mR h falling to 0 05 mR h in the next 0 3 miles Only background activity was found at Booster #1 3 miles east past the Sportsman's Club and for 2 3 miles west up Guaje Canyon At 2 3 miles fallout was encountered which increased to a broad maximum of 0 4 mR h for 0 4 miles continued at this level for 0 4 miles and then decreased to 0 15 mR h at the Guaje Canyon gate RaLa Shot 2 all 3 9 1956 3 9 1956 3 14 1956 3 22 1956 4 7 1956 RaLa shot # 201 took place at 1345 hours The shot involved 560 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs No radiation was detected The team began a counterclockwise perimeter survey from TA-1 at 1408 the background activity was 0 05 mR h All measurements were background RaLa shot # 202 took place at 1330 hours The shot involved 389 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNE The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 15 mR h at 2 2 miles The survey team left TA-1 at 1420 background radiation was 0 03 mR h A reading of 0 04 mR h was recorded at the picnic grounds on North Mesa 0 15 mR h at “overlook of Bayo” tip of Otowi Mesa called also “North Ridge”—probably direct radiation from the firing pad which was reading 40 R h waist high above the pad shortly after the shot Readings on the “mesa north of previous measurement 0 15 mr hr ” Deer Trap Mesa northeastern-most Barranca Mesa were background At 2 7 miles east of the Sportsman's Club fallout of 0 12 mR h was encountered At 2 9 miles fallout was 0 15 mR h and at Booster #1 near Guaje Rendija Y it was 0 08 mR h About 0 5 miles up Guaje Canyon fallout was 0 13 mR h RaLa shot # 203 took place at 1730 hours The shot involved 1520 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the ESE The wind speed was 8 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 0 mR h at 4 miles The team departed TA-1 at 1812 background activity was 0 03 mR h Background activity was measured until the team reached the “tip of Tank Mesa Barranca Mesa ” where the reading was 0 3 mR h direct radiation from the firing pad may have affected this measurement A clockwise perimeter survey was continued Background activity was recorded until the Guaje Canyon road junction with State Road 4 at that point the reading was 0 10 mR h Background activity was recorded further east to the junction of State Roads 4 and 5 Readings increased to 1 0 mR h at Roy's Service Station Totavi continuing 0 6 miles west only background activity was found to TA-1 The cloud did not rise above the Bayo Canyon walls and apparently followed the canyon Page 16-20 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 4 26 1956 Description RaLa shot # 206 took place at 1140 hours The shot involved 2195 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 5 mph No radiation was detected The survey team left TA-1 at 1223 background activity was 0 03 mR h The team made the complete perimeter survey and found no readings above background The cloud was observed to start to the north and then spread east along the canyon rim RaLa shot # 207 took place at 1145 hours The shot involved 1070 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs No radiation was detected The survey team left TA-1 at 1310 background activity was 0 03 mR h The perimeter survey was completed with no readings above background recorded Page 18 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all 5 21 1956 RaLa shot # 208 took place at 1300 hours The shot involved 4 000 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NW The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 16 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began a clockwise perimeter survey from the Administration Building TA-3 SM-43 at 1340 note the new starting point background activity was 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered from 0 9 to 1 2 miles east of the Sportsman's Club and the maximum activity was 0 15 mR h beyond the Sportsman's Club The team completed the survey route finding only background activity The cloud was observed to move to the south Bayo Canyon wall and then rise and move north RaLa Shot 2 all 5 25 1956 RaLa shot # 209 took place at 1155 hours The shot involved 4195 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 8 mR h at 1 5 miles 1 2 mR h at 2 miles The survey team left Point Weather at 1200 only 5 minutes after the shot and immediately measured 13 mR h probably direct radiation from the cloud not fallout On the continuing clockwise perimeter survey fallout 0 1 mR h was encountered 1 4 miles east of the Sportsman's Club and continued above background with peaks of 0 8 mR h at the Barranca Rendija gate and 1 2 mR h 0 4 miles west up Guaje Canyon The remainder of the survey found no activity above background RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Criticality 6206 all RaLa Shot 2 all 5 10 1956 6 7 1956 6 14 1956 7 3 1956 10 5 1956 RaLa shot # 210 took place at 1455 hours The shot involved 2907 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 7 mR h at 1 5 miles The team left the Administration Building SM-43 at 1416 background activity was 0 03 mR h to Point Weather where the reading was 0 07 mR h probably a direct reading from the firing pad Fallout was encountered 0 6 miles past the Sportsman's Club with a maximum of 0 7 mR h recorded 1 8 miles east It continued above background for another 0 6 miles The team completed surveying the rest of the perimeter encountering only background activity RaLa shot # 211 took place at 1305 hours The shot involved 1840 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the WSW The wind speed was light 5 mph No radiation was detected The survey team left the Administration Building SM-43 at 1315 background activity was 0 03 mR h activity at Point Weather was 0 07 mR h Only background activity was encountered on the perimeter survey The section of State Road 4 road toward White Rock was also checked and background found On July 3 1956 there was a criticality incident involving 58 kg U in the form of 93% U-235 as 2- and 5-mil foils Changes were made in the reflector and graphite moderator and criticality was reached too quickly 3 2 x 10 16 total fissions were involved RaLa shot # 212 took place at 1428 hours The shot involved 2200 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NW and N The wind speed was 13 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 3 mR h at 1 5 miles 1 3 mR h at 2 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1555 background activity was 0 03 mR h activity at Point Weather was 0 5 mR h Fallout was encountered 1 3 miles east of the Sportsman's Club and continued for 3 1 miles with a peak between 1 0 and 1 3 mR h recorded 2 1 miles east of the Club Fallout also crossed Guaje Canyon beginning 0 5 miles west up Guaje Canyon and continuing above background for 2 1 miles A maximum reading of 1 3 mR h was recorded 1 l miles west up canyon Page 16-21 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description RaLa shot # 213 took place at 1534 hours The shot involved 1400 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNW The wind speed was 5 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 8 mR h at 2 miles The team began a clockwise survey from 10 16 1956 the Administration Building SM-43 at 1605 background activity was 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered 2 4 miles east of the Sportsman's Club 0 1 mR h and 0 8 miles west up Guaje Canyon 0 8 mR h During the remainder of the clockwise perimeter survey only background activity was detected On October 23 1956 100 mg of plutonium hexafluoride exploded in a drybox in Room 5122 of CMF 2 The material entered the exhaust system of 10 23 1956 the drybox and was vented into the filter tower for Wing 5 The filter tower filters were changed and monitored for contamination RaLa shot # 214 took place at 1420 hours The shot involved 300 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The wind speed was 10 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 5 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from 10 27 1956 the Administration Building SM-43 at 1501 background activity was 0 04 mR h Fallout was encountered 1 3 miles east past the Sportsman's Club with a peak of 0 5 mR h occurring 0 5 miles further on The peak reading was caused by a one-foot-square contaminated area measuring 6 mR h at 6 inches probably one or more particles RaLa shot # 215 took place at 1023 hours The shot involved 200 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The wind speed was 9 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 3 mR h at 1 5 miles 0 15 mR h at 2 3 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1100 background activity was 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered 0 5 miles east of 11 1 1956 the Sportsman's Club with a peak of 0 3 mR h occurring 1 7 miles past the Sportsman's Club Above-background readings continued to the Rendija Guaje canyons junction and then increased west up Guaje Canyon with a peak of 1 5 mR h occurring 1 8 miles up the canyon and continuing above background for about 1 mile The team completed the perimeter survey down Guaje Canyon to Highway 4 and returned to the Administration Building only background activity was detected RaLa shot # 216 took place at 1500 hours The shot involved 800 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The wind speed was 17 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 0 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1515 background activity was 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered 1 mile past the Sportsman's Club and 12 5 1956 continued for 0 8 miles with a peak of 1 0 mR h occurring 1 4 miles past the Sportsman's Club The perimeter survey was completed with positive readings recorded 1 mile east of the main gate Peak activity of 0 4 mR h occurred at the entrance to the East Gate Lab No explanation was offered for these later readings which are in the opposite direction from which the main cloud was detected Operations at the East Gate Laboratory are suspected see shots #238 240 and 242 RaLa shot # 217 took place at 1450 hours The shot involved 225 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the W and SW The wind speed was 3 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 mR h at 0 6 miles 0 3 mR h at 1 mile 0 5 mR h at 2 miles The team began a counterclockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1510 background activity was 0 05 mR h A reading 12 20 1956 of 0 3 mR h was recorded at the dump site near the Los Alamos Airport The team completed the perimeter survey all readings showed only background activity A town site survey began at 1700 a peak of 0 15 mR h was recorded at the eastern end of Manhattan Loop eastern residential area Activity up to 0 075 mR h was recorded at the DP Road trailer court south of the airport At 0 1 miles west of Point Weather activity from 1 mR h to 0 5 mR h was recorded to the ballpark on North Mesa where background activity was measured 2 7 1957 2 8 1957 On February 7 1957 an explosion and fire occurred in the pure metal drybox in Room 406 of DP West The only contamination found was on the outside of the air intake filters On February 8 1957 tinners disconnected the exhaust duct on the wooden drybox line in Room 500 Highly contaminated dust spread throughout the south part of the room Page 16-22 Page 19 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest RaLa Shot 2 all Explosion 4055 6 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Explosion 4056 16 Air Release 3490 11 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description At 3 pm on February 12 1957 the Godiva assembly located at Kiva 2 at Pajarito Site went supercritical Filters in the heating system were found to be highly contaminated The exhaust system was not running at the time of the incident This incident involved 54 kg U metal which was 93% U-235 There was warping and oxidation near melting close to center 1 2 x 10 17 total fissions were involved On March 7 1957 a worker in Room 2125 Wing 2 of CMR Building was working with 20 grams of plutonium in a glovebox when they noticed that there was a leak in the glove RaLa shot # 218 took place at 1245 hours The shot involved 2140 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The wind speed was 15 mph On March 27 1957 an explosion occurred in the machine lathe drybox in Room 500 The operator of the lathe was highly contaminated After showering no contamination was detected Page 20 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest Criticality 2817 6206 1-2 all Air Release 3490 19 RaLa Shot 2 all Explosion 3490 23 3 29 1957 RaLa shot # 219 took place at 1250 hours The shot involved 3079 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E The wind speed was 6 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 1 mR h at 3 miles 0 07 mR h at 7 miles The team began a counterclockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1330 background activity was 0 03 mR h A reading of 0 1 mR h was recorded at the stables on North Mesa but it was questioned on the survey sheet as not being reasonable probably because the cloud was reported to have gone to the east Fallout of 0 07 mR h was encountered in Guaje Canyon 0 7 miles past the pumice mine continuing for about 0 5 miles with a peak of 0 1 mR hr halfway between Activity between 0 5 and 0 07 mR h was recorded north on State Road 5 3 2 miles from the junction RaLa Shot 2 all 4 17 1957 RaLa shot # 220 took place at 1630 hours The shot involved 3249 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E The wind speed was 12 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 4 mR h at 4 5 miles The team left the Administration Building SM-43 at 1650 background activity was 0 03 mR h During the counterclockwise perimeter survey fallout 0 04 mR h was encountered at the junction of the Main Hill Road White Rock cutoff It increased to a maximum of 0 4 mR h at 0 3 miles before the junction of Guaje Canyon and State Road 4 At Otowi Bridge activity was 0 08 mR h at the Espanola Highway State Road 5 to Puye Road it was 0 08 to 0 09 mR h for 3 miles At the entrance to Guaje Canyon activity was 0 2 mR h and persisted to the Guaje pumice mine where the 0 08 mR h reading was attributed to contamination on the vehicle since the reading continued at this level until the team returned to the Administration Building Weather observations confirmed that the cloud did not rise above the canyon walls to reach the southwest winds RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Fire 3490 23 Contam Event 3490 49 RaLa Shot 2 all 2 12 1957 3 7 1957 3 16 1957 3 27 1957 5 9 1957 6 5 1957 6 13 1957 6 20 1957 RaLa shot # 221 took place at 1600 hours The shot involved 1000 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the SE The wind speed was 7 mph No radiation was detected The team began a clockwise survey from Administration Building SM-43 at 1630 background activity was 0 04 mR h A clockwise perimeter survey was completed that included Puye Road no measurable fallout was detected Weather observations of the cloud support these findings The cloud remained in Bayo Canyon There was a fire in the back of a contaminated dump truck on June 5 1957 On June 13 1957 there was a contamination incident in Room 513 of DP West The contamination occurred during the cleaning out of a Lucite casting tunnel RaLa shot # 222 took place at 1540 hours The shot involved 1000 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 12 mph No radiation was detected The team left the Administration Building SM-43 at 1625 background was 0 03 mR h A counterclockwise survey included the Puye pumice mine the survey team returned through Guaje Canyon The recorded instrument readings fluctuated between 0 02 and 0 05 mR h but were considered negative Weather observations confirmed that the cloud remained in the canyon Page 16-23 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 7 10 1957 7 11 1957 7 23 1957 8 15 1957 8 16 1957 8 30 1957 9 27 1957 Description RaLa shot # 223 took place at 1625 hours The shot involved 2257 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNW The wind speed was 8 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 6 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from Administration Building SM-43 at 1640 background activity was 0 05 mR h Fallout was encountered 0 4 miles east past the Sportsman's Club with a maximum of 0 6 mR h recorded just beyond and falling to background 0 8 miles past the Sportsman's Club Incident Type RaLa Shot On September 27 1957 rags contaminated with sodium and uranium caught fire in Room 133 at Ten Site Fire was quickly extinguished with CO2 11 12 1957 On November 12 1957 a vial containing 14 000 c m of plutonium was dropped at the stairs leading from the first floor of HRL Building RaLa shot # 227 took place at 1302 hours The shot involved 1340 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E The wind speed was 13 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 16 mR h at 3 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1343 background activity was 0 02 mR h Fallout was encountered at Well #1 and continued for 1 8 miles with a maximum of 0 16 mR h recorded 1 3 miles west up canyon from State Road 4 Page 16-24 Initial Repos Page of No Interest 2 all 721 49 2 all 4056 8 3490 53 2413 4 Fire 2414 3 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all User Error 2489 3 RaLa Shot 2 all On July 11 1957 a leak was discovered in the buried acid waste tank outside Building #35 DP West The contaminated ground was dug up and put Liquid Release into metal containers to be disposed of in the contamination dump RaLa shot # 224 took place at 1306 hours The shot involved 1520 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The wind speed was 8 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 6 mR h at 1 5 miles 1 0 mR h at 2 2 miles 0 08 mR h at 4 miles The team began a clockwise survey from Administration Building SM-43 at 1335 background activity was 0 05 mR h Fallout was RaLa Shot encountered 1 2 miles east past the Sportsman's Club with a maximum of 0 6 mR h recorded 1 4 miles past the Sportsman's Club The same reading was recorded 2 0 miles past the Sportsman's Club A reading of 1 0 mR h was recorded 1 6 miles west up Guaje Canyon 0 08 mR h was recorded at the Puye pumice mine although the same reading was recorded at the Administration Building which does not seem reasonable Contamination on the detector or the vehicle is suspected On August 15 1957 an explosion occurred in a glove box chain in Room 500 18 rubber gloves were torn and three safety windows were cracked Explosion Five men were contaminated no skin contamination was detected after showering On August 16 1957 an explosion occurred in a glovebox chain in Room 500 Five men were contaminated with Pu Explosion On August 30 1957 large quantities of plutonium contamination were dispersed over the floor hood and sink in three labs in J-11 contamination was Air Release also detected in the J-2 Building hallway RaLa shot # 225 took place at 1607 hours The shot involved 1960 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 8 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building 9 27 1957 SM-43 at 1707 background activity was 0 05 mR h Fallout was encountered 1 4 miles east past the Sportsman's Club with a maximum of 0 8 mR h recorded 1 5 miles past the Sportsman's Club RaLa shot # 226 took place at 1726 hours The shot involved 1153 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 7 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance mR h was 0 3 mR h at 2 2 miles The team began a clockwise 10 10 1957 survey and reached the Sportsman's Club at 1814 background activity was 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered 0 2 miles past the Rendija Guaje junction with a maximum of 0 3 mR h recorded 0 4 miles down canyon Activity continued above background until past the Guaje pumice mine During the rest of the survey only background activity was recorded 1 30 1958 Page 21 of 32 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Page 22 of 32 Initial Repos Page of No Interest Date of Incident Description Incident Type 2 19 1958 RaLa shot # 228 took place at 1545 hours The shot involved 1850 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNW The wind speed was 5 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 5 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1625 background activity was 0 02 mR h Fallout was encountered at the Sportsman's Club with a maximum of 5 mR h recorded one mile east past the Sportsman's Club Above background readings continued to Booster #2 at the junction of Rendija and Guaje canyons RaLa Shot 2 all 3 7 1958 RaLa shot # 229 took place at 1655 hours The shot involved 1800 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNW The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 0 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1743 background activity was 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered 1 9 miles east past the Sportsman's Club with a maximum of 1 0 mR h recorded 2 1 miles past the Sportsman's Club Above-background activity was recorded to the junction of Rendija Guaje canyons RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all 4 3 1958 5 1 1958 6 3 1958 RaLa shot # 230 took place at 1505 hours The shot involved 1100 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NW NE The wind speed was 5 mph No radiation was detected The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1535 for a clockwise perimeter survey All readings showed background activity RaLa shot # 231 took place at 1430 hours The shot involved 1134 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NNW The wind speed was 10 mph RaLa shot # 232 took place at 1450 hours The shot involved 1316 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the NE The wind speed was 12 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 18 mR h at 2 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1535 background activity was 0 05 mR h Fallout was encountered at the Rendija Guaje junction with a maximum of 0 18 mR h recorded 0 7 miles down canyon The remainder of the survey recorded background activity Large quantities of tritium were released in the filling chamber of Room 9 of the HP-86 facility at TA-33 on July 25 1958 It was estimated that 13 000 curies were lost Building 86 was evacuated and road blocks were set up 10 28 1958 A fire was detected on October 28 1958 in pit #6 of the contaminated dump On November 6 1958 K Division members were removing a plutonium pilot plant from the air filter building contamination was spread to the floor 11 6 1958 wheels of the fork lift and the dirt east of the building RaLa shot # 233 took place at 1545 hours The shot involved 1305 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 4 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1600 background activity was 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered twice background in the “new housing area” Barranca Mesa and 12 8 1958 1 0 mR h was recorded at the end of Tank Mesa Barranca Mesa overlooking the firing site Back on the clockwise perimeter survey route fallout was encountered 1 2 miles east past the Sportsman's Club with a maximum of 1 4 mR h recorded at the Guaje Canyon gate The remainder of the survey route showed background activity 7 25 1958 12 30 1958 2 20 1959 On December 30 1958 there was a criticality incident involving 3 27 kg Pu Pu0 2 N03 2 in 168 liters of water The cylinder contained dissolved Pu when the agitator was stared it created critical geometry One death resulted from the accident 1 5 x 1017 total fissions were involved RaLa shot # 234 took place at 1335 hours The shot involved 1250 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 18 mR h at 1 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1405 background activity was 0 04 mR h Fallout was encountered 0 5 miles past the Sportsman's Club and continued for 2 miles with a maximum of 0 18 mR h recorded at Booster #2 which is 1 2 miles east of the Sportsman's Club Page 16-25 Fire 2422 4057 4057 Contam Event 2510 3 RaLa Shot 2 all Criticality 6206 all RaLa Shot 2 all Air Release 4 20 27 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 3 13 1959 Description RaLa shot # 235 took place at 1405 hours The shot involved 1070 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs No radiation was detected The team left the Administration Building SM-43 at 1426 background activity was 0 05 mR h The team completed the counterclockwise survey all readings showed background activity On March 17 308 curies of tritium were released to the outside when a valve on a Van de Graff was left open During processing of irradiated U-235 at TA-48 uranium oxide was blown out of the hood when a sample can was opened Page 23 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest RaLa Shot 2 all Air Release Explosion 2739 2514 3 4 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Air Release 2515 4 RaLa Shot 2 all 6 4 1959 RaLa shot # 239 took place at 1527 hours The shot involved 995 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the ENE The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 4 mR h at 2 7 miles The team left the Administration Building SM-43 at 1630 background activity was 0 04 mR h During the clockwise survey above-background activity was encountered at Booster #1 3 miles east of the Sportsman's Club It continued for 1 4 miles with a maximum reading of 0 4 mR h recorded 3 8 miles past the Sportsman's Club RaLa Shot 2 all 6 26 1959 RaLa shot # 240 took place at 1400 hours The shot involved 954 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the E The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 12 mR h at 2 5 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1419 background activity was 0 02 mR h Fallout was encountered at the Guaje pumice mine and continued for 1 6 miles with a maximum of 0 12 mR h recorded 0 8 miles past the mine Fallout was encountered again on the Main Hill Road 1 3 miles east of the main gate with a maximum of 1 3 mR h recorded 0 5 miles east of the gate Because the cloud was reported to have gone over the north wall of Bayo Canyon this reading is again attributed to the gamma source at the East Gate Laboratory see shots #238 and #242 RaLa Shot 2 all 3 17 1959 4 1 1959 4 2 1959 4 14 1959 5 1 1959 5 15 1959 RaLa shot # 236 took place at 1635 hours The shot involved 980 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The cloud tracked toward the ESE The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 6 mR h at 3 miles The team left the Administration Building SM-43 at 1750 to conduct a clockwise survey background activity was 0 03 to 0 04 mR h Fallout was encountered at the intersection The fallout continued west along State Road 4 for 3 miles with a maximum of 0 6 mR h recorded 1 5 miles west of the Guaje State Road 4 intersection 12 mR h was recorded at an isolated spot The remainder of the survey showed background activity The cloud was observed to go over the north Bayo Canyon wall RaLa shot # 237 took place at 1250 hours The shot involved 1140 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 4 mR h at 1 7 miles The team left the Administration Building SM-43 at 1401 background activity was 0 03 to 0 04 mR h Fallout was encountered 1 2 miles past the Sportsman's Club and readings remained elevated to the White Rock junction on State Road 4 A maximum of 0 4 mR h was recorded 2 miles past the Sportsman's Club During the operation of LAMPRE II radioactive gas was released through the exhaust system causing an increase in background levels around the town site High background levels were detected in the water boiler reactor room due to a disconnected exhaust pump in the valve house the incident increased background levels around the town site RaLa shot # 238 took place at 1547 hours The shot involved 1040 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the ESE The team left the Administration Building SM-43 at 1640 background activity was 0 03 to 0 05 mR h A clockwise survey was conducted only background activity was recorded until fallout was encountered on the Main Hill Road 0 8 miles east of the main gate for about 0 6 miles A maximum of 1 5 mR h was recorded beyond the East Gate Laboratory at the entrance to the Camp Hamilton Trail Because the cloud was reported to go down canyon east-southeast the readings are not believed to be related to the Bayo Canyon activity During this period a large 120-curie cobalt­ 60 source located about 400 feet directly north of the Main Hill Road at the East Gate Laboratory TA-19 was in intermittent use and is believed to explain these readings see also shots #240 and #242 Page 16-26 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description On July 15 1959 a fire broke out in a plutonium contaminated CWS exhaust filter in Room 501 DP West Highly contaminated ash was dispersed throughout the room The clothes of 12 firemen were held for decontamination This occurred during welding of a new section of exhaust duct on the discharge side of the filter unit Tritium gas was released from a storage tank reservoir in Building 86 at TA-33 on July 17 1959 Road blocks were established and 69 people were 7 17 1959 evacuated from the area No appreciable radiation was measured outside the fence of Building 86 8 14 1959 On August 14 1959 a tritium leak occurred at P-9 Van de Graff area when an o ring allowed tritium to be released RaLa shot # 241 took place at 1438 hours The shot involved 893 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the ENE The wind speed was 12 mph The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 12 mR h at 3 miles The team began a clockwise survey from 10 7 1959 the Administration Building SM-43 at 1603 background activity was 0 05 mR h Questionable activity only 0 01 mR h over background was encountered at Booster #1 for 4 2 miles with a maximum of 0 12 mR h recorded 1 5 miles past the Guaje pumice mine During the remainder of the survey only background activity was recorded 10 14 1959 Explosion occurred while disposing of scrap and waste explosives A fire occurred on December 3 1959 in the drybox exhaust ductwork in Room 313 of DP West during the burning of U-235 contaminated rags The 12 3 1959 exhaust stack discharged black smoke toward the west for approximately 15 minutes A neoprene duct connection had burned out releasing contamination to the roof Damage was limited to the ductwork Alpha contamination was detected downwind of Room 313 7 15 1959 12 16 1959 1 15 1960 2 13 1960 3 8 1960 4 13 1960 Page 24 of 32 Incident Type Fire 19 2425 55 5 6 Air Release 2425 5 6 Air Release 2426 3 RaLa Shot 2 all Explosion NA 19 2494 4058 58 Fire On December 16 1959 a filter in the vent line of the neutralization tank at the waste treatment operation at DP West failed allowing plutonium and Liquid Release americium to run down the roof and contaminate the ground On January 15 1960 in Room 308 of DP West a bottle containing plutonium solution had shattered Contamination was tracked into the main hallway and into Room 206 and 363 Airborne contamination spread into 313 322 and 326 the air supply room on the south side of Building 3 was Liquid Release monitored and found to be highly contaminated Two different explosions occurred in the rag incinerator in Room 313 of DP West on January 28 1960 the other on February 3 1960 The February 3 1960 explosion in Room 313 of DP West occurred during the burning of U-235 contaminated rags The area was monitored and no surface Explosion contamination was detected RaLa shot # 242 took place at 1648 hours The shot involved 908 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the S The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 4 mR h at 2 5 miles The team began a counterclockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1717 background activity was 0 03 mR h Since the cloud was observed to travel down canyon the activity that was encountered 1 7 miles east of the airstrip and continued for about 0 5 miles with a maximum of 1 5 mR h recorded 1 9 miles past the airstrip is believed to be due RaLa Shot to the gamma source at the East Gate Laboratory see shots #238 and #240 above The remaining readings beginning about 1 5 miles west of Roy's Service Station Totavi and continuing for about 1 3 miles are attributable to this shot A maximum reading of 0 4 mR h was recorded 0 9 miles west of Roy's Service Station On April 13 1960 in Building HP 21 there was widespread plutonium contamination when 100mg of plutonium was released during an experiment Page 16-27 Initial Repos Page of No Interest Contam Event 57 3 1 2494 3 3971 18 2496 3971 3 14 2 all 2498 4 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 5 4 1960 6 17 1960 9 1 1960 9 16 1960 9 21 1960 Description Page 25 of 32 Incident Type RaLa shot # 243 took place at 1618 hours The shot involved 957 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the ENE The maximum radiation measured at distance was 1 3 mR h at 2 1 miles The team began a clockwise survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1645 background activity was 0 02 to 0 03 mR h Fallout was encountered 0 7 miles west of Well #1 and continued for 2 5 miles with a maximum of 1 3 mR h recorded 1 3 miles past Well #1 At Well #1 a particle was collected reading 1100 mR h at “contact” with a Cutie Pie an RaLa Shot ionization chamber instrument Background readings during this survey seemed to fluctuate The environmental group reported results of two film badge dosimeters planted at the airstrip about 1 mile southwest of the firing site for a period beginning 22 days before and ending 30 days after this shot They reported the readings averaged 200 mR mr over this period and attributed the dose to a possible particle from the main cloud although the main cloud went in the opposite direction On June 17 1960 there was a criticality incident involving 48 kg U-235 Uranium cylinders in thick graphite 9-in reflected before complete Criticality assembly resulting in trivial damage 6 x 1016 total fissions were involved RaLa shot # 244 took place at 1300 hours The shot involved 1120 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs The cloud tracked toward the N and NW The maximum radiation measured at distance was 0 3 mR h at 1 2 miles 0 3 mR h at 2 miles The team began a clockwise perimeter survey from the Administration Building SM-43 at 1325 background activity was 0 05 mR h Fallout was encountered 0 8 miles east past the RaLa Shot Sportsman's Club and continued for 0 8 miles with a maximum of 0 3 mR h recorded 1 1 miles past the Sportsman's Club 2 1 miles west up Guaje Canyon the maximum was 0 3 mR h A resurvey the next morning found a “speck” reading of 1 1 mR h at “contact” on Guaje Road where the maximum reading was found the day before On September 16 1960 or September 14 1960 15-30 gallons of americium raffinate were spilled from a tank at Building 35 DP West A trailer and Liquid Release the ground surrounding the trailer were contaminated and cleaned On September 21 1960 a small explosion occurred in the Room 201 incinerator The room was decontaminated the following day RaLa shot # 245 took place at 1408 hours The shot involved 1100 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs The team started a survey on Barranca Mesa completing a clockwise route All readings were recorded as “00 ” RaLa shot # 246 took place at 1214 hours The shot involved 1475 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 101 to 200 lbs For this experiment the 11 22 1960 configuration was such that the RaLa source remained intact There was no dispersion of radioactive material RaLa shot # 247 took place at 1650 hours The shot involved 7090 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs For this experiment the 2 17 1961 configuration was such that the RaLa source remained intact There was no dispersion of radioactive material On March 24 1961 a contamination incident occurred during the disassembly of a drybox on a milling machine at DP Site The turntable was taken to the contaminated truck for wrapping The turntable was opened to facilitate further wrapping and in doing so some plutonium dust was released A 3 24 1961 strong gust of wind blew spread contamination to the truck the adjacent building and surrounding ground A large airborne count of alpha contamination was measured in Building 54 during the incident RaLa shot # 248 took place at 1314 hours The shot involved 3902 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs For this experiment the 5 19 1961 configuration was such that the RaLa source remained intact There was no dispersion of radioactive material RaLa shot # 249 took place at 2019 hours The shot involved 5300 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs For this experiment the 6 20 1961 configuration was such that the RaLa source remained intact There was no dispersion of radioactive material On August 7 1961 a container with a uranium fuel element leaked Contamination products were detected in the parking lot and around the building 8 7 1961 No decontamination was done 10 11 1960 Page 16-28 Initial Repos Page of No Interest 2 all 6206 all 2 all 2429 2971 5 8 Explosion 3971 7 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Air Release 19 2520 4059 85 4 15 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Air Release 2524 4 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description Page 26 of 32 Incident Type On September 28 1961 a spill occurred in the liquid waste sampling room located in the northeast of Building 2 DP West The drain line stopped up and contaminated liquid flowed down the storm drain Workmen from Room 326 had walked through the area Their homes and personal shoes were Liquid Release monitored and no contamination was detected RaLa shot # 250 took place at 1302 hours The shot involved 3870 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs For this experiment the 10 11 1961 RaLa Shot configuration was such that the RaLa source remained intact There was no dispersion of radioactive material RaLa shot # 251 took place at 1430 hours The shot involved 4150 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs For this experiment the 11 17 1961 RaLa Shot configuration was such that the RaLa source remained intact There was no dispersion of radioactive material On November 28 1961 a spill was discovered on the ground north of the pump house of Building 700 The spill was monitored and contamination Liquid Release 11 28 1961 was found 9 28 1961 The GNOME nuclear test the first test in the Plowshare Program was conducted near near Carlsbad NM The device was placed at a depth of 1 185 ft in a shaft drilled in salt The objectives of the 3 kiloton test were isotope recovery neutron physics experimentation examination of heat recovery seismic measurements and explosive development The shot also had a Vela Uniform Program objective to determine how the seismic signals and 12 10 1961 effects of a 3-kiloton device detonated underground in salt beds differed from the outputs of detonations of different yields in other geologic formations such as tuff and granite and from signals caused by earthquakes Ref http www nv doe gov library films fulltext 0800034 htm and https www osti gov opennet reports plowshar pdf RaLa shot # 252 took place at 1908 hours The shot involved 6077 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs For this experiment the 1 30 1962 configuration was such that the RaLa source remained intact There was no dispersion of radioactive material RaLa shot # 253 took place at 1341 hours The shot involved 1590 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs For this experiment the 2 2 1962 configuration was such that the RaLa source remained intact There was no dispersion of radioactive material RaLa shot # 254 took place at 1330 hours The shot involved 5940 Ci of RaLa with an explosive charge of 20 to 100 lbs For this experiment the 3 6 1962 configuration was such that the RaLa source remained intact There was no dispersion of radioactive material 3 9 1962 On March 9 1962 8 g of tritium were released into the atmosphere during an experiment at TA-41 On December 11 1962 there was a criticality incident involving U-235 foils in graphite The assembly went critical when it was ran due to 12 11 1962 inadequate communication between work crews 3 x 1016 total fissions were involved 2 27 1963 On February 27 1963 approximately 48 millicuries if radioactive iodine was release out the stack of Cell 9 Wing 9 CMR Building 3 4 1963 On March 4 1963 radioactive I-131 was released from Stack #2 4 8 1963 On April 8 1963 there was a uranium spill at TA-46 Initial Repos Page of No Interest 4059 10 2 all 2 all 4059 4 RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all RaLa Shot 2 all Air Release 4060 8 Criticality 6206 all Air Release Air Release Contam Event 4061 2072 2536 18 150 2 6 1 1963 During maintenance a spark from a welding operation started a fire in the filter of a plutonium drybox at DP West releasing plutonium into air Fire 2538 3 6 6 1963 On June 6 1963 a fire occurred in a drybox air intake filter in Room 213 of DP West No contamination was detected in the vicinity of the drybox Fire 4061 16 7 31 1963 On July 31 1963 an employee spilled some contaminated material from a U-235 rag incinerator onto the hood and floor of Room 313 DP West Contam Event 4061 9 Air Release 2502 4 User Error 4061 2 Fire 2812 3 11 15 1963 On November 15 1963 P-9 accidentally released 2 cc of tritium gas On November 26 1963 a worker was found to have contamination on his clothing His personal car and home were monitored and no contamination 11 26 1963 was found 1 10 1964 On January 10 1964 in SM-66 depleted uranium residue ignited in a drum The material was allowed to burn out Page 16-29 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 2 11 1964 4 12 1964 4 22 1964 7 2 1964 Description Explosion attributed to accumulation of unburned gas in area of stagnant air movement in furnace upper passageways damaged boiler furnace On July 31 1964 high levels of contamination were detected in a hood after an accidental plutonium release The hood was decontaminated but the stack was likely contaminated 10 3 1964 On October 3 1965 there was a tritium release at P-9 Approximately 100 curies of tritium was released 11 11 1964 On November 11 1964 there was a fire in pit 3 of area G Mesita del Buey The cause of the fire is unknown 2 16 1965 On February 16 1965 approximately two liters of tritium gas were released up the stack during an experiment 4 14 1965 5 28 1965 6 1 1965 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest Omega Site was contaminated when a sample reading 4 5 R hr at 1 m was removed from OWR vertical port and dragged down the road because of its Contam Event 2812 weight to the storage area An explosion occurred in Room 313 rag incinerator drybox following ignition of a batch of U-235 contaminated rags on April 12 1964 The fire Explosion 11 spread from the drybox into the adjoining hood and ignited another batch of rags The fire was quickly extinguished An explosion occurred in an incinerator drybox following a fire in Room 313 DP West from U -235 contaminated rags on April 22 1964 The fire 2505 Fire Explosion spread from the drybox to the adjoining hood 4062 7 31 1964 2 17 1965 Page 27 of 32 An estimated 10 Ci of tritium were released on February 17 1965 from the hood in Room 4130 of CMF-4 On April 14 1965 in Building 35 sludge filtering room approximately 25 gallons of contaminated sludge spilled when a pipefitter disconnected a flange in the sludge filtering tank The area was quickly decontaminated On May 28 1965 at White Sands Missile Range there was a criticality incident involving 96 kg enriched U-Mo alloy due to incorrect operation The assembly bolts broke and there was minor damage to coating 1 5 x 1017 total fissions were involved At DP East the gas purge line to a recovery furnace became plugged The operator in charge removed a rubber hose connected to the unit and uranium-containing dust was blown out into his face and onto his clothing 3 297 4 5 Explosion NA 78 Air Release 2507 4 Air Release Fire Air Release 4063 4062 4063 3 5 12 Air Release 2072 4063 261 12 Liquid Release 4063 12 Criticality 6206 all User Error NA 2 12 1 1965 During the removal of a rod coated with Am-241 from an experimental apparatus personal clothing of the operator was contaminated User Error NA 4 4 15 1966 On April 15 and 16 1966 there was a large spill of tritium at P-9 due to a diaphragm failure Air Release 4064 6 5 11 1966 An explosion occurred in a rag incinerator globe box in the U-235 recovery area at DP West The explosion cracked the window of the glove box Explosion NA 4-5 6 9 1966 On June 9 1966 there was a tritium spill at P-12 Air Release 4064 6 Air Release NA 3 Fire 4065 10 Explosion NA 4 11 16 1966 The air cleaner at one of the enriched uranium shops developed a pin-hole leak which resulted in high surface contamination of the surrounding area 7 14 1967 A fire occurred on July 14 1967 in Room 313 of DP West Sparks from the incinerators escaped and ignited the pre-filter located in a well in the loading drybox floor The flames swept up the exhaust line and ignited the HEPA filter in the drybox The Building 3 roof was monitored and no contamination was detected 12 1 1967 An explosion occurred in the rag-incinerator drybox in Room 313 DP West on Dec 1 1967 during the incineration of U-238 contaminated rags Page 16-30 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description Page 28 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest The GASBUGGY nuclear test was conducted in the San Juan Basin 55 miles east of Farmington New Mexico The device was placed at a depth of 4 240 ft in a shaft drilled in a gas-bearing sandstone formation The objective of the test was to investigate the feasibility of using nuclear explosives 12 10 1967 to stimulate a low-permeability gas field GNOME was the first Plowshare joint government-industry nuclear experiment to test an industrial application Ref https www osti gov opennet reports plowshar pdf 1 1 1968 In early January 1968 members of group J-11 were working with Pb-210 at TA-48 During routine monitoring one employee's shoes were found to be Contam Event contaminated The homes of several employees were monitored and one was found to be contaminated The home was decontaminated 4066 12 2 1 1968 Four days after a Pb-210 spill in February 1968 Pb-210 contamination was detected in the home of an employee the area was decontaminated Contam Event 817 13-14 2 7 1968 2 8 1968 On February 7 1968 approximately 100 cc of tritium gas was released in Room 4136 Wing 4 of CMR Building 100 cc of tritium gas may have been released from the exhaust system to the environment on February 8 1968 Air Release Air Release 4066 1180 36 8 3 1 1968 An employee broke a charcoal trap which contained approximately 100 cc of tritium which was released into the exhaust system In March of 1968 Air Release 817 13 4 26 1968 At TA-48 some Pb-210 was spilled on the floor and tracked out of the laboratory The spill was not detected until 4 days later when Pb-210 was detected during routine surveys One home had spots reading up to 1500 cpm of alpha radiation on the rug The rug in the home was removed Contam Event NA 5 Contam Event 10 Contam Event Explosion Explosion 4066 817 4066 NA NA NA 6 4 1968 1 2 1969 1 15 1969 1 15 1969 The sidewalk driveway and rug in the home of an employee were contaminated with Pb 210 sometime around June 14 1968 There was an air duct fire in Building 3 between the exhaust blower near Room 313 and the main stack at DP West on September 17 1968 The fire was due to a welding operation No contamination was detected on the roof or duct work On January 2 1969 a contamination accident occurred in Room 606 DP West resulting in the release of plutonium dust A glovebox explosion occurred in the uranium recovery operation at DP West during the incineration of U-235 metal turnings During the removal of Pu-239 contaminated waste materials from a glovebox line at DP West the transfer bag ruptured 2 27 1969 On February 27 1969 a fire occurred in the #2 glovebox line in Room 500 DP West resulting in the release of plutonium dust contamination Fire NA 6-7 3 3 1969 On March 3 1969 a fire occurred in the leaching hood in Room 313 DP West during leaching of U-235 contaminated filter frames Fire NA 6-7 3 25 1969 On March 25 1969 an explosion occurred in the glovebox of Room 313 DP West The explosion blew out U-235 dust contamination into the Room Explosion NA 6-7 Explosion NA 5 Air Release User Error 4067 4182 4 3 4 Air Release 4182 NA 3 4-5 9 17 1968 On June 26 1969 an explosion occurred in the rag incinerator box in Room 313 DP West during the burning of U-235 turnings The explosion scattered contamination through out the room 8 21 1969 On August 21 1969 approximately 5 73 liters of tritium gas was released into the atmosphere at TA-33 10 1 1969 High levels of airborne plutonium were detected in the room when a CMF-5 employee dropped a plutonium containing sample On October 14 1969 a contamination incident occurred in Room 308 DP West resulting in the release of plutonium dust contamination from a trash bag The incident occurred during the transfer of trash from a glove box in a plastic bag The bag ruptured resulting in the contamination of the floor 10 14 1969 A CMF-5 staff member accidentally dropped a container with plutonium inside The lid of the container cam off resulting in a high level of airborne Pu contamination 6 26 1969 Page 16-31 Fire 2-3 2 6-7 3 3 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident 1 16 1970 4 3 1970 6 10 1970 7 1 1970 7 1 1970 9 17 1970 Description Page 29 of 32 Incident Type On January 16 1970 ZIA craftsmen pumped a caustic solution into the negative water pressure circulating tank in the Building 150 stairwell DP West Liquid Release Highly contaminated foam escaped through a vent pipe contaminating the tank grill west wall and stairwell On April 3 1970 a furnace containing uranium exploded releasing dust in SM-35 Room 104 Explosion On June 10 1970 a tri-state tractor trailer was found to be contaminated with Co60 The trailer was decontaminated but the source of the Contam Event contamination is a mystery A minor fire occurred in the hood of a rag incinerator in Building 3 of TA-21 which was associated with recovery of U-235 oxide Fire On May 1 1970 a ruptured exhaust filter allowed for an increase in air activity The filter was replaced and no background contamination was found Air Release outside of SM-35 On September 17 1970 a fire started in a dust collection jar of a vacuum in Room 104 of TA-3-35 The fire started as a result of a spark during the Fire cutting of U-235 fuel elements Initial Repos Page of No Interest NA 7 4261 1 NA 4 NA 4 NA 4 NA 9 10 7 1970 On October 7 1970 a capillary tube containing 238PuO2 broke in an open-faced hood in Room 605a of Building 150 of DP West The hood exhausted directly to the roof without filtration The room under the stack was contaminated in an area of approximately 100 square feet Areas of contamination were found on the roof of the office trailer parked northwest of Building 150 No other contamination was found The areas were decontaminated Air Release 4068 6 10 7 1970 A sample of radioactive tritiated salt was lost at Los Alamost Scientific Laboratory The sample was reported missing 9-29-70 after routine inventory An exhaustive search failed to turn up the missing sample User Error NA 120 3 29 1971 On March 29 1971 during the emptying of a dumpster of radioactive waste at TA-54 pit 6 area G Pu-238 became airborne and contaminated the truck carrying the dumpster The decontamination did not escape the disposal pit Air Release 3972 4705 NA 106 4 5 7 31 1971 On July 31 1971 employees were working with a capsule disassembly of a transit heat source containing 26 092 Ci of Pu-238 in Room 9130 Wing 9 CMR Building Contamination was released into the room and the workers were contaminated 55 microcuries escaped the building over a period of 16 5 hours Air Release Contam Event 3972 5442 5 1 10 7 1971 On October 7 1971 a release of Pu-238 oxide occurred in 605 DP West contaminating 200 sq ft of the building the roof and the surrounding ground Contam Event NA 6 10 15 1971 There was a fire in exhaust filter SM-102 on October 15 1971 Fire 11 2 1971 On November 2 1971 an explosion in test cell furnace blew uranium contamination onto floor Explosion 12 17 1971 On December 17 1971 high Pu-238 air counts were detected due to contamination from an exploding bottle Explosion XO-2 cooling loop leaks at TA-53 allowed 1 5 Ci of tritium to be transferred along with 25 000 L of waste water from the waste tanks in the 8 1 1973 Air Release experimental area to the sewage lagoons at TA-53 between July 1 1978 and September 30 1978 On July 9 1974 it was discovered that a pipe conveying radioactive wastes to TA-50 was leaking north of Pajarito road east of TA-3-184 The section 7 9 1974 Liquid Release of pipe was repaired 8 14 1975 On Aug 14 approximately 10 gallons of reactor water went down the drain to the dry creek bed Liquid Release On Aug 27 1975 approximately 960 gallons of regenerate material spilled out of a sludge holding tank contaminating Room 60A TA-50 8 27 1975 Approximately 500-700 gallons was lost outside The solution contained Cs Pu St Am The spill area was roped off covered with wet sand to Liquid Release minimize airborne contamination and cleaned 1417 1417 1417 3 3 3 NA 32 515 6 392a 16 392a 15 Page 16-32 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description Page 30 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest 1 1 1976 In 1976 approximately 3271 Ci of tritium was release into the environment this does not include 22 000 Ci released from TA-3-34 on July 15 1976 Air Release NA 13 7 15 1976 On July 15 1976 there was a tritium release from TA-3-34 of 22 000 Ci In 1977 approximately 6417 Ci of tritium was released into the environment this does not include 30 800 Ci released from TA-33-36 on October 6 1977 Air Release NA 15 Air Release NA 13 1 1 1977 10 6 1977 On October 6 1977 approximately 33 217 Ci of tritium gas was released from Room 9 at TA-33-86 due to a loose high pressure fitting Averaged over 24 hours the stack concentration was 0 104 µCi ml On November 11 1977 at TA-54 Burial Pit seven bales of suspect low-level radioactive contaminated combustible waste auto-ignited Apparent cause was a bottle or bottles of acid improperly disposed of in the combustible waste 8 22 1978 On August 22 1978 SM-102 a drum of depleted U-238 chips ignited while being moved to the outside 10 30 1978 It was discovered on October 30 1978 that a large amount of tritium was released when a glass ballast valve was left open An LASL employee contaminated the sleeve of his shirt which was not detected until the employee returned to work following day No 12 1 1978 contamination was detected at his home or in his automobile 11 11 1977 5 4 1979 A stainless steel pot containing uranium tritide was overheated in a laboratory at the Cryogenics Building TA-3-34 and ruptured on May 4 1979 Tritiated water escaped into the laboratory because of inadequate air flow in the hood 3 000 Ci of tritium was released to the atmosphere Air Release Fire NA 22 Fire Air Release NA 3462 18 3 User Error NA 10 Air Release Liquid Release 5 7 1979 Tritium exposure incident at SM-34 on May 4 1979 Contam Event On May 18 1979 during the transfer of 1500 gallons of contaminated water from the north holding tank to LAMPF Site sewage lagoons The area A 5 18 1979 parking lot and area A shop floor were flooded procedures to prevent the spread of contamination were used and the areas were quickly Liquid Release decontaminated 5 25 1979 On May 25 1979 approximately 3000 Ci of tritium were released from SM-34 Air Release On August 22 1979 approximately 200 grams of UF6 was released at Building 23 TA-18 Pajarito Site Approximately 0 0038 grams was released 8 22 1979 Air Release into the environment The majority of the 200 grams 180 grams was caught in the HEPA filter A dempster dumpster fire occurred at TA-33-86 on September 17 1979 The only radioactive isotope believed to be present at the time of the fire was 9 17 1979 Fire tritium On December 12 1979 150 to 200 gallons of slightly radioactive primary reactor system water was released at TA-2 inside Building 44 12 12 1979 Liquid Release Approximately 50 gallons drained to a nearby creek via a floor drain in Building 44 11 1 1980 In November 1980 there was a release of 16 curies of tritium gas and a total of 10 minor radiation releases of plutonium in labs reported internally 2 1 1981 3 19 1981 3 24 1981 In February 1981 a total of 11 minor radiation accidents were reported internally On March 19 1981 liquid from an industrial waste line serving TA-48 was inadvertently pumped into Mortandad canyon On March 24 1981 several curies of gaseous tritium were released from the Van de Graaff Building at TA-3 On October 14 1981 ten samples contaminated with PuO 2 were opened in a laboratory where Pu is not normally handled Contamination was spread 10 14 1981 into several laboratories a small shop the analyst and several other workers before it was detected One vehicle and two homes were contaminated with a small amount of material All employees and contaminated areas were readily decontaminated This occurred at TA-3 SM-29 Page 16-33 1232 5 18 15 Na NA 3462 4484 NA NA 102 1-2 18 4 4154 91 4154 94 4154 20 4154 6 4154 1 Air Release 933 19 Contam Event Liquid Release Air Release 936 NA NA 17 128-129 128-129 Contam Event 2057 NA 8 35 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description 11 1 1981 In November 1981 ten minor radiation releases were documented and investigated internally at LANL On March 19 1982 a section of the industrial waste line carrying fission products from hot cells serving TA-48 had been found leaking A limited 3 19 1982 area of soil was contaminated within Laboratory boundaries The affected soil from the areas along both sides of the road behind TA-48 were removed down to bedrock up to the edge of Mortandad Canyon and replaced with clean soil On August 10 1982 a furnace at TA-55 ignited and over pressurized a glovebox Two glovebox windows ruptured releasing alpha contamination into 8 10 1982 the room and adjacent corridor On November 2 1982 approximately 50-100 liters of waste liquid escaped from a tank vent at TA-21-257 contaminating the building roof walls and 11 2 1982 surrounding area with low levels of plutonium americurium and uranium An accidental release of chromium oxychloride occurred at the Van de Graaff facility on January 10 1983 The accident occurred when an employee 1 10 1983 removed a valve from one end of a pipe which allowed for the liquid stored in the pipe to spill on the floor On June 1 1983 high airborne plutonium levels were detected in Room 429 at TA-55 Building PF-4 The high levels were caused by a leak in the dry 6 1 1983 vacuum line to a glovebox 6 1 1983 Radiation material was discovered in the salvage yard and reported during the report period On August 25 1983 a puff release of 104 Ci of tritium occurred at TA-33 This was followed by a slow release of an additional 45 Ci in the 8 25 1983 subsequent 24 hour period On November 28 1983 a fire occurred in the well house at Pajarito water supply well no 2 Two large PCB capacitors were involved in the fire 11 28 1983 emitting PCB when the heat caused them to rupture releasing their contents Air and ash samples confirmed significant PCB contamination inside the building Page 31 of 32 Incident Type Initial Repos Page of No Interest Contam Event 935 20 Liquid Release 4412 1 Air Release NA 6 Liquid Release NA 6 Liquid Release NA 4 Air Release NA 1 Contam Event NA 4 Air Release NA 4 Fire NA 3-4 12 6 1983 On December 6 1983 two plutonium containing shipping containers were inadvertently opened contaminating the clothing and skin of eight workers Contam Event NA 3-4 2 17 1984 Fire at TA-50 Building 1 in a ventilation exhaust plenum on February 17 1984 filter bags were ignited Fire NA 6 4 10 1984 Hydrogen fluoride release on April 10 1984 from Room 5096 at TA-3-29 through a hole in an exhaust flex hose of the gas centrifuge Air Release NA 4-5 7 1 1984 There was a fire at the lithium hydride shop TA-3 SM-39 on June 6 1984 Lithium hydride dust ignited in a section of exhaust duct Fire NA 4-5 NA 2-3 NA 2-3 NA 6 Equipment failure to contain plutonium solution resulting in significant area contamination and high nose swipes for three employees on July 26 1984 Equipment at TA-55-4-401 Malfunction Inadequate procedures when handling packaged Pu-238 resulted in widespread area contamination and contamination of personal clothing of two 10 19 1984 Contam Event employees on October 19 1984 at TA-54 On January 1 1985 a failure to comply with established procedures resulted in a release of radioactive materials along a public roadway report no 1 11 1985 Contam Event LAMPF-85-1 7 26 1984 6 1 1985 60 gallons of tri-methyl benzene were spilled in the neutrino area at the L A Meson Physics Facility no serious injuries resulted form this accident Liquid Release NA 6 6 12 1985 On June 12 1985 the improper transfer of radioactive material resulted in an employee's home being contaminated Report no AHP-85-8 Contam Event NA 6 7 1 1985 On July 1 1985 activated cooling water was discharged outside facility Report no LAMPF-85-5 Liquid Release NA 6 Page 16-34 Table 16-1 Partial Chronology of Accidents Incidents and Important Events at LANL Date of Incident Description Page 32 of 32 Incident Type On September 12 1985 there was a fire in a glove box at TA-55-4-429 which resulted in high airborne activity and area contamination Report no Fire CHEM-HP-85-20 2 2 1986 On February 2 1986 there was an unexpected release of tritium oxide at TA-41-4-236A Air Release 10 30 1986 On October 30-31 1986 an estimated 633 Ci of tritium were released at TA-33 mostly in the form of tritiated water Air Release 11 14 1986 On November 14 1986 11 5 Ci of tritium was released from TA-33 in the form of elemental tritium Air Release Low level liquid waste from TA-55 showed higher than normal levels of plutonium in Nov and Dec There was a pinhole leak in a stream coil in a 11 1 1987 Liquid Release cascade dissolver process at TA-55 2 22 1988 On Feb 22 approximately 5800 Ci of tritium were released from TA-33 Air Release 2 27 1990 On February 27 1990 cooling water overflowed in the exhaust system of TA-55-4 Liquid Release 3 1 2000 An incident occurred in March 2000 when eight workers at TA-55 were exposed to airborne plutonium Air Release 3 1 2000 An incident occurred in 1998 when a worker at TA-55 was exposed to airborne plutonium Air Release 5 4 2000 On May 4 2000 a wild fire was ignited which ulitmately burned nearly 50 000 acres in and around Los Alamos New Mexico Fire A small amount of americium-241 was found to have contaminated a package that was shipped from Los Alamos to Pennsylvania The contamination 7 27 2005 Contam Event was spread to homes in Colorado Kansas and New Mexico 9 12 1985 Page 16-35 Initial Repos Page of No Interest NA 6 NA NA NA 11 8 8 NA 4 1246 NA NA NA NA 8 8 1 1 1 6204 all Chapter 17 Prioritization of Radionuclide Releases The LAHDRA team identified the following steps for prioritizing radionuclide releases 1 Review the history of LANL operations 2 Identify relevant data concerning air and liquid releases 3 Correct or adjust older data with appropriate factors based on current state-of-the-art methods 4 Fill in data gaps with justifiable methods for estimating air and liquid releases and 5 Prepare a prioritized list of radionuclides for both operational and episodic releases The goals for prioritizing historical radionuclide releases were to provide a relative ranking of releases that may have impacted public health and to limit attention to radionuclides that did not appear to impact human health Prioritization to date has been accomplished using a method based on determining the volume of air or water required to dilute the radionuclide in question down to the maximum allowable concentration for a release to the environment This dilution volume is defined as the Priority Index PI For example a PI of 106 liters means that one million liters of air for an airborne release would be required to dilute the amount of released material down to the maximum allowable effluent concentration This simple method does not require defining a specific “receptor” or using an exposure pathway model However for certain historical releases the LAHDRA team decided to conduct a more developed evaluation based on the screening methods of National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report No 123 NCRP 1996 These screening evaluations are described in Chapters 9 and 18 Priority Indices were calculated based on estimated quantities released and maximum effluent concentrations documented in Title 10 of the Code of Federal regulations Part 20 USNRC 2010 These values are intended to be guidelines to determine the relative rank of a release in comparison with others The prioritization methods described herein require that some estimates of quantities of each radionuclide or radionuclide class released to the environment be available In some cases these data are not available for all facilities or for all years of operations at LANL The prioritization of releases from LANL has been problematic During the Manhattan Project era and continuing well into the post-1946 AEC era LANL did not measure many of its release points and did not systematically archive and compile effluent data No effort has been made to characterize the magnitude of the releases from non-point source emissions that have been shown to be particularly important at other DOE sites such as Rocky Flats Unlike at most DOE sites the available effluent data from LANL are well-documented for only the post Clean Air Act post-1969 era Only summary-level information for certain facilities is reported in LANL’s compilations of available data prior to this period In addition potentially important release sources such as D-Building Fig 17-1 which housed FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-1 plutonium processing during World War II and remained active until around 1953 were not subjected to stack sampling programs and have no effluent data available Fig 17-1 The earliest plutonium processing at LANL was conducted in this facility known as D-Building Airborne effluents through approximately 85 rooftop vents were unmonitored and largely unfiltered Photograph from the late 1940s Unlike at other AEC DOE site studied thus far with regard to historical releases there was no comprehensive compilation of environmental release data available at LANL to use to establish a simple initial prioritization The best available compilation was assembled in the early 1970s to support the first site-wide final environmental impact statement FEIS that LANL published in response to the requirements of the Clean Air Act USDOE 1979 The LAHDRA team found that compilation to have numerous errors and omissions however Nonetheless this preliminary prioritization has used data assembled for that report as well as other information such as estimates of the quantities of uranium expended in explosive test shots to augment the LANL compilation Prioritization of Airborne Radionuclide Releases LANL operations began in 1943 and have continued to the present In the early years radiation science environmental science and occupational health were disciplines in their infancy As time progressed LANL has through its own volition and through public and governmental pressure increased its monitoring record keeping and reporting Data Sources Airborne radionuclide effluent information for LANL was derived from the following data sources 17-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 CMR-12 and H-1 monthly reports These reports were the source of stack concentration data used to reconstruct plutonium releases for DP West Building 12 for the period 1948 – 1960 They were also the source of the plutonium release data for DP West Building 146 for 1959 and 1960 The 1959 data for Building 146 began in July of that year LANL Environmental Surveillance Reports from 1971-1996 These reports were issued either semiannually or annually dating back to 1971 They were the principal source of the airborne radionuclide release data for 1973 forward Andrews 1973 – “Joe Graf Binders” 1 and 2– Two binders of documents assembled by LANL Environment Safety and Health ES H staff for group leader Joe Graf in the early 1970s that document releases from LANL before 1973 This effort was undertaken to support a draft site-wide FEIS The FEIS was published in 1979 The documents assembled in these binders include records of room air concentrations stack monitoring data ES H reports and miscellaneous memos Dummer et al 1996 – A detailed study of all the RaLa shots conducted in Bayo Canyon at Los Alamos and the quantities of RaLa involved in those explosives tests from 1944 to 1962 Drake and Eyster 1971 – A memo that details estimated quantities of uranium that were expended in dynamic testing at LANL from 1944 to 1970 Jordan and Black 1958 – An article in the American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal that discusses LANL’s airborne radioactive effluents This work is one of the most important early studies of LANL plutonium releases LANL considers it to be the best-available scientific data concerning possible early emissions As discussed later in this chapter the LAHDRA project team disagrees with that assessment although it does recognize some value in that work Summary of Results for Prioritization of Airborne Radionuclide Releases Throughout LANL’s existence many operations involving radionuclides have been performed and effluents containing various radioactive constituents have been released This section outlines the Priority Indices PI calculation for airborne releases of the following materials which were selected to be consistent with LANL’s reporting practices for airborne radioactive effluents • Plutonium • Uranium • Tritium • Radioactive Lanthanum RaLa FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-3 • Mixed Fission Products MFP • Mixed Activation Products MAP • Iodine-131 PIs for airborne radionuclide releases were calculated by computing the air volume in liters L required to dilute the annual activity released to a concentration equal to the worst-case maximum effluent concentration maximum permissible concentration or MPC per the current NRC regulations USNRC 2010 The PI does not consider environmental transport and dilution and is intended only to be a simple means of evaluating the relative priority of LANL’s airborne radionuclide releases Although the lowest available most conservative maximum effluent concentration is used in the PI it does not otherwise address the chemical or physical form of the material released It also does not consider transport decay meaning that it may tend to overstate the importance of short-lived materials The data sources summarized above served as the basis for all of the airborne radionuclide release data that follow The LAHDRA team did not independently evaluate or reconstruct the reported airborne release data Release data were used as reported by LANL A summary of the available release data by radionuclide is provided below Effluent Data for Plutonium Plutonium data were obtained for the calendar years 1948 through 1996 from the data sources described above Release estimates are not available for D-Building which began operations in late 1943 early 1944 and remained in use until around 1953 It is important to note that no airborne effluent data were included in LANL compilations for the years 1944 through 1947 Furthermore the releases from DP Site reported by LANL for 1948 1949 and 1950 are apparently based on simple estimates first made by Jordan and Black using methods that are not well documented Jordan and Black 1958 In addition there were other stacks beyond the four main stacks at Building 12 at DP West that were monitored however these data were not included in FEIS documentation and were not compiled as part of the LAHDRA project Airborne release data for plutonium were obtained from monthly reports of the CMR-12 and H-1 monitoring sections the data compiled for the 1979 FEIS and the annual environmental surveillance reports Earlier versions of this report utilized a study by LANL’s industrial hygiene group in 1955 and 1956 and reported by Edwin C Hyatt in 1956 Hyatt 1956 In that study stack concentrations were measured with improved isokinetic stack sampling systems that were operated alongside the original systems Hyatt 1955 After six months of sampling results were compared and correction factors were determined and applied to releases previously reported for 1948-1955 Past that point the improved sampling system was used 17-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Comments by LANL staff on the earlier LAHDRA report indicated that the Hyatt work was in error and so that data is not used in this version of the LAHDRA report When the old and new systems are compared daily measurements do not agree well however when all of the data from the test period is averaged the two systems on average agree Since the new system was isokinetic it is believed to be a better measurement and the old system likely suffered from significant sampling errors and variability In general the results are within a factor of ten however individual measurements were found to differ by as much as a factor of 2900 LANL has been unable to find drawings of either stack system however photographs of the old stack sampling system indicate that it was attached to a small hinged door located on a rectangular transition section of the plenum upstream of the main stack blowers No sample nozzle was likely used and that the sample was taken at right angles to the main flow and near the wall Because of the changes in air sampling technology around the 1950s and 1960s it was necessary to apply adjustments to results from earlier sampling efforts to account for what was later shown to be problems with the older technology Much of this work was performed by LANL Two types of adjustments were applied to the data sample line loss correction factor and a filter dust loading and burial correction factor The LAHDRA team applied these factors as appropriate in the prioritization effort All airborne plutonium releases reported for 1948 through 1975 were adjusted by the LAHDRA team using a sample line loss correction factor equal to five for the period 1948-1958 A factor of two was applied for the period 1959-1975 for all releases except those from DP West Building 12 These factors were selected based on analyses performed by LANL staff Fuehne 2008 The reduction of the line loss correction factor starting in 1959 took into account the fact that a single stage of high efficiency particulate air HEPA filters was added to the combined process exhaust system at DP West in 1959 Maraman et al 1975 and that the particle size distribution in that exhaust stream likely shifted toward smaller particles The LAHDRA team extended this logic to the other sources of airborne plutonium releases for the 1959 - 1975 period e g CMR Building However the factor of five was maintained for releases from DP West Building 12 for the entire period 1948 – 1975 because Building 12 exhaust was not part of the HEPA filter exhaust system A filter dust loading and burial correction factor of 2 33 was also applied to plutonium release totals reported by LANL for 1948 through 1959 based on assessments performed by LANL staff Fuehne 2008 Larger particle sizes may not have been properly sampled A burial factor of 1 6 measured by LANL staff in the 1970s was applied to data starting in 1959 since the addition of HEPA filtration likely reduced dust loading on the sample filter As for the line loss factor this reduction in the burial correction factor was not applied for releases from DP West Building 12 Rather the factor of 2 33 was used for all Building 12 releases for the period 1948 – 1975 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-5 These line loss and filter burial corrections might also be appropriate for years following 1975 but have not been applied in this assessment Thus these data may be understated for some of those years by a factor of 3 2 We have not found any documentation identifying when LANL first applied these correction factors but were able to determine that routine application was evident by the 1980s A calculation was completed in October 2006 that analyzed the reported releases from DP West for calendar year 1957 using the actual daily stack sampling and analysis reports This calculation was compared with the LANL compilation Andrews 1973 that was the basis for asserted releases of plutonium from LANL The LAHDRA team’s analysis of the 1957 data revealed that 40% of all operating hours at DP West Site were not monitored these unmonitored periods were mostly associated with weekends and holidays A method for estimating the hours when the stacks were not monitored was therefore needed The method that LANL used was likely conservative in that it scaled from operating hours to estimate hours in which no stack measurement was made The LAHDRA review of the 1957 data also showed that the simple assumptions originally made in the early 1970s such as stack and sample stream flow rates were used for all periods These assumptions however do not appear to have always been appropriate The air concentration and fallout tray data for the 37-d operating period during 1957 that Jordan and Black used Jordan and Black 1958 could also be used to benchmark air transport models for airborne release assessment from DP West Site However the LAHDRA project team has been unable to identify the 37-d period and LANL staff have been unable to supply information about the Jordan and Black study beyond what is contained in the associated journal paper The maximum allowable effluent concentration used for calculating priority indices for plutonium releases was 2 × 10-14 μCi mL-1 from 10CFR20 Appendix B Table 2 Table 17-1 and Figure 17-2 present the estimated annual release totals in μCi and the corresponding priority indices dilution volume in liters for plutonium The plutonium priority indices over the years of LANL operations range in magnitude from 1011 to 1017 17-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Table 17-1 Airborne Plutonium Release Estimates and Priority Indicesa a Year 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Release µCi 6 88E 05 4 39E 06 2 88E 06 4 98E 05 9 39E 05 5 64E 05 3 38E 05 1 30E 06 1 19E 06 1 18E 06 1 29E 06 2 81E 06 6 82E 05 5 15E 04 3 61E 04 6 36E 04 1 74E 04 1 78E 04 3 03E 04 8 54E 04 3 21E 04 7 80E 04 6 87E 04 5 89E 04 5 05E 04 2 79E 04 2 54E 03 7 88E 02 6 79E 01 1 27E 02 1 12E 02 1 08E 03 7 47E 02 5 69E 01 1 12E 02 1 13E 02 1 40E 02 2 13E 02 2 07E 02 7 28E 01 7 24E 01 4 55E 01 2 58E 01 3 69E 01 1 24E 01 6 44E 00 1 25E 01 6 50E 01 2 00E 01 Priority Index L 3 44E 16 2 19E 17 1 44E 17 2 49E 16 4 70E 16 2 82E 16 1 69E 16 6 48E 16 5 95E 16 5 89E 16 6 46E 16 1 41E 17 3 41E 16 2 57E 15 1 80E 15 3 18E 15 8 68E 14 8 88E 14 1 52E 15 4 27E 15 1 60E 15 3 90E 15 3 43E 15 2 95E 15 2 52E 15 1 40E 15 1 27E 14 3 94E 13 3 40E 12 6 37E 12 5 62E 12 5 42E 13 3 73E 13 2 84E 12 5 59E 12 5 65E 12 6 99E 12 1 07E 13 1 04E 13 3 64E 12 3 62E 12 2 27E 12 1 29E 12 1 84E 12 6 18E 11 3 22E 11 6 24E 11 3 25E 12 1 00E 12 Note regarding scientific notation 4 96E 05 equals 4 96×10 5 which equals 4 96×100 000 or 496 000 Partial or incomplete data FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-7 1 00E 18 1 00E 17 1 00E 16 Priority Index L 1 00E 15 1 00E 14 1 00E 13 1 00E 12 1 00E 11 1 00E 10 Data not available prior to 1948 1 00E 09 Based on incomplete data Complete Plutonium 1 00E 08 Figure 17-2 Airborne Plutonium Release Estimates and Priority Indices Effluent Data for Uranium Airborne uranium release data are presented for 1949 – 1996 The uranium releases are a combination of material expended in dynamic experiments test shots driven by high explosives and releases from routine operations in areas such as TA-3 and TA-21 Data sources for uranium release data were taken from Drake and Eyster 1971 the data compiled for the 1979 FEIS and the annual environmental surveillance reports For the period 1949 through 1966 the quantities of uranium expended in dynamic experiments at LANL were obtained from the report “Uranium Dispersed by Experimental ‘Shots’ at Los Alamos” Drake and Eyster 1971 Uranium expenditures for 1967 through 1972 were obtained from the data compilations for the 1979 FEIS and the expenditures for 1973 forward were taken from LANL environmental surveillance reports These environmental surveillance reports however did not include uranium expenditures for 1974 and 1975 The expenditures for these years were therefore assigned a value of 1 000 kg each reflecting the average expenditure value for the other years during the period 1970 through 1979 17-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 All of the uranium expenditures from dynamic testing activities are reported in terms of mass The conversion from mass to activity depended on whether the uranium involved was natural or depleted Per Drake and Eyster 1971 all of the expenditures for 1949 through 1955 were assumed to be natural uranium All expenditures for 1956 forward were assumed to be depleted uranium Natural uranium mass was converted to activity using the factor 6 72 × 10-7 Ci g-1 For depleted uranium the conversion factor specific activity used was 5 14 × 10-7 Ci g-1 The majority of the uranium expended in a dynamic test was deposited locally Because a small fraction of the material could potentially be carried offsite however an “aerosolization fraction” was applied to the quantity of uranium expended in a given year to calculate the airborne activity potentially carried offsite The fraction used was 10% per the LANL report “Aerosolized U and Be from LASL Dynamic Experiments” Dahl and Johnson 1977 Uranium releases from routine operations are included in the airborne release estimate for 1952 forward The estimates for 1949 through 1951 reflect only the firing site expenditures The data compilation from the 1979 FEIS was used to estimate the contributions of routine operations to uranium releases for 1952 through 1972 Data from the environmental surveillance reports was used for releases from 1973 forward All operational releases from 1952 through 1975 have been adjusted to account for sample line loss and filter burial in the same manner as was done for plutonium release data These corrections were not applied for releases associated with dynamic experiments since those estimates are not based on measurements The maximum allowable effluent concentration used for calculating priority indices for airborne uranium releases was 6 × 10-14 μCi mL-1 This value is for 235U as taken from 10CFR20 Appendix B Table 2 Table 17-2 and Figure 17-3 present the estimated annual release totals and the corresponding priority indices for airborne uranium The priority indices for uranium during the years of LANL operations range in magnitude from 1013 to 1016 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-9 Table 17-2 Airborne Uranium Release Estimates and Priority Indicesa Year 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Release µCi -1 92E 05 1 01E 06 4 54E 05 3 93E 05 3 63E 05 3 47E 05 2 83E 05 1 65E 05 2 30E 05 2 19E 05 1 12E 05 1 39E 05 1 06E 05 1 43E 05 1 98E 05 1 47E 05 1 42E 05 1 99E 05 2 13E 05 1 32E 05 1 43E 05 4 60E 04 8 81E 04 4 95E 04 3 68E 04 5 40E 04 5 43E 04 5 39E 04 8 27E 04 7 10E 04 3 01E 04 4 61E 04 5 71E 04 5 58E 04 4 35E 04 4 44E 04 2 77E 04 1 11E 04 6 09E 03 1 59E 04 1 26E 04 4 71E 03 1 62E 04 2 56E 04 1 56E 04 6 08E 03 7 56E 03 9 05E 03 Priority Index L -3 19E 15 1 68E 16 7 56E 15 6 55E 15 6 05E 15 5 79E 15 4 72E 15 2 74E 15 3 83E 15 3 65E 15 1 86E 15 2 32E 15 1 77E 15 2 39E 15 3 29E 15 2 45E 15 2 37E 15 3 32E 15 3 56E 15 2 20E 15 2 38E 15 7 67E 14 1 47E 15 8 26E 14 6 14E 14 9 00E 14 9 06E 14 8 99E 14 1 38E 15 1 18E 15 5 02E 14 7 68E 14 9 52E 14 9 30E 14 7 26E 14 7 40E 14 4 61E 14 1 85E 14 1 02E 14 2 65E 14 2 10E 14 7 85E 13 2 70E 14 4 26E 14 2 60E 14 1 01E 14 1 26E 14 1 51E 14 a Note regarding scientific notation 4 96E 05 equals 4 96×10 5 which equals 4 96×100 000 or 496 000 Partial or incomplete data 17-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Fig 17-3 Airborne Uranium Release Estimates and Priority Indices Effluent Data for Tritium Airborne release estimates for tritium are provided for 1967 through 1996 Tritium release data were obtained from the data compilations for the 1979 FEIS and the environmental surveillance reports No correction factors were used for tritium release estimates Much of the release data came from accountability data rather than stack release data Estimates based on accountability data are typically conservative with respect to the true release although none of the data used in this evaluation have been independently verified The available stack release data were measured using Kanne Chamber detectors therefore sample line loss and filter burial correction were not applied Tritium was used at LANL as far back as 1945 or possibly even 1944 More data are required to determine pre-1967 tritium releases at LANL LAHDRA staff have found additional documents containing tritium release data associated with episodic releases before and after 1967 and have added them to the project information database but these data are scattered across many documents and have not yet been compiled or used to bound releases before 1967 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-11 Based on the available data the maximum allowable effluent concentration used for calculating priority indices for tritium releases was 1 × 10-7 μCi mL-1 from 10CFR20 Appendix B Table 2 This value is for tritium oxide tritiated water vapor and thus may overstate the importance of tritium relative to other atmospheric releases since many tritium releases at LANL involved tritium gas Table 17-3 and Figure 17-4 present the estimated annual release totals and the corresponding priority indices for airborne tritium The priority indices range in magnitude from 1012 to 1014 17-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Table 17-3 Airborne Tritium Release Estimates and Priority Indicesa Year 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Release µCi -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 2 79E 10 3 63E 10 3 46E 10 3 71E 10 1 03E 10 7 42E 09 6 13E 09 7 49E 09 3 28E 08 3 40E 09 3 56E 10 1 86E 10 1 50E 10 7 52E 09 7 22E 09 1 59E 10 7 89E 09 1 49E 10 8 64E 09 9 71E 09 3 17E 09 1 10E 10 1 44E 10 6 35E 09 4 72E 09 1 30E 09 1 45E 09 1 08E 09 1 01E 09 6 87E 08 Priority Index L -------------------2 79E 14 3 63E 14 3 46E 14 3 71E 14 1 03E 14 7 42E 13 6 13E 13 7 49E 13 3 28E 12 3 40E 13 3 56E 14 1 86E 14 1 50E 14 7 52E 13 7 22E 13 1 59E 14 7 89E 13 1 49E 14 8 64E 13 9 71E 13 3 17E 13 1 10E 14 1 44E 14 6 35E 13 4 72E 13 1 30E 13 1 45E 13 1 08E 13 1 01E 13 6 87E 12 a Note regarding scientific notation 4 96E 05 equals 4 96×10 5 which equals 4 96×100 000 or 496 000 Releases known to occur but no stack monitoring data or compilation of data found FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-13 Tritium 1 00E 15 1 00E 14 Priority Index L 1 00E 13 1 00E 12 1 00E 11 1 00E 10 1 00E 09 1 00E 08 Fig 17-4 Airborne Tritium Release Estimates and Priority Indices Effluent Data for Radioactive Lanthanum RaLa Airborne release estimates for RaLa are presented for 1944 through 1960 The RaLa program was active until March 1962 however later tests were conducted in such a manner that the RaLa source remained intact There were therefore no releases associated with these tests after 1960 Also there were no RaLa shots performed in 1951 LANL personnel conducted a dose reconstruction of LANL’s RaLa testing program including a source term evaluation Dummer et al 1996 The LAHDRA team used the data from this reconstruction to estimate annual RaLa airborne releases and applied an aerosolization fraction of 10% to the quantities of RaLa involved in test shots as was done for uranium in order to estimate the airborne activity expended in dynamic tests that may potentially have been carried to offsite individuals The maximum allowable effluent concentration used for calculating priority indices for RaLa releases was 2 × 10-9 μCi mL-1 for 140La from 10CFR20 Appendix B Table 2 Table 17-4 and Figure 17-5 present the estimated annual release totals and the corresponding priority indices for airborne RaLa The priority indices range in magnitude from 1013 to 1015 17-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Table 17-4 Airborne RaLa Release Estimates and Priority Indicesa b a Year 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 Release µCi 1 11E 08 1 84E 09 2 06E 09 2 27E 09 1 22E 09 2 83E 09 1 98E 09 0 00E 00 6 37E 08 1 07E 08 1 56E 09 4 08E 09 3 60E 09 1 74E 09 9 85E 08 8 32E 08 4 09E 08 0 00E 00 0 00E 00 Priority Index L 5 56E 13 9 18E 14 1 03E 15 1 14E 15 6 12E 14 1 41E 15 9 89E 14 0 00E 00 3 19E 14 5 33E 13 7 79E 14 2 04E 15 1 80E 15 8 68E 14 4 92E 14 4 16E 14 2 04E 14 0 00E 00 0 00E 00 The RaLa program ended in 1962 There were no releases in 1950 1961 or 1962 b Note regarding scientific notation 4 96E 05 equals 4 96×10 5 which equals 4 96×100 000 or 496 000 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-15 Fig 17-5 Airborne RaLa Release Estimates and Priority Indices Effluent Data for Mixed Fission Products MFP Estimates for airborne releases of MFP are presented for 1961 through 1994 The data for 1961 through 1972 came from the 1979 FEIS documentation The data for 1973 forward came from the environmental surveillance reports Mixed fission product releases at LANL came from reactor operations primarily in TA-2 although for a brief period the UHTREX reactor in TA-52 was also included from hot cell operations with irradiated nuclear materials in TA-3 TA-21 and TA-48 and from waste disposal operations at TA-50 MFP is a generic term however as of 1973 LANL was applying a definition for reporting purposes under which MFP releases were considered as four month-decayed fission products at the time of release Valentine 1973 The “primary biologically significant nuclides” were therefore 90Sr and 137Cs As for the other airborne particulate releases the release data for MFP have been adjusted by applying correction factors for sample line loss and filter burial through 1975 The MFP data include a significant release reported for the UHTREX reactor in 1969 Further study is needed to determine if the reported release included noble gases or other materials for which applying these correction factors would be inappropriate Likewise the maximum allowable air concentration used to compute the PI for this release might require adjustment if a large fraction of the activity was found to be from short-lived radionuclides 17-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 The maximum allowable effluent concentration used to calculate priority indices for MFP was 1 × 10-10 µCi mL-1 This value was derived from the average of the allowable air concentration limits for 137Cs 2 × 10-10 µCi mL-1 and soluble 90Sr 3 × 10-11 µCi mL-1 from 10CFR20 Appendix B Table 2 The soluble concentration limit is used for 90Sr since the material of concern is fission products Table 17-5 and Figure 17-6 present the estimated annual release totals and the corresponding priority indices for airborne MFP The priority indices range in magnitude from 109 to 1013 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-17 Table 17-5 Airborne MFP Release Estimates and Priority Indicesa Year 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 Release µCi -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 5 76E 03 1 38E 06 8 61E 04 7 10E 04 9 60E 03 1 15E 04 5 78E 04 5 24E 04 4 16E 08 3 96E 04 1 45E 04 3 11E 04 4 49E 04 4 40E 03 3 04E 03 1 67E 03 2 76E 03 1 61E 03 1 56E 03 2 19E 03 1 54E 03 1 18E 03 8 43E 02 1 62E 03 1 25E 03 2 57E 03 1 29E 03 1 15E 03 4 35E 05 1 08E 03 1 10E 03 2 75E 03 1 36E 03 4 35E 02 Priority Index L -------------5 76E 10 1 38E 13 8 61E 11 7 10E 11 9 60E 10 1 15E 11 5 78E 11 5 24E 11 4 16E 15 3 96E 11 1 45E 11 3 11E 11 4 49E 11 4 40E 10 3 04E 10 1 67E 10 2 76E 10 1 61E 10 1 56E 10 2 19E 10 1 54E 10 1 18E 10 8 43E 09 1 62E 10 1 25E 10 2 57E 10 1 29E 10 1 15E 10 4 35E 12 1 08E 10 1 10E 10 2 75E 10 1 36E 10 4 35E 09 a Note regarding scientific notation 4 96E 05 equals 4 96×10 5 which equals 4 96×100 000 or 496 000 Releases are known to have occurred but data not found 17-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Fig 17-6 Airborne MFP Release Estimates and Priority Indices Effluent Data for Mixed Activation Products MAP MAP make up the largest portion of LANL’s airborne radioactive releases for 1979 through 1995 Reactors and large accelerators are the main producers of MAP radionuclides At LANL then the majority of the MAP would come from TA-53 and the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility LAMPF now called the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center LANSCE Although LAMPF started operating in 1971 no effluent data were found for MAP prior to 1976 MAP releases are reported in the annual environmental surveillance reports for 1976 forward For 1976 through 1981 these releases are reported as gaseous mixed activation products G MAP only consisting of 11C 13N and 15O In 1983 LANL began including particulate or vapor activation products P VAP in the releases reported for TA-53 The main constituents of the P VAP activity were 192Au for particulates and 195Hg for vapor The definition of G MAP was expanded in 1983 to include 11C 13N 14 O 15O and 41Ar The 41Ar was only 0 4% of the G MAP activity TA-53 releases were reported in terms of total activity for G MAP and P VAP for the period 1983 through 1991 In 1992 LANL began reporting G MAP activity on a nuclide specific basis including 10C 11C 13N 16N 14O and 15O P VAP FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-19 activity was still reported as a lump sum TA-53 releases were reported in this manner through 1994 In 1995 LANL switched back to reporting G MAP releases on a lump sum basis It also revised the definition of particulate releases to comprise particulate vapor activation and fission products P VAFP excluding 90Sr 90 Sr releases were reported separately though there was no such release associated with TA-53 In 1996 LANL instead began to report airborne releases on a site-wide basis and only in graphical form so only G MAP data were provided The particulate contribution to the total release of airborne activity from TA-53 was trivial throughout the entire 1982- 1996 period The LAHDRA team nevertheless included these releases in its compiled totals in order to be complete Data were compiled from the environmental surveillance reports for 1976 through 1996 No correction factors for effects such as sample line loss or filter burial have been applied to these data since these would not be appropriate for gaseous releases measured via an in-stack ion chamber Further the date range is beyond that to which the LAHDRA team has applied such corrections to particulate release data The maximum allowable effluent concentration used to calculate priority indices for MAP was 1 × 10-7 µCi mL-1 per Footnote 2 to 10CFR20 Appendix B Table 17-6 and Figure 17-7 present the estimated annual release totals and the corresponding priority indices for airborne MAP The priority indices range in magnitude from 1013 to 1015 17-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Table 17-6 Airborne MAP Release Estimates and Priority Indicesa Year 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Release µCi -------------------------- -- -- -- 5 89E 09 4 72E 10 1 16E 11 1 19E 11 1 46E 11 3 52E 11 2 51E 11 4 64E 11 7 37E 11 1 26E 11 1 12E 11 1 50E 11 1 21E 11 1 56E 11 1 23E 11 5 72E 10 7 16E 10 3 19E 10 5 00E 10 4 36E 10 1 12E 10 Priority Index L ----------------------------5 89E 13 4 72E 14 1 16E 15 1 19E 15 1 46E 15 3 52E 15 2 51E 15 4 64E 15 7 37E 15 1 26E 15 1 12E 15 1 50E 15 1 21E 15 1 56E 15 1 23E 15 5 72E 14 7 16E 14 3 19E 14 5 00E 14 4 36E 14 1 12E 14 a Note regarding scientific notation 4 96E 05 equals 4 96×10 5 which equals 4 96×100 000 or 496 000 LAMPF started in June of 1972 No data found for the early period FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-21 Fig 17-7 Airborne MAP Release Estimates and Priority Indices Effluent Data for 131I Airborne release estimates for 131I are presented for 1967 through 1986 Release data were obtained from the data compiled for the 1979 FEIS for 1967 through 1972 and from the annual environmental surveillance reports for 1973 through 1986 For 1967 through 1972 the 131I releases are attributed specifically to CMR Building Wing 9 For 1973 forward the releases are attributed more broadly to TA-3 though presumably the source of the releases is still CMR Building Wing 9 No correction factors were applied to 131I data The maximum allowable effluent concentration used to calculate priority indices for 131I releases was 2 × 10-10 μCi mL-1 from 10CFR20 Appendix B Table 2 Table 17-7 and Figure 17-8 present the estimated annual release totals and the corresponding priority indices for airborne MAP The priority indices range in magnitude from 108 to 1010 17-22 DRAFT FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Table 17-7 Airborne 131I Release Estimates and Priority Indicesa b Year 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 Release µCi -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 1 20E 04 1 00E 04 1 50E 04 5 00E 03 6 95E 03 7 40E 03 4 20E 03 5 00E 03 1 40E 03 3 00E 02 8 80E 01 8 10E 01 1 58E 02 9 40E 01 4 40E 01 7 85E 02 8 30E 01 7 30E 01 1 46E 02 3 80E 01 Priority Index L -------------------6 00E 10 5 00E 10 7 50E 10 2 50E 10 3 48E 10 3 70E 10 2 10E 10 2 50E 10 7 00E 09 1 50E 09 4 40E 08 4 05E 08 7 90E 08 4 70E 08 2 20E 08 3 93E 09 4 15E 08 3 65E 08 7 30E 08 1 90E 08 a 131 I releases are not included in LANL’s annual airborne emissions summaries after 1986 b Note regarding scientific notation 4 96E 05 equals 4 96×10 5 which equals 4 96×100 000 or 496 000 Further investigation is needed to determine other sources of airborne 131I releases prior to 1967 or after 1986 DRAFT FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-23 131I 1 00E 11 Priority Index L 1 00E 10 1 00E 09 Data not available prior to 1967 1 00E 08 Fig 17-8 Airborne 131I Release Estimates and Priority Indices Fig 17-9 presents a combined plot of annual priority index values for airborne radionuclide releases from LANL facilities It is important to emphasize that the purpose of the figure is to compare priority index values between radionuclides for years for which data were available As noted in the previous sections the lack of a priority index value does not necessarily mean that releases did not occur Table 17-8 presents a summary of the radionuclide classes with the highest priority indices for each period of LANL operations RaLa releases show the highest priority for the period prior to 1948 by default since release estimates for other nuclides are not readily available for this period 17-24 DRAFT FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 1 00E 18 1 00E 17 1 00E 16 Priority Index L 1 00E 15 1 00E 14 1 00E 13 1 00E 12 Plutonium Uranium Tritium 1 00E 11 RaLa MFP MAP 1 00E 10 I-131 1 00E 09 1 00E 08 Figure 17-9 Priority Indices for Airborne Radionuclide Releases Priority indices shown in this figure are limited to years for which data are available FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-25 Table 17-8 Classes of Airborne Radionuclides with Highest Priority Indices for Each Period of LANL Operations Years 1944-1947 1948-1961 1962-1966 1967 1968 1969 1970-1973 1974-1978 1979-1995 1996 Radionuclide Class with Highest Priority Indices Radioactive Lanthanum Plutonium Uranium Plutonium Uranium Mixed Fission Products Plutonium Uranium Mixed Activation Products Uranium Range of Annual Priority Indices L 6×1013 to 1×1015 3×1015 to 6×1016 2×1015 to 3×1015 4×1015 to 4×1015 2×1015 to 2×1015 4×1015 to 4×1015 1×1015 to 3×1015 9×1014 to 1×1015 14 3×10 to 5×1015 2×1014 to 2×1014 Due to the large release reported for the UHTREX reactor for this period This result needs further study Conclusions regarding prioritization of airborne radionuclides The LAHDRA prioritization of airborne radionuclide releases shows that based on LANL compilations plutonium and uranium were of primary concern until the late 1970s From then MAP radionuclides appear to have been of primary concern through 1995 However in some cases limited or no data were found in LANL compilations of releases for important nuclides such as plutonium D-Building data and pre-1948 data polonium tritium before 1967 all nuclides pre-1950 and non-point source emissions Comments and Issues Data completeness - This prioritization effort was intended to present a “first look” at the scope and extent of radionuclides released at LANL over the years of its operation Because LAHDRA’s primary focus was to gather information it expended limited effort toward entering or evaluating raw data identified in historical LANL documents In general the values LAHDRA used for the prioritization came from data previously compiled by LANL with adjustments made as supported by available data LAHDRA expended little effort analyzing the data from logbooks or other more detailed data sources A significant amount of original release information that is lab measurements of a filter from a stack for the 1950s and 1960s is available though and could be captured and analyzed if further evaluation of airborne releases is undertaken Plutonium releases – As is discussed elsewhere the plutonium data presented here are lacking significant stack and non-stack point and non-point emissions Source terms that are not addressed include stacks at D Building and stacks other than Building 12 at DP West for the pre-1956 era In addition there were significant fires in dumps or landfills used for disposing of contaminated waste and debris Open fires 17-26 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 were used to burn contaminated oils at DP West In the early years of LANL operations some plutonium processing facilities such as D-Building and the facilities at the DP West Site were designed and operated with positive building pressure LASL 1947 see Fig 17-10 below This feature could have resulted in significant unintentional release of building air out of doors and exit points other than the stacks Similar release pathways could also have been active for large facilities such as LANSCE Fig 17-10 Excerpt from a description of DP Site facilities and their ventilation systems LASL 1947 Polonium - Significant quantities of polonium were used at LANL however no effluent data have been found for polonium other than gross alpha measurements of buildings and stacks at DP East Site where polonium and other materials were handled and processed Due to polonium’s shorter half-life perhaps thousands of times more Ci of polonium then plutonium were used at LANL In LANL’s early years plutonium was considered the most valuable substance on earth and its use was strictly controlled Once polonium became more readily available however it was not inventoried as closely as plutonium Large amounts were used in nuclear weapon initiator explosive or destructive tests An annex to B-Building was built by the end of March 1944 It held a 20-mm remotely fired antiaircraft autocannon used for testing scaled-down versions of gun weapon components and gun initiators It became operational in April 1944 and housed and nearly 180 experiments were conducted by the end of September about one per day releasing unknown quantities of polonium and beryllium LASL 1944-1945 In August 1944 a “coffin” was authorized this box operated at negative pressure with a gas mask filtered exhaust and was used to limit contamination of the machine gun and room during plutonium experiments It was to be operational in September 1944 While the LAHDRA team has addressed beryllium releases from the B-Building gun testing See Chapter 20 polonium releases from this activity have not yet been addressed FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-27 Pre-1967 tritium - There are no pre-1967 effluent data for tritium although the LAHDRA team has identified documents that refer to significant tritium releases before 1967 in most cases they describe accidental or episodic releases see Table 16-1 This release information is scattered across many historical documents such as incident reports The LAHDRA team did not identify any location holding any documents related to tritium releases before 1967 If more time could have been devoted to a directed search of records some already captured by the LAHDRA team and some not for episodic tritium release data however it is likely that a tritium source term for years before 1967 could have been bounded This type of analysis would likely be undertaken in a more detailed dose reconstruction Small contributors - In addition to the principal radionuclides released by LANL in its airborne emissions there are a number of other nuclides for which release data are intermittently encountered in the available records These nuclides include 54Mn 194Au 227Ac and others Priority indices were not calculated for these given the intermittent nature of the data and the fact these nuclides were not substantial in terms of airborne releases or historical LANL operations Beryllium – In the site-wide FEIS USDOE 1979 Table 4 1 2-8 contains information on explosive tests for uranium and beryllium see Fig 17-11 below Using this information the LAHDRA team computed the priority indices in Table 17-9 based on required dilution volume in liters Note that the priority index for beryllium is five times that of uranium Furthermore these data are only from explosive tests and as discussed in Chapters 11 and 20 other sources of beryllium such as the beryllium shop and initiator testing existed at LANL Fig 17-11 1979 FEIS Data on Uranium and Beryllium in Dynamic Experiments 17-28 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Table 17-9 Priority index calculations for depleted uranium and beryllium emissions in 1976 based on data from LANL’s 1979 FEIS Material 1976 Annual Usage kg Percent Aerosolized Aerosolized Quantity kg Applicable Standard ng m3 Priority Index L Depleted Uranium 1023 10% 102 3 9 000 1 14×1013 Beryllium 25 5 2% 0 51 10 5 10×1013 Pre-1973 LANL plutonium releases – Figs 17-12 and 17-13 are a table and text respectively taken from the site-wide FEIS that documents the 1 2-Ci cumulative historical release value for airborne plutonium through 1972 The assessment of airborne plutonium releases from LANL operations would benefit from further examining airborne plutonium releases before 1948 since there were minimal control measures in place during this period Fig 17-12 Cumulative airborne radionuclide releases through 1972 as reported in the LANL FEIS FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-29 Fig 17-13 Text regarding airborne releases before 1973 from the LANL FEIS Alternate Methods for Characterizing Airborne Releases Until around 1978 releases of airborne plutonium from LANL were either not measured at all or were improperly measured or reported Major release points for which there are no plutonium measurements include the historic D-Building the first plutonium component manufacturing facility in the world and DP West Site releases before 1948 D-Building operated until around 1953 Releases from other building stacks at DP Site aside from the main Building 12 stacks were also not included in any LANL compilations The LANL plutonium release compilations also did not consider non-point source emissions including those from accidents and incidents that released directly to the environment without passing through a stack with an associated monitoring system such as major fires at plutonium disposal areas in the 1940s or radioactive disposal area operations that continue to this day Until around 1959 release points at LANL such as DP West were not provided with single stage HEPA filters Maraman et al 1975 A second stage of HEPA filters were finally installed around 1973 Until the mid-1950s the DP West Site Stacks were not equipped with an appropriate sampling system An accurate estimate of LANL plutonium releases thus cannot be made from LANL data given its failure to measure all releases At best the calculated prioritization represents a lower bound of total LANL releases The LAHDRA project examined the feasibility of estimating the releases using two alternate methods back calculation from soil concentration and back calculation from plutonium levels in Los Alamos residents The process of “back calculation” involves to taking the soil concentration or plutonium levels in residents and inferring what the plutonium releases must have been in order to result in the measured 17-30 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 concentration s Utilizing these back calculation methods helped the LAHDRA team identify key documents related to LANL releases and understand the limitations associated with estimating LANL releases through these alternate methods Future independent assessments of LANL releases will likely incorporate several back calculation methods comparing the results of each method to available data in order to establish both a lower and upper bound for the releases Plutonium Soil Measurements as Indicators of Historical Releases Efforts by LANL Sometime around 1957 Harry Jordan and Ralph Black employees at LANL attempted to measure the amount of plutonium in the soil around LANL They collected several soil samples from areas within a 1 mi radius of DP West before global fallout impacted the United States and New Mexico The resulting plutonium concentrations thus do not reflect any contributions from global fallout and therefore measure only concentrations resulting from LANL emissions The results of Jordan and Black’s work are presented in Figure 17-14 which is taken from their publication entitled “Evaluation of the Air Pollution Problem Resulting from Discharge of a Radioactive Effluent” Jordan and Black 1958 In Figure 17-14 canyons are represented by darker areas and circles of increasing distance from the main stacks at DP West along with soil sampling results and locations are depicted FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-31 Fig 17-14 Plutonium Soil Measurements at DP West Site as reported by Jordan and Black 1958 Jordan and Black asserted that they were able to compare the soil concentration values with the actual release data since releases were measured at DP West Only the six results to the east of DP West that are circled in Figure 17-14 were recognized by Jordan and Black because they “show rather remarkable agreement” with the LANL stack effluent records indicating 13 1 g or 0 82 Ci of plutonium had been released over the previous nine years The LAHDRA team identified five major problems with the Jordan and Black analysis • The LAHDRA team was unable to find any supporting records or logbooks concerning the referenced work so is unable to validate any of the data or results • Jordan and Black excluded any soil samples with high plutonium concentrations for reasons that are unclear and appear to be erroneous • Jordan and Black compared the soil results to incorrect stack monitoring results and asserted that the soils and stack data agreed Corrections for sample line loss of up to a factor of five and filter burial of 2 33 were not generally made until the late 1970s Fuehne 2008 17-32 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 • Jordan and Black analyzed too much soil at once resulting in low and variable plutonium recovery from soil in the acid leaching process Therefore the reported soil concentrations were likely lower than the actual concentrations In addition samples to the north of the selected circled samples were reported to have more than twice the concentration of plutonium and they also suffered from low plutonium recovery • Jordan and Black utilized a qualitative not quantitative laboratory method to estimate soil concentrations The method was intended to determine whether plutonium is present and not meant to determine how much plutonium is present Flack et al 2004 The Jordan and Black soil measurements represent a lower bound of the footprint from DP West emissions The Jordan and Black data is reported in units of dpm per square foot to a depth of 2 inches Later environmental data is reported in concentration pCi g for the same depth Beyond conversion of the radiation units one must have the soil density to convert soil in a square foot to grams One can assume a soil density of 1 6 and dividing the values by 6600 will convert these measurements to the units commonly expressed today as pCi g The value of 200 above the six selected values would correspond to 0 03 pCi g however no correction for recovery was made to those data and the actual concentration is likely higher In addition no correction has been made for weathering or the loss of plutonium with time The Jordan and Black data can be used to estimate plutonium releases from DP West without needing to account for background In addition since these data represent the earliest soil samples collected to our knowledge the impact of weathering would be smaller than samples collected more recently In 1970 other LANL scientists William Kennedy and William Purtyman collected soil samples at 12 locations around DP West and analyzed them for plutonium and strontium They published this work in a report entitled “Plutonium and Strontium in Soil near Technical Area 21” Kennedy and Purtymun 1971 Kennedy and Purtyman reported measured soil plutonium concentrations that were much higher than those reported by Jordan and Black However by attributing some concentrations to global fallout and assuming that four times more plutonium was deposited on the soil than what Jordan and Black had estimated Kennedy and Purtymun asserted that their results agreed with a likely understated DP West stack emission estimate of 24 g of plutonium through 1969 Efforts by the LAHDRA Project Team Is there a footprint A logical question to ask then is whether there is excess plutonium in the soils around LANL Both the Jordan and Black and Kennedy and Purtyman analyses in spite of their limitations show a footprint around the DP Site In addition results from these two analyses an electronic copy of 650 plutonium FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-33 measurements resulting from soil samples collected after 1974 when the LANL laboratory methods correctly measured the plutonium in soil was provided to the LAHDRA team Figure 17-15 provides a plot of all of these data Figure 17-15 LANL Environmental Soil Concentrations Figure 17-15 shows regional blue diamonds perimeter pink squares and onsite green triangles plutonium soil data excluding 16 data points with negative or zero results that cannot be shown on a log plot The log plot indicates that the bulk of the data is log-normally distributed and tail off at the lower end of the concentration range because of analytical limits of detection limits However when looking at the higher concentrations the onsite and perimeter data distributions do not appear to be lognormal as a straight line on a log plot would indicate providing evidence of outliers Three of the highest four soil concentration values found in perimeter samples collected at the airport station location which is near DP Site Of the 21 soil concentrations greater than 0 1 pCi g that were found in samples collected onsite over one half came from two locations seven were from the environmental sampling point at DP Site and four were from East of TA-54 an area impacted by continuing releases from MDA-G Thus the bulk of the outliers came from known LANL releases at DP West and MDA-G Only a few of the 650 samples show clear evidence of a footprint decrease in plutonium concentration as distance from the source increased primarily because the only samples that 17-34 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 would indicate the presence of a footprint would be those that were in the vicinity of the release points Most of the samples were a considerable distance from DP Site and also tended to be located upwind based on average daily weather conditions Furthermore the dataset does not include any environmental samples collected around D-Building another major plutonium release point Weathering of soil can reduce the plutonium concentration observed in a soil sample collected decades later In recent years LANL staff have asserted that plutonium soil concentrations are declining to levels indistinguishable from background noting that “most radionuclides in LANL and PM perimeter areas with the exception of 238Pu in soils from PM significantly decrease in concentration over time so that by 1996 most radionuclides were approaching values similar to background ” Fresquez et al 1998 The relatively few “footprint” data were likely impacted by weathering and the footprint from operations in the 1940s and 1950s had the longest amount of time for weathering to impact the soil concentrations In order to properly back calculate the LANL plutonium source term estimated release from soil concentrations it will be necessary to understand the magnitude of weathering in relation to the time elapsed from plutonium release to soil measurement Efforts by the LAHDRA Project Team Suggestions for Improvement of the Current Analysis The historical LANL soil measurement data that are available and that have been used to date in attempting to back calculate the LANL plutonium releases are not ideally suited for this task The areas around D-Building and DP West have been heavily disturbed and finding suitable soil sampling locations there would be problematic However a LANL technician observed that the hillside of South Mesa across Los Alamos Canyon from the TA-1 has remained relatively undeveloped and undisturbed as such this area should be considered for a new soil sampling program The samples should be collected along the canyon rim from the bridge at Diamond Drive to the area across from DP West If possible the samples should be analyzed with a new method of measurement called sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry SF-ICPMS This method can distinguish between weapons-grade plutonium that has not been used in a nuclear weapon and fallout plutonium left over after a nuclear detonation Using this method for soil analyses could cleanly separate plutonium in the soil from global fallout and soil impacted by LANL releases This method has been successfully used at the Nevada Test Site NTS Ketterer and Szechenyib 2008 Without SF-ICPMS the back calculation must include an estimate of plutonium attributable to global fallout in current samples and that value must be subtracted from the measured plutonium concentration in the soil sample This subtraction increases the uncertainty in the calculation Using a more accurately measured plutonium fraction from SF-ICPMS analysis would result in a more accurate estimate of the LANL plutonium contribution in any soil sample Without any new soil FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-35 samples the material found by the LAHDRA team in various LANL document repositories could be used to estimate historical LANL plutonium releases along with a rigorous effort to quantify uncertainties associated with the various parameters associated with the back calculation however the uncertainties would be greatly reduced if a new program of measurements including those analyzed via SF-ICPMS was undertaken Analysis of Measurements of Plutonium in Body Tissues of Los Alamos Area Residents As described previously there is considerable uncertainty associated with LANL plutonium releases that occurred prior to 1970 especially during the early years when off-site releases were likely the highest To address these data gaps the LAHDRA team investigated the possibility of estimating plutonium releases by using data obtained from autopsies of LANL residents that examined the plutonium concentrations in certain types of tissues The LANL Human Tissue Sampling Program The Human Tissue Analysis Program was a 35-year effort by LANL to study the levels of plutonium in workers and in the general United States population Compilations of the LANL human tissue analysis data have been published periodically and an overview of the program was provided in the November 23 1995 issue of Los Alamos Science as part of a larger summary of the Human Radiation Experiments McInroy 1995 Researchers at LANL began to collect tissue spontaneously in 1958 following the death of Cecil Kelley a plutonium worker during a criticality accident McInroy 1995 His autopsy indicated that although the total body plutonium burden was similar to biokinetic model predictions used at the time the distribution across organs was significantly different than expected This observation led to the establishment of the tissue analysis program which included tissues collected from deceased LANL employees known to be occupationally exposed Members of the general public were also included as controls In later years the number of nonoccupationally exposed individuals in the tissue program increased substantially in response to growing concern regarding worldwide fallout due to nuclear weapons testing These tissues were collected with the specific goal of determining the “background” level of internally deposited plutonium due to atmospheric fallout Nearly 1 000 decedents had tissues removed during autopsies and sent to LANL by coroners The logbooks from the human tissue sample program and archived solutions of many of the sampled tissues were transferred by LANL to the United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries USTUR after the program ended USTUR maintains them still today 17-36 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 The LAHDRA project team considers the human tissue data collected from Los Alamos area residents important because they may be able to help characterize their exposures resulting from LANL plutonium releases during the initial decades of the facility’s operations Early samples typically included lung tracheobronchial lymph nodes liver kidney and bone specimens together these organs contain about 90 percent of plutonium that is retained in the body in later years the gonads thyroid and spleen were also sampled McInroy 1995 The LAHDRA project team is primarily interested in results from the liver skeleton and lungs because the lungs provide information about plutonium inhaled in the last few years prior to death while plutonium in the liver and skeleton provides an estimate of the total plutonium inhaled over a person’s life By comparing the ratios of plutonium concentrations in these types of tissues it is possible to determine whether observe differences between people who were exposed to plutonium long ago and people who had more recent exposures Data from the Los Alamos Tissue Program were published in units of disintegrations per minute per kg dpm kg-1 of organ There are models that can predict how plutonium will move throughout the human body For example International Commission of Radiological Protection ICRP Report No 30 has published limits for intakes of radionuclides by workers which are established for each organ based on dosimetric models for inhaled radionuclides such as plutonium The ICRP has also developed “reference” male and females based on data on mass of the various organs of the body chemical composition of the body and various tissues and physiological data During the late 1970s when the autopsy data were published the hypothetical “Reference Man” was between 20-30 years of age weighing 70 kg is 170 cm in height This model was used to generate the dpm kg-1 values published for the Los Alamos Tissue Program The LAHDRA team recognizes that more updated values are available for women and children and any future efforts to use these data in a dose reconstruction would incorporate these values Based on the model presented in ICRP No 30 ICRP 1979 plutonium is distributed with 45% going to the liver 45% to bone a small fraction to other organs and the remainder largely excreted In order to relate the measured data to potential dose a dose coefficient in Sv per dpm kg-1 skeleton can be derived as follows a systemic uptake of 1 dpm ultimately results in 0 45 dpm in the skeleton or liver The liver has a mass of 1 8 kg in Reference Man resulting in 0 25 dpm kg-1 in liver tissue for each dpm that is incorporated into the body For skeletal samples a conversion is needed depending on the type of bone that was sampled Plutonium is concentrated in the trabecular bone rather than in hard compact cortical bone Trabecular bone is the dense semirigid porous calcified connective tissue forming the major portion of the skeleton of most vertebrates Reference Man ICRP 1975 notes that thoracic vertebrae the spongy bone in which marrow resides are about 75% trabecular The entire skeleton ranges from 10% to 20% trabecular bone by weight If the tissue sample had the same proportions dividing by about two kg or 20% of the 10 kg total mass of skeleton would yield a value of 0 225 dpm kg-1 skeleton This FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-37 value is close to that for liver The dose resulting from a one dpm systemic uptake depends on the chemical form of the intake and of course on the isotope particle size etc For inhalation of 239Pu oxide USEPA’s Federal Guidance Report No 11 asserts a dose equivalent factor of 8 21×10-04 Sv Bq-1 for bone surfaces which converts to 1 37 mrem dpm-1 intake USEPA 1988 Dividing by 1 37 mrem by 0 225 dpm kg-1 skeleton then gives six mrem committed bone dose per dpm kg-1 skeleton The committed effective dose equivalent CEDE is a measure of radiation exposure that estimates risk by adding the dose from all of the organs weighted for their risk for cancer for as long as the radioactive material will be present in the body On the basis of CEDE the value for 239Pu oxide is 0 6 mrem per dpm kg-1 skeleton or 0 6 mrem per dpm kg-1 liver For more soluble forms inhalation Class W the values for 239Pu are 16 and 0 9 mrem per dpm kg-1 skeleton for bone surfaces and CEDE respectively Values for 238Pu are similar to those for 239Pu A simplification expressing the results in the right “ballpark” would be that one dpm kg-1 results in approximately one mrem CEDE for either the liver or vertebrae results from the autopsy program Understanding Worldwide Fallout and Comparison of Results in Various Parts of the Country In the past when LANL reported results from the human tissue program comparisons were made between various areas of the country Samples from New York City were taken during 1967-1968 while samples from all other areas of the country other than near Los Alamos were taken only during 1974 1975 By that time LANL’s plutonium releases had been greatly reduced by installing HEPA filters on the various exhaust points Consequently worldwide fallout from weapons testing became an increasingly important source of plutonium exposure for Los Alamos residents Individuals who arrived in Los Alamos after the 1960s most likely experienced intakes of nuclear fallout from weapons testing while people who arrived earlier could have inhaled or ingested greater amounts of plutonium due to LANL releases The comparisons LANL staff published have considered only the LANL data for individuals who died in those limited years 1974-75 or 1967-68 in order to support comparison with the datasets collected from other parts of the country since cases from New Mexico for earlier years would have been exposed to different levels of nuclear weapons testing fallout Since there are only a few cases for those years data from early and late arrivals men and women old and young etc were combined When the combined case data from these few years are compared to other areas of the country the variability is so great that it is impossible to tell if there was a difference between Los Alamos and other areas or not Based on this result LANL has asserted that there are no measureable differences between plutonium tissue concentrations in Los Alamos and other areas of the country While this statement is technically correct the LAHDRA team believes that it is misleading 17-38 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 LANL has analyzed the data to demonstrate that the differences in median values of plutonium concentration in tissues between states in the U S were small However the autopsy results from deaths at the Los Alamos Medical Center designated as either Los Alamos residents or residents of Northern New Mexico were generally the highest median values for nearly all organs compared to other states A similar comparison was provided by McInroy et al in 1979 in the journal Health Physics wherein the cumulative frequency distributions of liver plutonium concentrations dpm kg-1 liver among residents of Los Alamos and Denver were compared they were reported to be nearly identical However the vertebrae autopsy samples from Los Alamos are higher than Denver and their different slope indicates that the plutonium has been in the body longer These data are shown in Fig 10-16 and Fig 10-17 To facilitate comparison the figures from McInroy et al were superimposed on one another in those figures Fig 17-16 Liver Autopsy Results FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-39 Fig 17-17 Vertebrae Autopsy Results It is curious that the liver data for Los Alamos and Denver show identical results since most of the Los Alamos cases used in that figure were obtained in the 1960s while all of the tissues for cases from Denver were obtained in the 1970s If fallout levels were identical the Los Alamos liver results would have been expected to follow a curve that was below that of Denver not identical to Denver since the contribution of fallout to total dose would be expected to be greater in the 1970s The fact that the curves seem similar despite the difference in dates suggests that either the fallout levels in Los Alamos were higher than Denver or that the Los Alamos cases had added plutonium exposure prior to the 1970s The vertebrae results show differences between Los Alamos and Denver with the differences occurring in the population with higher bone concentrations This result also appears to be consistent with the hypothesis that releases from LANL impacted the greater Los Alamos population If there were two distinct populations in Los Alamos long term residents with plutonium both from the site releases and global fallout and short term residents with primarily global fallout in their tissues a bend” in the curve indicating added plutonium in the fraction of the population living nearest to the release points would be expected However no such bend is seen which is likely due to the fact that if 17-40 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 the added plutonium resulted from facility operations its impact would be uneven in the population with only a few individuals impacted based on proximity to the release points the winds and other factors It is likely then that releases from the site were not sufficient to cause this bend in the cumulative frequency distribution CFD plot or that the inherent variability of various factors dominates the distribution thus masking the presence of two populations The LAHDRA team conducted a supplemental analysis where the ratios of vertebrae to liver concentrations were evaluated As noted previously the older ICRP model for plutonium behavior in the human body that was used by McInroy assumes that the skeleton retains plutonium with a biological half-life of 50 years and that the liver retains plutonium for 20 years McInroy et al 1979 Therefore a larger vertebrae to liver ratio indicates an earlier exposure Fig 17-18 shows a CFD plot for the ratio of vertebrae to liver results for all autopsy cases that had data for both organs Two of the data sets shown in Fig 17-18 Denver and Los Alamos were used to generate a line of best fit based on an exponential distribution the other two datasets in this figure are discussed in the next section Based on a visual comparison it appears that the Los Alamos vertebrae to liver ratios are in general higher than those for Denver The results from Denver appear to be lognormally distributed with a median ratio of 1 73 One individual out of 38 had nearly 25 times as much plutonium in his vertebrae as in his liver For the Los Alamos data the median vertebrae to liver ratio was 2 72 Three of the 17 ratios are greater than 25 with one result approaching a ratio of 200 off scale and not shown in Fig 17-18 Taken together the data indicate that exposures occurred earlier in Los Alamos than in Denver and are therefore likely to be related to off-site releases It is important to note that the Denver population was not significantly exposed to plant releases from Rocky Flats The downwind direction from Rocky Flats is predominately toward the east and although there are people living in this area the population density is very low and the likelihood that these residents were included in the Denver study is very low FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-41 100 y 2 7189e1 9734x R² 0 9543 Pre-50 GPS'd Post 50 GPS'd Vertebrae Liver Ratio Los Alamos Denver 10 Expon Los Alamos y 1 7301e1 3426x R² 0 9956 Expon Denver 1 0 1 -2 -1 5 -1 -0 5 0 0 5 1 1 5 2 Standard Deviations Fig 17-18 Cumulative Frequency Distribution of Vertebrae-to-Liver Ratios Supplemental Analysis of the Autopsy Program Results Using Residential Histories The LAHDRA team attempted to independently analyze the autopsy program results and incorporate the proximity of the autopsy cases to known sources of plutonium releases at LANL Shonka 2004 To accomplish this the LAHDRA team developed residential histories for autopsy cases by cross referencing death certificates for participants in the Los Alamos Tissue Program LANL 1978 with yearly telephone directory listings maintained by the Los Alamos Historical Society as well as from other LANL documents and public records These resources were then used to determine the length of stay for each autopsy case at each address within Los Alamos as well as the distance and bearing of each location from DP West or D-Building if the case lived in Los Alamos during the early years when D-Building was operational An initial challenge for the LAHDRA team was the fact that the publicly released autopsy results were published as blind samples the results included no information concerning identity or residential history for each case In a small city like Los Alamos however relatively few deaths occurred each year The LANL autopsy data included five attributes that could be used to establish the identity of the donor without obtaining the data from official or private records 1 year of death 2 resident of the city of Los Alamos 3 sex 4 age and 5 cause of death Initially these five attributes were used to match a number of the autopsy cases to Los Alamos area residents 17-42 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 In 2006 however the death certificates and an index key for participants in the autopsy program were found by the LAHDRA team in the LANL archives LANL 1978 The death certificates were used to create residence histories for each autopsy case and to confirm that the methodology described above had correctly identified the cases The death certificates also included information regarding the “usual residence” of the decedent as well as the “length of stay” in the place of death In instances where the individual died in Los Alamos and was also a resident of Los Alamos the “length of stay” reported on the death certificate was considered to be the length of time that the person lived in Los Alamos For each participant who reportedly lived in Los Alamos historical telephone directories were consulted for the years that the decedent was assumed to be a resident Directories were available for the years 1943-1944 and 1946-1969 none were available for 1945 Addresses were listed as street addresses beginning in 1948 In the 1943 1944 1946 and 1947 directories addresses were listed as “T-numbers ” each house in town was assigned a unique T-number Historical maps of the original Technical Area were used to identify the exact location latitude longitude of the T-number addresses Several other sources were also consulted including a September 1956 AEC Albuquerque Operations Office directory AEC Los Alamos directories for 1966-1972 a 1968-1969 Los Alamos school directory and a 1964 Albuquerque Operations phone book For each name listed in the human tissue program information database the “year of arrival in Los Alamos” and the “length of time in Los Alamos” variables were used to determine in which directories each participant would likely be listed In instances in which the database contained two estimates of the “length of time in Los Alamos ” the estimate corresponding to the greatest number of years was used in the search For each year that it was believed that the participant lived in Los Alamos the corresponding phone directory was consulted to find his or her address for that year In many cases participants lived at a given address for more than one year and so the variables “begin year” and “end year” were associated with each address The two to three years preceding and following the time period during which the participant was believed to have lived in Los Alamos were also checked in the telephone directories For participants who could not be located using the historical telephone directories several other approaches were available Obituaries printed in the Los Alamos Monitor which was published several times per week often provided detailed information regarding how long an individual lived in Los Alamos and in some cases approximately where they lived If address information was not directly provided residential histories could be determined by searching under family members’ names during the relevant time periods Ninety names were searched using this method and 36 matches were found Marriage licenses often contained an address at the time of the marriage and they were also used to confirm familial relationships between some of the participants such as father daughter versus spouse In some instances particularly for women the residential history could easily be tracked in the phone FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-43 directories using a spouse’s name The LAHDRA team searched for one hundred and two marriage licenses using this method and found and nine matches Finally the LAHDRA team used online genealogy services as an additional source of information In total there were 236 autopsy cases for which tissue activity data were available 60 of those participants were LANL employees These participants were associated were 809 residential locations of which 677 were identified as addresses and 542 were geocoded using an Internet-based service Tele Atlas® in order to calculate their distance to D-Building and DP West For some addresses a global positioning satellite GPS unit was used to determine coordinates In some cases the historical address had been re-developed and was no longer a residence For each address the LAHDRA team calculated its distance from D-Building and DP West To date the LAHDRA team has conducted very limited analyses using the residential information from the autopsy cases This work was done around 2004 prior to the discovery of the complete list of case names and the development of the detailed residential histories based on the death certificates The vertebrae to liver ratios amongst individuals who lived in Los Alamos prior to or after 1950 were compared Fig 17-20 At the time of this analysis only a handful of samples had residential information in addition to liver and vertebrae results For example there were only three cases for post-1950 one of which is an outlier The pre-1950 data had a greater median value and slightly smaller geometric standard deviation compared to the full dataset for Los Alamos The median estimated exposure based on the ratios is higher among long-term residents by a factor of five The development of a more comprehensive list of cases and their residential histories by the LAHDRA has created a dataset that could be used in future dose reconstruction efforts to reduce uncertainty and possibly permit using the autopsy data for providing upper and lower bound estimates for LANL releases A full analysis of the data would require that the distance and bearing from significant release points at Los Alamos along with the time dependent source term be incorporated into a mathematical model Additionally the date of death should be used in correcting the autopsy results for fallout Additional Avenues for Investigation There are significant challenges to using the autopsy data to establish an upper or lower bound for LANL releases In order to interpret the autopsy results a timeline of exposures to both fallout and site releases would be needed One of the challenges in establishing bounding estimates will be determining the levels of fallout present in the individual Researchers would need a means of separating the observed plutonium levels due to LANL operations and those due to global fallout The uncertainties in the many factors needed to perform this calculation may result in undesirably large uncertainties in the final answer 17-44 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 The development of a new method of measurement however may be able to address this question This method is called Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry ICP-MS and it can distinguish between weapons-grade plutonium that has not been used in a nuclear weapon and plutonium from fallout resulting from a nuclear detonation Archived solutions of the original samples taken under the Los Alamos human tissue program as well as associated logbooks have been maintained by USTUR for many of the autopsy cases As a result it may be possible to determine how much of any autopsied individual’s exposure was due to fallout or LANL releases by reanalyzing archived tissues using ICP-MS USTUR has performed an initial study of this method with promising results Using ICP-MS for the autopsy cases would not just re-analyze the samples and assert a new and perhaps more accurate measurement of plutonium in a given sample but would also cleanly separate out the plutonium levels due to global fallout from LANL operational releases using a highly accurate measurement of the various plutonium nuclei A simple 239 240Pu fraction could be applied to McInroy’s data Global fallout has a characteristic ratio signature of 240Pu to 239Pu of 0 18 whereas weapons grade plutonium not expended in a nuclear bomb has a much lower atom ratio of 0 04 ICP-MS easily separates these two atoms by mass while traditional measurements employing alpha spectrometry cannot since the alpha energies for 240Pu 5 255 MeV and 239Pu 5 244 MeV are too close to be resolved Work at the NTS found that atom ratios for 240Pu 239Pu in soil exhibit a simple two-component mixing of plutonium ratios from nuclear testing at NTS and global fallout Cizdziel et al 2008 LAHDRA team members and USTUR personnel have shared information concerning the autopsy results A complete 1991 computer printout from the program has been obtained that can be reviewed against the publications that document the autopsy results This printout contains information protected under the Privacy Act and it cannot be released to the public Attempts are underway to “clean up” the old computer output so that it can be scanned and optical-character-recognition processed so it can be entered into a spreadsheet to facilitate analysis If that task is successful the data from previous publications used by LAHDRA from the 1980 time frame will hopefully be reconciled with the LANL data Lastly the LAHDRA team examined other autopsy cases from New Mexico in an effort to review the possible plutonium exposure from the July 16 1945 Trinity test That review found no cases in the highest exposure contours of the downwind plume area as delineated in Quinn 1990 The highest recorded plutonium levels were found in a woman from Truchas New Mexico who was alive during the Trinity test The plutonium concentration in her liver was 60 times higher than that of the average New Mexico resident Truchas is next to the one mR h-1 contour line at H 12 hours which does not reflect internal doses received from inhalation or ingestion of radioactive material Quinn 1990 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-45 Prioritization of Waterborne Radionuclide Releases Since 1944 LANL operations have produced liquid wastes containing radioactive materials Waterborne radioactive waste was released without treatment to Acid Canyon see Fig 17-19 from 1944 until 1951 when the TA-45 treatment plant became operational Prioritization has been accomplished for waterborne releases of total plutonium 89Sr 90 Sr and tritium These radionuclides are the only ones for which more-or-less complete historical compilations of liquid releases prepared by LANL were found LANL also reported waterborne releases for the following radionuclides at various times over the years 227Ac 241Am 140Ba 140La radioactive lanthanum 7Be 134Cs 57 60 137 Cs 54 Co Co gross alpha gross beta Mn 22Na Fig 17-19 During early LANL operations untreated 83 Rb 84Rb 75Se 85Sr total uranium 234U and liquid radioactive wastes were discharged to Acid Canyon through this pipe 88 Y Release data for these nuclides were either only provided for brief time intervals or were redundant with the longer-term historical compilations Prioritization of these nuclides was therefore not attempted in this initial assessment However it is expected that Priority Indices for these nuclides if calculated would not differ substantially from those determined for the primary nuclides of interest i e plutonium 89Sr 90Sr and tritium As for the airborne release data LANL’s waterborne releases have been prioritized by calculating a Priority Index for each nuclide of interest for each year The Priority Index is defined as the volume of water required to dilute the reported or estimated quantity released down to the maximum concentration allowed for a release to the environment Table 17-10 shows the maximum allowable waterborne concentration values used in the Priority Index calculations These values were taken from 10 CFR 20 Appendix B Table 2 Column 2 USNRC 2010 The maximum allowable concentrations for 238Pu 239 Pu and 240Pu are all 2 × 10-8 µCi per milliliter so this value was used to calculate the Priority Index for total plutonium releases 17-46 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Table 17-10 Maximum Effluent Concentrations Used for Waterborne Radionuclide Prioritization Nuclide Maximum Effluent Concentration μCi mL-1 Total plutonium 2 × 10-8 89 8 × 10-6 90 5 × 10-7 Sr Sr Tritium 1 × 10-3 It is worth noting again that the Priority Index does not account for specific pathways of exposure or distances to offsite receptors It is a simple tool used to evaluate the relative rank of releases of a particular radionuclide against the others Data Sources The LAHDRA team used three data sources for waterborne radioactive effluents released from LANL • Christenson 1973 – A compilation of estimates and measurements of waterborne radionuclide releases to canyons and absorption beds at LANL for the period 1945 - 1972 This reference was the source of all waterborne release data for the era prior to publication of the formal environmental surveillance reports • LANL Environmental Surveillance Reports from 1971-1996 These contain effluent information for TA-21 TA-50 and TA-53 waste treatment plants They are the source of the waterborne radionuclide release data for 1973 and for 1977 forward Waterborne discharge summary reports for 1974 1975 and 1976 The environmental surveillance reports for 1974 1975 and 1976 did not include waterborne release data This information was therefore obtained from other references retrieved by the LAHDRA team USAEC 1975 LASL 1976a 1977b Prior to 1973 LANL reported waterborne radionuclide releases on a site-wide basis rather than attributing releases to specific release points The reported releases for this era are a combination of measurements and best estimates From 1973 forward LANL generally included waterborne radionuclide releases in its annual environmental surveillance reports However there were cases where waterborne release data were not included in the surveillance reports and other references had to be used No data for waterborne tritium releases in 1975 were located LANL only reported total plutonium for 1945 through 1972 and for 1992 Pu-238 and Pu-239 were reported separately for 1973 through 1996 with the exception of 1992 Since the maximum allowable waterborne concentration values for Pu-238 and Pu-239 are the same the Pu-238 and Pu-239 releases were summed for the years in which they were reported separately thus allowing prioritization of the waterborne plutonium releases to be presented in a continuous fashion over the period 1945 – 1996 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-47 89Sr and Sr-90 are reported separately for most years Exceptions are 1990 through 1993 for Sr-89 and 1990 through 1992 for Sr-90 The maximum allowable concentration values for Sr-89 and Sr-90 differ by a factor of 16 so treating radiostrontium releases on a total rather than nuclide-specific basis was undesirable The later total strontium releases reported by LANL potentially include strontium isotopes other than Sr-89 and Sr-90 so Sr-89 or Sr-90 releases cannot necessarily be derived from knowing the total released Summary of Results for Prioritization of Waterborne Releases The prioritization data for waterborne releases of total plutonium 89Sr 90Sr and tritium are shown in Table 17-11 The table shows the quantity released in µCi and the corresponding Priority Index in liters for each calendar year for1945 through 1996 Prioritization was not carried beyond 1996 since this year was far enough into the modern era and prioritization primarily focused on earlier eras before treatment and monitoring capabilities had developed Figure 17-14 is a plot of the Priority Index values for the four nuclides of interest The periods of flat lines show where LANL has estimated annual releases and thus do not vary from year to year Gaps in the plots are years in which release data have not yet been located These are seen for tritium for 1975 for 89Sr for 1990 through 1993 and for 90Sr for 1990 through 1992 Plutonium Sources of waterborne plutonium releases from LANL include DP Site TA-21 and the central liquid waste treatment facility at TA-50 The Priority Indices for waterborne plutonium releases range in magnitude from 107 to 109 Plutonium was the highest priority waterborne release over the entire time period considered with the exception of 1956 when radiostrontium releases from TA-35 increased significantly These releases were from the liquid waste handling system for the RaLa laboratories located there Radiostrontium 89Sr and 90Sr Sources of waterborne radiostrontium releases from LANL include DP Site TA-21 and the central liquid waste treatment facility at TA-50 The Priority Indices for waterborne releases of 90Sr range from 105 to 108 For 89Sr they range from 104 to 108 90 Sr ranks the second highest priority behind plutonium for 1945 through 1972 it was the highest priority for 1956 due to an accidental release from the TA-35 waste tanks 89 Sr likewise ranks higher than plutonium for that year for the same reason After 1972 90Sr releases prioritizes similar to waterborne tritium releases until 1983 Relatively speaking waterborne 89Sr releases only appear important for the few years following the 1956 release from the TA-35 tank farm and perhaps for the 1983 – 1984 and 1987 – 1988 periods Tritium Waterborne tritium was released from DP-Site TA-21 the central liquid waste treatment facility at TA-50 and the research facilities at TA-53 The prioritization for waterborne tritium releases prior to 1971 reflect an estimate made by LANL given the lack of monitoring data LANL estimated that 17-48 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 5 Ci per year were released for the period 1945 through 1970 Christenson 1973 Figure 17-14 therefore shows a flat line for the tritium Priority Index for this period There is also a gap in the tritium curve for the year 1975 as thus far no release estimate for this period has been identified Tritium appears to rank as a relatively low priority until the early 1970s As of 1984 it ranked as the second-highest priority waterborne radionuclide release behind plutonium The Priority Indices for waterborne tritium releases range from 105 to 108 Conclusions regarding prioritization of waterborne radionuclides The current results indicate that in regards to waterborne releases plutonium is of most concern It is not yet possible however to definitively address the relative importance of waterborne effluents versus airborne effluents We can note though that in general pathways for public exposure from liquid releases appear to have not been as complete as those for airborne releases due to the ephemeral nature of surface water flow in many cases with a large part of off-site transport possibly occurring during heavy rains or runoff from periods of snow melting FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-49 Table 17-11 Waterborne Release Estimates and Priority Indices a Year a 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Total Plutonium Release Priority µCi Index L 2 38E 04 1 19E 09 2 38E 04 1 19E 09 2 38E 04 1 19E 09 2 38E 04 1 19E 09 2 38E 04 1 19E 09 2 38E 04 1 19E 09 1 31E 03 6 55E 07 1 42E 03 7 10E 07 2 24E 03 1 12E 08 3 21E 03 1 61E 08 3 14E 03 1 57E 08 1 81E 03 9 05E 07 1 94E 03 9 70E 07 1 47E 03 7 35E 07 2 06E 03 1 03E 08 4 36E 03 2 18E 08 1 07E 04 5 35E 08 6 84E 03 3 42E 08 6 81E 03 3 41E 08 3 11E 03 1 56E 08 4 48E 03 2 24E 08 2 50E 03 1 25E 08 6 50E 03 3 25E 08 4 20E 03 2 10E 08 8 36E 03 4 18E 08 6 47E 03 3 24E 08 7 62E 03 3 81E 08 1 70E 04 8 51E 08 9 40E 03 4 70E 08 1 20E 04 6 00E 08 1 64E 04 8 21E 08 8 92E 03 4 46E 08 4 18E 03 2 09E 08 6 42E 03 3 21E 08 2 40E 03 1 20E 08 9 55E 03 4 77E 08 5 88E 04 2 94E 09 1 99E 04 9 96E 08 5 33E 04 2 67E 09 1 44E 04 7 21E 08 9 75E 03 4 87E 08 5 10E 03 2 55E 08 4 60E 03 2 30E 08 4 30E 03 2 15E 08 2 60E 03 1 30E 08 8 00E 02 4 00E 07 1 30E 03 6 50E 07 7 00E 02 3 50E 07 1 10E 03 5 50E 07 3 20E 03 1 60E 08 4 00E 03 2 00E 08 2 64E 03 1 32E 08 89 90 Sr Release µCi 4 00E 04 4 00E 04 4 00E 04 4 00E 04 4 00E 04 4 00E 04 4 00E 04 4 00E 04 4 00E 04 4 00E 04 4 00E 04 9 35E 05 2 13E 05 1 02E 05 2 60E 04 3 40E 04 9 00E 03 9 00E 03 4 50E 04 4 50E 04 4 50E 04 4 50E 04 5 80E 04 3 30E 04 5 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 30E 04 4 00E 03 4 90E 03 2 87E 03 1 77E 03 9 70E 02 2 29E 03 2 67E 03 6 10E 03 4 10E 04 4 16E 04 1 18E 04 5 68E 04 2 62E 05 9 01E 03 9 20E 03 6 40E 04 8 10E 04 1 80E 04 No data No data No data No data 2 00E 03 1 00E 02 6 60E 02 Sr Priority Index L 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 1 17E 08 2 66E 07 1 28E 07 3 25E 06 4 25E 06 1 13E 06 1 13E 06 5 63E 06 5 63E 06 5 63E 06 5 63E 06 7 25E 06 4 13E 06 6 88E 06 1 88E 06 1 63E 06 5 00E 05 6 13E 05 3 59E 05 2 21E 05 1 21E 05 2 86E 05 3 33E 05 7 63E 05 5 12E 06 5 20E 06 1 48E 06 7 10E 06 3 28E 07 1 13E 06 1 15E 06 8 00E 06 1 01E 07 2 25E 06 ----2 50E 05 1 25E 04 8 25E 04 Release µCi 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 65E 05 3 70E 04 1 80E 04 4 00E 03 6 00E 03 1 00E 03 1 00E 03 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 1 50E 04 8 00E 03 1 30E 04 2 20E 04 3 20E 04 7 00E 03 7 50E 03 1 63E 04 6 07E 03 4 62E 03 3 10E 04 1 05E 04 1 42E 04 1 81E 04 2 37E 04 1 34E 04 2 54E 03 7 03E 03 1 26E 03 6 90E 02 1 00E 03 2 00E 02 1 10E 03 No data No data No data 3 40E 03 3 00E 02 6 00E 02 6 00E 02 Priority Index L 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 30E 08 7 40E 07 3 60E 07 8 00E 06 1 20E 07 2 00E 06 2 00E 06 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 3 00E 07 1 60E 07 2 60E 07 4 40E 07 6 40E 07 1 40E 07 1 50E 07 3 27E 07 1 21E 07 9 25E 06 6 19E 07 2 10E 07 2 85E 07 3 62E 07 4 73E 07 2 68E 07 5 08E 06 1 41E 07 2 51E 06 1 38E 06 2 00E 06 4 00E 05 2 20E 06 ---6 80E 06 6 00E 05 1 20E 06 1 20E 06 Tritium Release Priority µCi Index L 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 5 00E 06 3 02E 06 3 02E 06 9 62E 06 9 62E 06 1 90E 07 1 90E 07 4 70E 06 4 70E 06 No data -1 88E 08 1 88E 08 3 97E 07 3 97E 07 1 41E 07 1 41E 07 3 31E 07 3 31E 07 4 50E 07 4 50E 07 1 74E 07 1 74E 07 1 53E 07 1 53E 07 1 04E 07 1 04E 07 4 69E 07 4 69E 07 7 69E 07 7 69E 07 2 45E 07 2 45E 07 1 11E 08 1 11E 08 2 62E 07 2 62E 07 4 10E 07 4 10E 07 1 20E 07 1 20E 07 1 06E 07 1 06E 07 1 06E 07 1 06E 07 2 66E 06 2 66E 06 2 23E 06 2 23E 06 7 31E 05 7 31E 05 1 02E 06 1 02E 06 Note regarding scientific notation 4 96E 05 equals 4 96×10 5 which equals 4 96×100 000 or 496 000 17-50 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 1 00E 10 1 00E 09 Priority Index L 1 00E 08 Plutonium Sr-89 1 00E 07 Sr-90 Tritium 1 00E 06 1 00E 05 1 00E 04 Fig 17-20 Priority Indices for LANL Waterborne Radionuclide Releases FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-51 References Andrews LL Los Alamos National Laboratory site releases up to 1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1973 Christenson C 1973 Nuclide Inventory Data Memorandum to Harry Jordan date 8 November 1973 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Repos No 2001 Cizdziel JV Ketterer ME Farmer D Faller SH Hodge VF Pu fingerprinting of plutonium in western US soils using ICPMS solution and laser ablation measurements Anal Bioanal Chem 390 521-530 2008 Dahl DA Johnson LJ 1977 Aerosolized Uranium and Beryllium from LASL Dynamic Experiments Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-77681 Repos No 2249 Drake RW Eyster EH Memorandum from E H Eyster to G L Voelz Uranium dispersed by experimental test shots at Los Alamos 1971 Dummer JE Taschner JC Courtwright CC 1996 The Bayo Canyon radioactive lanthanum RaLa program Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-13044-H 4 30 1996 Repos No 0002 Eisele WF E-mail communication regarding worker autopsy data 2008 Repos No 7874 Flack SM Shonka JJ Buddenbaum JE Interview of former LANL employee Bill Moss conducted on 26 February 2004 ChemRisk Inc 2004 Repos No 7831 Fresquez PR Armstrong D Mullen M 1998 Radionuclides and Radioactivity in Soils Within and Around Los Alamos National Laboratory 1974 through 1996 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-13149-MS April 1996 Repos No 3856 Fresquez PR Mullen A Ferenbaugh J Perona R 1996 Radionuclides and Radioactivity in Soils Within and Around Los Alamos National Laboratory 1974 through 1994 Concentrations Trends and Dose Comparisons Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-13149-MS April 1996 Repos No 3856 Fuehne DP Personal communication with David P Fuehne of LANL Meteorology Air Quality Group 2008 Electronic correspondence summarized by LANL staff 2008 Repos No 7875 Hyatt EC Total Activity Released from D P West Stacks Memorandum to Dean D Meyer dated 26 October 1955 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1955 Repos No 0199 17-52 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Hyatt EC Total alpha activity released from DP West stacks Bldg 12 from 1948 through 1955 memorandum to Dean D Meyer Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1956 Repos No 6601 IAEA 1979 Safety Series 49 Radiological surveillance of airborne contaminants in the working environment Vienna Austria International Atomic Energy Agency ICRP 1975 Report of the Task Group on Reference Man New York NY International Commission on Radiological Protection ICRP Publication 23 ICRP 1979 Limits for Intakes of Radionuclides by Workers Oxford England International Commission on Radiological Protection Publication 30 Part 1 Jordan HS Black RE Evaluation of the air pollution problem resulting from discharge of a radioactive effluent American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal 19 1958 Kennedy WR Purtymun WD 1971 Plutonium and Strontium in Soil Near Technical Area 21 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-4563 2 28 1971 Repos No 2141 Ketterer ME Szechenyib SC Determination of plutonium and other transuranic elements by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry A historical perspective and new frontiers in the environmental sciences Spectrochimica Acta Part B Atomic Spectroscopy 63 719-737 2008 Krey et al Remote plutonium contamination and total inventories from Rocky Flats Health Physics 30 209-214 1976 LANL Death Certificates for LASL Zia Employees and Los Alamos County Residents from LANL Archives Collection A-1982-007 Box 001 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1978 Repos No 5597 LANL 1981 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1980 Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-8810-ENV Repos No 930 LANL 1982 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1981 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-9349-ENV Repos No 929 LANL 1983 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1982 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 4 30 1983 Repos No 1314 LANL 1984 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1983 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-10100-ENV Repos No 2342 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-53 LANL 1985 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1984 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-104421-ENV Repos No 654 LANL 1986 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1985 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-10721-ENV LANL 1989 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1988 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-11628-ENV LANL 1990 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1989 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12000-ENV Repos No 1088 LANL 1991 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1990 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12271-MS Repos No 2311 LANL 1992 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1991 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12572-ENV Repos No 2189 LANL 1993a Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1992 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12764-ENV Repos No 1089 LANL HS EM Facility Review Record Soil Samples TA-1 EXC#6308 ERID 48341 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1993b Repos No 6812 LANL 1994 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1993 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12973-ENV Repos No 3903 LANL 1995 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1994 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-12973-ENV Repos No 3903 LANL 1996 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1995 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-13210-ENV Repos No 3903 LASL Memoranda regarding development and testing related to gun-assembled atomic weapons LANL Archives Collection A-1989-092 Folder 13 Memoranda and progress reports Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1944-1945 Repos Nos 5403-5418 LASL 1947 Chemistry of Uranium and Plutonium Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-1017 June 27th 1947 Repos No 3085 LASL 1971 Environmental Monitoring Program - July through December 1970 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-4672-MS Repos No 2178 17-54 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 LASL 1972a Environmental Monitoring in the Vicinity of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-4871-MS Repos No 4079 LASL 1972b Environmental Monitoring in the Vicinity of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory - July Through December 1971 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-4970 Repos No 2155 LASL 1973 Environmental Monitoring in the Vicinity of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-5184 Repos No 887 LASL 1974 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1973 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-5586 Repos No 2161 LASL 1975 Environmental Surveillance At Los Alamos During 1974 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-5977-PR Repos No 2133 LASL 1976a Annual Summary of Operation TA-50-1 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LASL 1976b Annual Summary of Operations TA-50-1 Los Alamos NM Los Alamas National Laboratory Repos No 0367 LASL 1976c Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1975 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-6321-MS Repos No 2158 LASL 1977a Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1976 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-6901-MS LASL 1977b Total Radioactive Liquid Effluent Release Summary by Nuclides for CY 1976 Los Alamos Los Alamos National Laboratory Repos No 1546 LASL 1978 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1977 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-7263-MS Repos No 2069 LASL 1979 Environmental Surveilance at Los Alamos During 1978 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-7800-ENV Repos No 953 LASL 1980 Environmental Surveillance at Los Alamos During 1979 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-8200-ENV Repos No 2190 Maraman WJ McNeese WD Stafford RG Plutonium– health implications for man Confinement facilities for handling plutonium Health Phys 29 469-80 1975 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 17-55 McInroy et al Plutonium in autopsy tissue A revision and updating of data reported in LA-4875 Health Physics 37 1979 McInroy J A True Measure of Exposure the Human Tissue Analysis Program at Los Alamos Los Alamos Science 23 1995 NCRP 1996 Screening Models for Release of Radionuclides to Atmosphere Surface Water and Ground Bethesda MD National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report No 123 Quinn VE Analysis of meteorological and radiological data for selected fallout episodes Health Phys 59 577-92 1990 Shonka JJ Analysis of LANL Autopsy Program Results Calculation SRA-03-003 Shonka Research Associates 2004 Repos No 4134 USAEC 1975 Onsite Discharge Analysis Report For Calendar Years 1972 Through 1974 Albuquerque Operations Office Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Washington DC U S Atomic Energy Commission Repos No 2016 USDOE 1979 Final environmental impact statement Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory site Los Alamos New Mexico Washington DC U S Department of Energy DOE EIS-0018 Repos No 688 USEPA 1988 Limiting Values of Radionuclide Intake and Air Concentration and Dose Conversion Factors for Inhalation Submersion and Ingestion Washington DC United States Environmental Protection Agency Federal Guidance Report No 11 USNRC Standards for protection against radiation Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 20 2010 Valentine AM Nuclide Inventory Data Memorandum to Harry S Jordan dated 9 November 1973 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1973 17-56 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Screening-Level Evaluation of Airborne Plutonium Releases from DP West Site Because airborne plutonium releases from DP West Site were documented to have been significantly higher than has been officially reported and because residential areas were located quite close to the site two screening-level evaluations using the methodology of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report No 123 NCRP 1996 were performed Evaluations were performed for two eras to account for the fact residential areas became located closer to DP West over time The first evaluation was performed for releases during 1949 which is the apparent year of peak emissions for the period prior to 1957 A second screening-level evaluation was performed for releases during 1959 the apparent year of peak emissions after 1957 The year 1957 is significant because it marks the appearance of the Group 18 housing area resulting in a significant change in the proximity of the nearest residents to DP West The NCRP methodology uses three levels of screening calculations for atmospheric transport pathways Level I screening uses the simplest approach and incorporates a high degree of conservatism to avoid underestimating doses Level II screening accounts for dispersion in the atmosphere and combines all significant pathways into a single screening factor Level III screening includes more definitive pathway analysis for inhalation external exposure and ingestion of terrestrial food products in the form of vegetables and or animal food products DP West Site Releases used for the screening-level evaluation are based on annual release estimates presented in Chapter 17 The average 239Pu release rates for 1949 and 1959 were calculated as follows The annual exhaust volume of 1 88x109 m3 y-1 for the Building 12 stack see Fig 18-1 Andrews ca 1973 was converted to 58 8 m3 s-1 to support calculating the average plutonium concentration in the stacks For the screening-level evaluation of releases from the DP West Building 12 stacks in 1949 the closest potentially exposed members of the public were residents at the trailer park located 1km west of the stacks see Fig 18-2 In 1959 the closest potential exposed members of the public were 0 5 km northwest of the stacks Based on the Level I screening method’s assumption that FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18-1 the wind blew toward the closest potentially exposed individual 25% of the time concentrations at that point were estimated as one-quarter of the average stack concentration The exposure point concentration Bq m-3 was multiplied by the all-pathways screening factor Sv per Bq m-3 from Table 1 1 of NCRP Report No 123 to yield screening values that were compared to a limiting value 18-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 Fig 18-1 Sheet showing exhaust flow volume and uncorrected annual releases from DP West Building 12 Stacks for 1948-1972 Andrews ca 1973 This handwritten sheet is the most basic documentation found of the 1 2-Ci release total that LANL reported in 1979 for operations before 1973 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18-3 Fig 18-2 Annotated modern aerial photograph showing former locations of DP West Site Building 12 stacks and nearby residential areas Trailer park drawing is excerpted from USAEC Drawing LA FM 125 Sheets L7-SW-1 and L6-SE-1 18-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 For this screening assessment the limiting value selected was 1 82×10-4 Sv y-1 which is based on 1 in 100 000 added risk of fatal or non-fatal cancer using a risk factor of 5 5×10-2 Sv-1 ICRP 2007 It is important to emphasize that the results of the screening calculations are strictly for comparison to an environmental standard limiting value to determine if compliance with that standard is assured or if further investigation is warranted The screening values are not intended to represent estimates of actual doses to individuals For Level II screening the release height was determined to be 58 6 ft above ground level based on LANL Drawing 12T35397A2 See Fig 18-3 The dimensions of the portion of Building 12 that housed the filters and precipitators and faced west were estimated to be 14 3 m high by 27 9 m wide see Fig 18-4 based on analysis of Photograph 2284 and a report documenting the building’s demolition Christensen et al 1975 The atmospheric concentration at the exposure point was estimated using Equation 1 with f 0 25 Q 5 08×103 Bq s-1 1949 or 3 25×103 Bq s-1 1959 and u equal to the suggested default value of 2 m s-1 C Where f QB u 1 C average atmospheric concentration at exposure point μCi m-3 f fraction of time that the wind blew toward the receptor of interest Q release rate μCi s-1 B the Gaussian plume model diffusion factor modified for building wake effects from Fig 1 5 of NCRP Report No 123 u mean wind speed m s-1 The resulting concentration was multiplied by the atmospheric screening factor from Table 1 1 of NCRP Report No 123 to obtain the Level II screening value In accordance with NCRP FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18-5 recommendations that screening value was compared to 10% of the limiting value in recognition of uncertainties inherent within the calculations and associated assumptions Fig 18-3 Drawing of DP West Site Building 12 filter house and stacks 18-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 Fig 18-4 Annotated section of Photograph 2284 showing Building 12 from the east Historical documents and interviews with Los Alamos residents indicate that residents were allowed to maintain vegetable gardens after World War II including at the trailer park west of DP Site but no evidence has been found of any animal food product production within the townsite The two screening values were summed and compared to the screening limit i e the limiting value divided by ten as in Level II to determine whether further evaluation of historical exposures is warranted In Level III screening the exposure point air concentration from Level II screening was multiplied by a screening factor for inhalation and external sources submersion from Table 1 1 of NCRP Report No 123 and by a second screening factor for vegetable consumption from the same table to obtain screening values for inhalation and external exposure as well as for home grown vegetable consumption Screening Worksheets Appendix 18-A are copies of the applicable worksheet pages used to apply the NCRP Report No 123 screening method to the DP West Building 12 stack releases FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18-7 Results of the Screening The results of preliminary screening of airborne 239Pu releases from DP West site Building 12 stacks during 1949 and 1959 are presented in Table 18-1 and 18-2 respectively In Level I and Level II screenings the screening values for both years exceeded the limiting value prompting application of the screening methodology at the next highest level The results of the screening calculations are strictly for comparison to an environmental standard limiting value to determine if compliance with that standard is assured or if further investigation is warranted The screening values are not intended to represent estimates of actual doses to individuals The results of the Level III screening indicate that airborne 239Pu releases from Building 12 stacks – as represented by estimated releases during 1949 and 1959 – warrant further evaluation by experts in environmental radiological assessment Table 18-1 Summary of the preliminary screening of airborne 239Pu releases from DP West Site Building 12 stacks during 1949 using the methodology of NCRP Report No 123 Screening Value Sv y-1 Screening Limit exceeded NCRP Guidance I Vent air all pathways concentration at exposure point set equal to 25% of stack concentration 21 3 Yes Proceed to Level II II Vent air all pathways Gaussian plume modeling to exposure point outside near-wake region wind blows toward exposure point 25% of the time 0 025 Yes Proceed to Level III III Vent air specific pathways inhalation external exposure consumption of vegetables same dispersion assumptions as Level II 0 025 Yes Seek assistance from experts in environmental radiological assessment Level of Screening Features of Screening Methodology 18-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 Table 18-2 Summary of the preliminary screening of airborne 239Pu releases from DP West Site Building 12 stacks during 1959 using the methodology of NCRP Report No 123 Screening Value Sv y-1 Screening Limit exceeded NCRP Guidance I Vent air all pathways concentration at exposure point set equal to 25% of stack concentration 13 6 Yes Proceed to Level II II Vent air all pathways Gaussian plume modeling to exposure point outside near-wake region wind blows toward exposure point 25% of the time 0 061 Yes Proceed to Level III III Vent air specific pathways inhalation external exposure consumption of vegetables same dispersion assumptions as Level II 0 061 Yes Seek assistance from experts in environmental radiological assessment Level of Screening Features of Screening Methodology FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18-9 References Andrews LL Los Alamos National Laboratory site releases up to 1972 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory ca 1973 Christensen E Garde R Valentine A Demolition of Building 12 an old plutonium filter facility Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-5755 1975 ICRP The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection Stockholm The International Commission on Radiological Protection ICRP 103 2007 NCRP Screening Models for Release of Radionuclides to Atmosphere Surface Water and Ground Bethesda MD National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report No 123 1996 18-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 Appendix 18-A Copies of the applicable worksheet pages used to apply the NCRP Report No 123 screening method FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-1 18-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-3 18-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-5 18-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-7 18-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-9 18-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-11 18-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-13 18-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-15 18-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-17 18-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-19 18-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-21 18-22 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-23 18-24 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-25 18-26 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 18 18A-27 Chapter 19 Prioritization of Chemical Releases from LANL LANL operations have involved many non-radioactive materials including metals inorganic chemicals and organic chemicals including solvents For the sake of simplicity in this report we will refer to all of these materials as “chemicals ” Prior to the 1970s chemical use and their ultimate fate were poorly tracked and documented compared to radionuclides For this reason one particularly challenging portion of the LAHDRA project has been collecting information concerning historical uses of chemicals identifying those that were most likely released off site and determining which have been most important in terms of potential off-site health hazards Sources of Information Regarding Historical Chemical Usage The sources of information about chemical usage at LANL that have been most useful to the LAHDRA team include a modern-day chemical inventory historical chemical inventories and various types of LANL site documents Current Chemical Inventory LANL maintains an inventory of chemicals present onsite to comply with annual environmental reporting requirements for hazardous chemical emissions Information on the quantities and types of chemicals used at LANL was collected starting in 1991 and a Microsoft® Access database was completed in 1993 Personal communication Environmental Health and Safety Division ES-5 1999 The initial tracking system called the Automated Chemical Inventory System ACIS had been updated annually since 1994 Recently though the inventory system was changed to Fig 19-1 Personnel involved in early explosives testing at Los Alamos the Injury Illness and Chemical Management Online Application by E3 Although the project team was granted access and training for the new system the initial analysis of chemical inventory data conducted in 2000 was not repeated because of the limited usefulness of recent chemical inventory data for evaluating historical emissions of chemicals from LANL FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-1 The ACIS database includes the following fields • Chemical name CAS number and bar code • Location of chemical technical area building • Quantity units of measure and physical state solid liquid gas ACIS is available on the internal LANL Web site using a SecureID card Access to the database allows the data to be compiled in different ways and provides details such as the specific locations of chemicals through database search capabilities A paper copy of the ACIS Microsoft® Access database file was provided to the project team by the ESH-5 group on January 26 1999 At that time the database contained approximately 120 000 records Subsequently access through a Web interface was granted to allow limited searches to be performed A request for an official-use-only copy of the database for performing more complex searches was granted However the database does not include radionuclides explosives beryllium depleted uranium or other bulk metals It contains many trade name products without any information indicating whether they include any hazardous materials The database also does not include any information regarding how the chemicals are used or their potential for release to the environment Preliminary review of the ACIS database indicates that 37 chemicals were each present onsite at 250 or more individual locations and therefore represent the largest onsite quantities of chemicals Twelve of the thirteen chemicals present onsite in the highest quantities do not have USEPA recommended toxicity values for potential cancer and non-cancer systemic health effects although some can be irritants or corrosives at high concentrations The 37 high quantity chemicals selected from ACIS are shown in Table 19-1 in order of decreasing estimated on-site quantities Of the 37 high quantity chemicals the 13 with USEPA recommended toxicity values are shown in Table 19-1 ranked in order of generic toxicity “1” being more toxic than “13 ” Generic toxicity includes both cancer and non-cancer chronic health effects with no bias toward any route of potential exposure e g inhalation ingestion and dermal contact or to any potential environmental exposure medium e g air soil water food products since little is known about how the chemicals were used and their potential for off-site release LANL personnel suggested that site files of Material Safety Data Sheets could be reviewed for trade name products to determine if any of them contained any hazardous materials An analysis of the remaining inventory chemicals not included in Table 19-1 could be conducted in future phases of the dose 19-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 reconstruction to further prioritize recent chemical use at LANL For chemicals that could be released to the off-site environment as a result of their use air Table 19-1 Selected data from a current LANL chemical inventory Chemical Onsite Quantity Nitrogen Argon Helium Hydrogen Oxygen Propane Sulfuric acid Toluene Sodium hydroxide Sodium chloride Ethyl alcohol Sodium carbonate Hydrochloric acid Acetone Ethylene glycol Chlorodifluoromethane Methyl alcohol Nitric acid Isopropanol Hydrogen peroxide Buffer solutions Acetic acid Hexane Methylene chloride Miscellaneous chlorofluorcarbon products 1 1 1 2-Tetrafluoroethane Photographic developer products Dimethyl sulfoxide Chloroform Benzene Ether Dichlorodifluoromethane Photographic fixer products Tetrahydrofuran Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid Ethyl acetate 1 1-Difluoroethane Toxicity Ranking 7 4 2 x 10 L 3 8 x 107 L 3 7 x 107 L 1 6 x 106 L 1 6 x 106 L 1 3 x 105 L 2 2 x 104 L 2 1 x 104 L 1 5 x 104 kg 8 6 x 103 kg 7 1 x 103 L 6 8 x 103 kg 6 6 x 103 L 6 2 x 103 L 5 1 x 103 L 4 8 x 103 L 2 8 x 103 L 2 6 x 103 L 2 2 x 103 L 7 8 x 102 L 6 3 x 102 L 5 8 x 102 L 5 4 x 102 L 4 9 x 102 L 4 6 x 102 L 4 4 x 102 L 3 9 x 102 L 3 8 x 102 L 3 4 x 102 L 2 1 x 102 L 2 0 x 102 L 1 5 x 102 L 1 2 x 102 L 6 0 x 101 L 3 8 x 101 kg 2 1 x 101 L 8 5 x 100 L FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 -------8 -----7 12 14 10 -----5 4 ----1 2 9 6 -3 -11 13 19-3 dispersion and other transport models and exposure models can be used to estimate an onsite threshold quantity that would not result in adverse health impacts to off-site populations using site-specific assumptions regarding dispersion transport and exposure The threshold quantity approach could be used to focus data gathering efforts on those chemicals for which the on-site inventory quantity exceeds the threshold quantity However the chemical inventory database only contains information on selected chemicals present at LANL since 1991 Historical Chemical Inventories Harry Schulte a former LANL Industrial Hygiene group leader is reported to have conducted a chemical inventory in the early 1970s Personal communication Environmental Health and Safety Division ES-5 1999 A draft report was prepared but was never finalized While the LAHDRA team was told that the draft report and supporting data might be located in the Industrial Hygiene group files in the Central Records Center surviving members of Mr Schulte’s group reportedly do not have any copies in their possession This 1970s chemical inventory information has not been located by the project team to date For years prior to initiating the current chemical inventory program the project team identified several lists of chemicals used at LANL in years prior to 1980s environmental reporting requirements The lists represent the years 1947-50 LANL 1948 1971 Blackwell 1971 Schulte 1972 and 1970s LASL 1977a Volez 1977 Hansen and Ferenbaugh 1982 Quantities and locations of use are typically not provided in these lists The project team identified considerable documentation related to chemical use in specific areas for the 1980s and 1990s as LANL began collecting these data in response to regulatory requirements Table 19-2 lists chemicals documented as having been used at LANL at some point in time This list was compiled from the LANL documents reviewed to date entered into the project database and released to the public Documents used to identify the chemicals in Table 19-2 are included in the reference section and are described below 19-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 Table 19-2 Chemicals historically used at LANL Elements aluminum antimony arsenic barium beryllium bromine cadmium chromium copper dioxane fluoride gallium iron lanthanum lead lithium manganese mercury molybdenum nickel niobium platinum samarium silver tantalum thallium uranium normal and depleted vanadium zinc zirconium Volatile Organic Compounds acetone benzene carbon tetrachloride chloroform chlorodifluoromethane dichlorodifluoromethane difluoroethane ethanol ether isopropanol kerosene methanol methyl chloride chloromethane methyl ethyl ketone 2-butanone methylene chloride dichloromethane tetrachloroethylene tetrabromoethane tetrahydrofuran toluene toluol trichloroethane trichloroethylene xylene Inorganics asbestos magnesium silicate bromide cyanide hydrochloric acid hydrofluoric acid nitric acid oxalic acid oxalate perchloric acid perchlorate phosphoric acid sodium hydroxide sodium thiosulfate sulfuric acid Semi-Volatile Organics n-butyl acetate ethyl acetate ethylene glycol hexachlorobutadiene naphthalene PCB polychlorinated biphenyls Aroclor 1242 Explosives Baratol mixture of barium nitrate and TNT Comp B mixture of 60% RDX and 40% TNT Cyclotol mixture of 70-75% RDX and 25-30% TNT Explosive D ammonium picrate ammonium1 3 5-trinitrophenol HMX octahydro-1 3 5 7-tetranitro-1 3 5 7-tetrazocine nitrobenzene nitrocellulose nitromethane NQ nitroguanidine Picrite Octol mixture of 70-75% HMX and 25-30% TNT PBX Pentolite PETN pentaerythritol tetranitrate picric acid PTX-2 2 6-bis-picrylamino-3 5-dinitropyridine RDX hexahydro-1 3 5-trinitro-1 3 5-triazine Saltex TATB 1 3 5-triamino-2 4 6-trinitrobenzene Tetryl 1 3 5-trinitrophenyl-methylnitramine TNT 2 4 6-trinitrotoluene Torpex FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-5 Table 19-3 is a compilation of data located by the project team regarding quantities of chemicals used or released historically from LANL Five documents report quantities of primarily volatile organic solvents that were used at LANL from 1971 until 1985 Three documents identify chemical quantities as “released or lost to the atmosphere ” One of the three documents a report on airborne effluents is a third source of the same numbers provided in Repos Nos 610 and 1324 LASL 1973a Valentine 1973 LASL 1977b It states that the amount of airborne solvents is taken from LANL stock issue records However volatile solvents will in time most likely become airborne no matter what the disposal method 100% volatilization was therefore assumed The chemicals listed in Table 19-3 are listed in the order of quantity used or released Selection of the chemicals addressed in these documents was based on state and federal air pollution requirements at the time of reporting From Table 19-3 it can be concluded that trichloroethane and trichloroethylene were the most used volatile organic chemicals at LANL in the early 1970s However trichlorethylene appears to have been replaced by freons in the early 1980s Methyl ethyl ketone was also used in high quantities until 1982 Site Documents In the late 1980s the Senate Committee on Armed Services asked the Office of Technology Assessment to evaluate what was known about the contamination and public health problems at the Nuclear Weapons Complex U S Congress 1991 Contaminated sites and initial cleanup activities at LANL were described in this report A summary of hazardous substances released to the environment at LANL formed the basis for our initial list For each of the over 600 solid waste management units SWMUs identified in the 1990 Solid Waste Management Units Report the unit waste and releases information sections were reviewed by the project team to identify additional chemicals that may have been released from LANL LANL 1990 An additional 480 SWMUs were added by the EPA in 1994 and another 1 000 Potential Release Sites PRSs were included in the investigation by the Department of Energy for a total of 2 120 areas of concern The 1996 Baseline Environmental Management Report describes historical activities at the potential release sites involving asbestos barium lead depleted uranium beryllium and PCBs USDOE 1996 High explosives organic solvents and ordnance are also cited but specific chemical names are not provided 19-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 Table 19-3 Reported Quantities of Chemicals Historically Used or Released at LANL Table 19-3 Reported quantities of chemicals historically used or released at LANL CHEMICAL C C C C C C C ORGANICS Methyl chloroform trichloroethane Trichloroethylene Acetone Freons Perchloroethylene Kerosene Methyl ethyl ketone Ethanol Toluene n-Butyl acetate Ethyl acetate Methanol Methylene chloride Isopropanol n-Hexane Chloroform Carbon tetrachloride Xylene Benzene Tetrahydrofuran Dioxane INORGANICS C Cadmium C Beryllium Mercury ACIDS Nitric acid GASES Helium Sulfur hexaflouride 1971 1 1972-73 12 mo kg released kg issued 26 571 27 719 15 610 16 825 10 540 7 338 --2 063 --1 125 1 669 --3 088 558 ----- 2 1972 3 1973 3 1974 3 1975 3 1976 3 1977 3 1978 3 kg used kg used kg used kg used kg used kg used kg used 1978 4 kg losses 1979 3 1980 5 1981 5 6 1982 6 1983 6 1984 6 1985 6 kg used kg used kg used kg used kg used kg used kg used 19 138 17 007 -6 531 680 ----------------- 25 600 20 400 18 800 10 900 3 400 8 100 --2 300 --590 820 --360 300 -181 --- 18 300 15 500 9 200 13 300 680 5 000 --2 100 --540 820 --250 290 -127 --- 25 800 16 200 12 400 15 000 1 000 5 900 --1 200 --1 500 310 --500 250 -110 --- 22 900 9 400 16 100 10 200 820 4 800 2 300 -2 700 3 311 -1 700 1 000 -209 380 100 -45 --- 34 000 13 200 15 500 12 400 680 4 600 9 400 1 088 3 300 5 170 104 6 600 820 218 304 370 250 86 141 -14 28 300 10 200 12 700 13 800 1 000 4 400 10 600 9 200 1 600 2 222 2 404 4 300 2 200 952 290 190 230 227 32 -32 24 100 7 400 10 600 8 200 1 400 3 800 14 300 10 900 2 100 10 180 2 600 250 950 210 160 200 290 40 -15 13 741 2 041 2 721 3 265 --3 537 ---1 633 -771 --------- 23 800 6 900 8 300 9 200 340 4 100 22 000 9 900 2 100 --3 300 170 --200 280 ----- 28 200 3 400 7 900 12 800 1 400 5 800 11 400 9 400 650 --2 400 180 --310 100 ----- 39 300 3 200 10 200 12 500 9 100 5 300 21 000 11 800 60 --3 400 230 --250 180 ----- 25 600 390 10 700 32 200 340 5 500 400 12 800 60 --3 100 430 --320 190 ----- 31 100 4 200 10 900 28 400 -2 800 6 200 13 500 190 --730 100 --500 60 70 70 --- 27 674 2 204 10 118 22 006 2 1 315 5 805 7 024 337 --3 298 1 876 --177 103 59 12 30 -- 29 665 3 041 6 735 27 097 32 614 4 238 9 420 83 --1 607 2 028 --208 238 135 78 79 -- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- --500 --290 --180 ---- --140 --140 --200 --210 --60 --24 --1 20 200 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 80 000 -- 58 100 71 900 99 500 70 500 52 100 55 976 54 212 -6 812 --- -17 400 -6 700 -10 300 -11 400 -12 200 -13 700 -9 200 6 800-13 600 8 209 -11 400 -6 900 -10 600 -8 800 -14 200 -9 507 -14 560 1 E-02 3 E-05 -- -- Not reported C known or suspected human carcinogen 1971 Pollutant Inventory Releases estimated by group leaders using chemical stock issue records Rep No 756 997 2 Response to Sept 6 TWX Concerning Use of Trichloroethylene H-5 Division September 14 1973 rep No 2816 3 Attachment II to Air Quality Regulation Review #3 NAAQS Chemical and gas usage June 9 1980 Rep No 610 Volatile and or dangerous chemicals checked out of the storeroom Rep No 1324 Airborne effluents 1973 airborne releases nonradioactive 1972-73 Rep No 1197 4 Atmospheric Emissions of Non-Radioactive Materials Losses estimated by LASL groups using 1500 lb yr January 17 1979 Rep No 610 5 Attachment I to Nitric Acid and NOx Emissions November 30 1982 Rep No 511 6 Table G-12 p 140 of the HSE-8 Annual Report Attachment to Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Solvents December 2 1986 Rep No 280 1 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-7 The project team has been following Environmental Restoration ER activities at LANL since the project began in early 1999 Numerous press releases and fact sheets regarding environmental investigations and surveillance activities have been provided by the ER Project and have supplied some relevant information Oxalic acid for example was used to purify uranium and plutonium in early operations at TA-1 and TA-21 Oxalate has been detected in a groundwater monitoring well in Lower Los Alamos Canyon LANL 1998b Recently perchlorate was detected in a groundwater monitoring well in Mortandad Canyon in a water supply well in lower Pueblo Canyon and in the CMR Building ductwork LANL 2000 Perchloric acid is used in high-explosive HE formulation and in nuclear chemistry analyses conducted in CMR Building Dobratz 1995 Explosives including HMX RDX and TNT that have been detected in a groundwater monitoring well at TA-16 S Site and at Material Disposal Area-P reflect machining and subsequent disposal activities that occurred at TA-16 the center for research in high explosives since the 1940s Prior to constructing the High-Explosives Wastewater Treatment Facility at TA-16 in the 1990s over 12 million gallons of water per year were used to keep the surface of high explosives cool and wet while machining Following settling of the solids and heavier materials the remaining water was discharged to the environment via outfalls The wet solids were trucked to a burning ground separated from liquids with a sand filter then dried and ignited The filtrate was treated before being discharged Solvents such as acetone methanol and ethanol were released to the atmosphere via volatilization from the water discharged at the outfalls LANL 1998a LANL 1999 Detonable quantities of explosives have been removed from MDA-P during RCRA clean-closure excavation activities Santa Fe New Mexican 1999 A document located on microfiche in the Central Records Center at LANL states that quantities of explosives burned at TAs-14 15 16 36 and 40 range from 100-300 lb yr at TAs-14 and 33 to 96 300 lb yr at TA-16 Unknown Central Records Center Los Alamos National Laboratory Normal uranium HE-contaminated solvents unidentified and other combustibles are also disposed of by burning at these locations Project team review of X-Division Progress Reports from 1944 through 1945 has yielded reported estimates of quantities of high explosives used during that time period These data are presented in Table 19-4 19-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-4 Reported Table 19-4 Reported quantities of high explosives Table used per month lbs Quantities of High Explosives Used per Month lbs DATE Aug-44 Sep-44 Oct-44 Nov-44 Dec-44 Jan-45 Feb-45 Mar-45 Apr-45 May-45 Jun-45 Jul-45 Aug-45 Sep-45 Oct-45 Nov-45 Dec-45 EXPLOSIVE Barium Nitrate Composition B Composition B-1 Composition B-2 TNT Aluminum-TNT 60 40 Torpex 1 Saltex Pentolite Cyclotol 70 30 PTX RDX 23 523 6 800 5 366 650 1 100 1 250 463 7 510 3 900 131 3 250 27 600 3 170 47 150 19 850 80 850 42 750 35 000 57 500 60 000 20 600 9 200 200 87 500 12 800 90 250 20 400 66 850 20 150 150 100 6 150 - 18 000 17 000 1 250 937 2 935 1 008 2 475 1 390 500 0 250 7 500 1 750 - 6 000 6 953 Sum 7 900 7 729 18 494 Reported TOTAL 8 900 12 434 18 494 Waste lbs Rejected Castings 1 200 1 518 2 160 -- 25 710 35 293 54 435 109 950 72 750 135 450 168 256 147 150 23 523 34 793 54 185 109 950 72 550 135 300 168 150 147 000 41 000 -- -- -- -- 41 000 28% Source X-Division Progress Reports 1944-47 Rep Nos 2931 2915 2916 2917 2918 2919 2920 2921 2936 2935 3128 3272 2937 1 Torpex is 5 1 Comp B TNT -- Quantities of explosives used are not reported in the monthly X-Division Progress Report for November 1944 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-9 A 1981 memorandum from R W Ferenbaugh to H S Jordan dated January 27 1981 states that 20 000 – 30 000 kg 91 000 – 136 000 lbs per year of waste explosives were disposed of at TA-16 by open burning Explosive burning experiments conducted at LANL several years prior to 1981 estimated annual emissions of 600-800 kg of NOx 100-200 kg of carbon monoxide and 300-500 kg of unidentified particulates from this open burning process Ferenbaugh 1981 An effluent material summary for group GMX-7 includes several explosives dispersed at TA-40 as gaseous detonation products during the period July – September 1971 Table 19-5 Drake 1971 Toxic material reports for December 1979 through September 1980 report the approximate amounts of HE exploded per month in WX-7 shots at TA-40 and TA-22 Drake 1971 Fig 19-2 LANL workers watch an explosive test in the distance 19-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 Table 19-5 Reported quantities of explosives dispersed Explosive Nitromethane Comp B Baratol TATB TNT Octol PETN PBX Tetryl TOTAL July – Sept 1971 Dec 1979 kg Jan 1980 kg Feb 1980 kg Mar 1980 kg Apr 1980 kg May 1980 kg June 1980 kg July 1980 kg Aug 1980 kg Sept 1980 kg 450 kg 990 lb 34 kg 75 lb ----7 kg 15 lb 0 9 kg 0 05 kg 492 kg -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0 1 3 1 10 8 22 4 13 2 6 7 19 6 -- 52 8 9 6 0 1 0 4 --0 02 2 9 0 7 -12 0 09 17 1 0 25 2 7 6 0 06 63 7 0 1 5 4 3 0 05 21 1 0 4 13 5 -0 1 16 4 0 4 2 7 6 0 01 25 0 03 5 4 3 0 13 -0 6 --0 03 89 0 7 25 6 0 05 3 4 0 7 2 7 -1 2 0 1 -1 0 4 -19 0 4 -37 0 3 -44 0 4 -49 0 3 -32 0 05 -54 0 4 -1 0 3 -174 0 5 -18 -- not reported High explosive research development and testing was conducted at more than 25 different Technical Areas of LANL Goldie 1984 Many new formulations of the conventional explosives HMX RDX and TNT were synthesized and tested at LANL since the 1940s Dobratz 1995 Other high explosives such as Baratol Comp B Pentolite Torpex and Tetryl were tested at the firing site at TA-14 IT Corporation 1989 Uranium and other metals such as lead beryllium aluminum and cadmium were released to the environment as a result of test shots conducted at LANL since the 1940s Johnson and Dahl 1977 Zenzen 1993 Drake and Eyster 1971 estimate that between 75 000 and 95 000 kg of uranium has been expended in experimental shots at LANL from 1949-1970 Drake and Eyster 1971 Normal uranium was used until 1954 and then depleted uranium was used exclusively The estimate does not address where the uranium went only that LANL no longer has it A 1952 AEC report states that test shots at LANL routinely dispersed 300 lbs of uranium per month and 2000 lbs of barium per month English S G 1952 Two 1971 memoranda report toxic materials dispersed by GMX Division shots for April and May 1971 as shown in Table 19-6 Drake 1971 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-11 Table 19-6 Materials dispersed by GMX Division shots for April and May 1971 Toxic Material Uranium 238 Beryllium Tritium Lead Bromine -- not reported April 1971 May 1971 171 kg 376 lb 0 7 kg 125 cm3 STP 0 042 kg 0 165 kg 142 kg 312 lb 3 kg 208 cm3 STP 0 8 kg -- Most of the documents describing PCBs at LANL identified by the project team to date are logbooks of analytical results with unidentified sampling locations Several documents describe storing and disposing PCB wastes at TAs-21 and 54 Santa Fe Engineering 1995 PCB cleanups were conducted at TAs-3 53 and near groundwater production wells in the mid 1980s and 1990s as a result of leaking transformers and capacitors LANL 1993a Unknown PCB Cleanup at TA-3 OU 1114 1995-1997 Aroclor-1242 was used as a coolant in CMB-11 division in 1961 Enders 1969 A 1973 document “Summary of wastes and effluents for Omega Site TA-2” estimates that 1 4 lb d-1 of hexavalent chromium were released to the air in cooling tower effluent The Omega West Reactor OWR primary water was cooled via a 5 MW evaporative cooling tower Trichloro-s-triazinetrione C3N3O3Cl3 a common microbicide was added to the secondary-side water in the tower to control algae growth A second product containing polyacrylate polymer polyoxylated aliphatic diamine and tolyltriazole was added to control scale and corrosion Cooling tower water was discharged to the environment via entrainment in the exhaust air stream and through discharges of blowdown water to Los Alamos Canyon Creek These blowdown discharges were another measure used to control scale and corrosion in the secondary sump water by eliminating solids LASL 1973b reports that these discharges totaled approximately 60 000 gallons per week in 1973 Another 300 gallons per week of blowdown water came from the heat exchanger for the primary water in the OWR’s demineralizer loop Like the main OWR exchanger the cooling water for this heat exchanger came from the municipal water supply The same 1973 LASL document also reports the exhaust air stream from the OWR cooling tower included entrained secondary water that was discharged to the environment at a rate of 3 9 gal min-1 LASL 1973b The document states that this discharge resulted in 20 lb of sulfuric acid and 1 4 lb of hexavalent chromium being released into the atmosphere per 24 h period 19-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 Draft Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Response Program CEARP documents from 1986 LANL 1993b report a staff member who recalled using potassium dichromate in the cooling tower water prior to a time when the heat exchanger components were changed from aluminum to steel CEARP was the Department of Energy’s Superfund program for Federal Facilities in the 1980s The employee stated that mist from the tower would drift through the site turning things green This “greening” effect disappeared with the switch to steel components and the subsequent reduction potassium dichromate use Using potassium dichromate as a corrosion inhibitor is confirmed in Repos No 645 which states that the blowdown discharges from the cooling tower ∼60 000 gal per week included approximately 14 5 pounds of hexavalent chromium LASL 1973b This same document reports that the blowdown also included 3 lb of chlorophenol biocide and 200 lb of sulfuric acid in the form of sulfate salts used for pH control The blowdown from the demineralizer loop heat exchanger contributed another 20 lb of sulfuric acid and 0 5 lb of chlorophenol biocide Repos No 645 also indicates that a switch from aluminum to stainless steel components in fiscal year 1974 was planned in order to reduce the amount of corrosion inhibitor required and thereby reduce the amount of hexavalent chromium in the blowdown water LASL 1973b An inventory of pollutant releases to the environment for 1971 LASL 1971 states that use of chromates will be discontinued once the aluminum heat exchanger is replaced with a stainless steel unit This same document reports the average concentration of hexavalent chromium in the TA-2 blowdown to be 25 mg L-1 which was 2 500 times the quality standard of 0 01 mg L-1 for that era The same effluent stream reportedly contained total dissolved solids at an average concentration of 800 mg l which also exceeded the applicable quality standard of 500 mg L-1 The Water Boiler’s cooling tower used potassium dichromate by the hundreds of pounds waterborne effluent ran down the nearby creek and sometimes chromium “rained from the sky ” and car windshields had to be replaced Personal communication G Neely 1999 Condensate poured on the ground resulting in a tree in the area with Cs-137 in its leaves Asbestos in some TA-2 buildings was also reported Repos No 2211 reports that a “very serious” mercury spill took place at the Clementine site on December 31 1948 that required a “prolonged period” of cleanup LANL 1949 This report also mentions that routine monitoring for mercury vapor had been on-going at the Clementine site prior to this incident FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-13 Repos No 2201 reports that a mercury spill occurred at the Clementine site between January 20 1951 and February 20 1951 LANL 1951 Air samples were collected and analyzed for mercury vapor and urine samples were collected from three exposed workers The report states that “the results obtained showed all exposures below hazardous levels ” In late 1952 members of H Division participated in conferences regarding the large quantity of contaminated mercury to be pumped from the fast reactor at Omega Site Since the material was contaminated with plutonium participants thought that the plutonium hazard was more serious than the mercury vapor Shipman 1953 Perchlorate was identified in shallow groundwater in Mortandad Canyon at concentrations ranging from 80 to 220 ppb Perchlorate was also found in groundwater characterization wells at 12 ppb and in drinking water supply wells at two to three ppb just above analytical detection limits The perchlorate contamination was assumed to have been discharged in effluent from the TA-50 Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility and also from legacy waste that was discharged into Acid Canyon from the TA-45 treatment plant which operated from 1943 to 1964 In August 2002 benzene was identified in soil at TA-48 from historical solvent use Accident incident files from the Health Divisions were identified for 1944-1991 Repos Nos 34613496 However the files primarily document chemical spills and indoor exposures to workers Operations related to the presence of the chemical are not described The documentation of a few incidents that could have resulted in releases to the off-site environment was extracted and entered into the project database A document titled “Chronological Record of Accidents at LASL” lists a fatality due to asphyxiation by methyl chloroform at “New” Sigma Building on February 14 1961 Unknown 1979 Details of the accident are not provided Many of the Health Industrial Hygiene Division reports and correspondence files include memoranda regarding the presence of numerous solvents metals and acids in various LANL divisions Details regarding building locations quantities used or the operations involved however are rarely provided The chemicals mentioned are included in Table 13-1 Preliminary Prioritization for Chemicals USEPA Region 9 Preliminary Remediation Goals PRGs are target cleanup levels based on conservative assumptions regarding direct exposure to soil through ingestion dermal contact and inhalation and direct vapor and particulate inhalation USEPA 2002 PRGs are based on cancer as an endpoint if available 19-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 cancer potency factors “slope factors” result in a more conservative lower PRG than would result based solely on evaluating non-cancer health effects As a first step towards prioritizing potential chemical releases PRGs for chemicals used and possibly released historically from LANL were used by the LAHDRA team to rank the potential of various chemicals to result in adverse health effects to off-site populations The lower a PRG the higher the potential for off-site health effects if the compound were released beyond the site boundary This preliminary ranking does not address actual quantities released or whether real exposures occurred however these factors will be considered if the prioritization process advances PRGs for soil were used to rank chemicals usually present in the environment as particulates and PRGs for air were used to rank volatile chemicals Both soil and air PRGs were considered for explosives Toxicity factors are not available for some chemicals used at LANL and estimates of quantities used have been identified through systematic document review for only a subset of those chemicals with published toxicity factors Estimates of quantities of a material used on an annual basis are available in some cases “Annual use” is typically the highest known annual usage of a compound from available data and in some cases may be based on a single year for which data are available Reported values are often presented as quantities used issued lost or released and it is not always clear how the quantities were determined Table 19-7 shows a ranking of LANL chemicals based on PRGs for soil while Table 19-8 presents a ranking based on PRGs for air Table 19-9 presents a ranking method that takes into account estimates of annual usage and U S EPA toxicity values such as slope factors and RfDs Oral slope factors are used to indicate the strength of the chemical’s ability to cause cancer A cancer slope factor is an upper bound probability estimate of cancer incidence per unit intake of a carcinogen over a lifetime The higher the slope factor then the more carcinogenic a chemical is according to the U S EPA RfDs are used to rank a chemical’s ability to cause an adverse health effect other than cancer According to the U S EPA an RfD is an estimated daily intake that if taken over a lifetime is not expected to cause an appreciable risk of adverse health effects Hence according to the U S EPA the smaller the RfD the more toxic the chemical Chemicals were ranked based on slope factors and RfDs independently to distinguish between the most important chemicals in terms of cancer risk and adverse health effects Chemicals that are considered carcinogens by the U S EPA were ranked based on annual usage multiplied by the cancer slope factor Oral slope factors were used in all but one case because they are more conservative than the inhalation slope factor All chemicals for which the U S EPA has published RfDs were ranked by multiplying the annual usage by the inverse of the RfD Some chemicals have both ingestion and FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-15 inhalation RfDs and in these cases the more conservative value was used in order to consider the most sensitive health endpoint Table 19-7 Ranking of LANL chemicals based on PRGs for soil PRG for Soil mg kg Rank Arsenic 3 90E-01 1 RDX hexahydro 4 40E 00 2 Thallium 5 20E 00 3 Perchlorate 7 80E 00 4 TNT 2 4 6-trinitrotoluene 1 60E 01 5 Chemical 19-16 Uranium 1 60E 01 6 Nitrobenzene 2 00E 01 7 Mercury 2 30E 01 8 Antimony 3 10E 01 9 Vanadium 7 80E 01 10 Molybdenum 3 90E 02 11 Silver 3 90E 02 12 Lead 4 00E 02 13 Lithium 1 60E 03 14 Nickel soluble salts 1 60E 03 15 Manganese 1 80E 03 16 HMX octahydro 3 10E 03 17 Copper 3 10E 03 18 Fluoride 3 70E 03 19 Barium nitrate 5 40E 03 20 NQ nitroguanidine Picrite 6 10E 03 21 Acetone 1 40E 04 22 Iron 2 30E 04 23 Zinc 2 30E 04 24 Aluminum 7 60E 04 25 Bromine N A Gallium N A Lanthanum N A Niobium N A Platinum N A Samarium N A Tantalum N A Zirconium N A FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 Ranking of LANL Chemicals Based on PRGs for Air TableTable 19-8 19-8 Ranking of LANL chemicals based on PRGs for air Chemical PRG for air 3 microgram m Rank Chromium total 1 60E-04 1 Beryllium 8 00E-04 2 Cadmium 1 10E-03 3 Polychlorinated biphenyls- Aroclor 1242 1254 3 43E-03 4 Trichloroethylene 1 70E-02 5 Chloroform 8 30E-02 6 Hexachlorobutadiene 8 60E-02 7 Carbon tetrachloride 1 30E-01 8 Benzene 2 50E-01 9 Tetrachloroethylene 3 20E-01 10 1 4-Dioxane 6 10E-01 11 Tetrahydrofuran 9 90E-01 12 Hydrogen Cyanide 3 10E 00 13 Methylene chloride 4 10E 00 14 Phosphoric acid 1 00E 01 15 Chloromethane 9 50E 01 16 Xylene 1 10E 02 17 Dichlorodifluoromethane 2 10E 02 18 n-Hexane 2 10E 02 19 Toluene 4 00E 02 20 Ethyl Ether 7 30E 02 21 Methanol 1 80E 03 22 Trichloroethane methyl chloroform 2 30E 03 23 Ethyl acetate 3 30E 03 24 Methyl ethyl ketone 5 10E 03 25 Ethylene glycol 7 30E 03 26 1 1-Difluoroethane 4 20E 04 27 Chlorodifluoromethane 5 10E 04 28 Naphthalene N A Ethanol N A Isopropanol N A Kerosene N A Tetrabromoethane N A n-Butyl acetate N A Asbestos magnesium silicate N A Bromide N A Hydrochloric acid N A Hydrofluoric acid N A Nitric acid N A Oxalic acid N A Sodium hydroxide N A Sodium thiosulfate N A Sulfur hexafluoride N A Sulfuric acid N A Baratol barium nitrate TNT N A Comp B 60% RDX 40% TNT N A Cyclotol 70-75% RDX 25-30% TNT N A Explosive D NH3 picrate NH3-1 3 5-trinitrophenol N A Nitrocellulose N A Nitromethane N A Octol 70-75% HMX 25-30% TNT N A PBX N A Pentolite N A PETN pentaerythritol tetranitrate N A Picric acid N A PTX-2 2 6-bis-picrylamino-3 5-dinitropyridine N A Saltex N A TATB 1 3 5-triamino-2 4 6-trinitrobenzene N A Tetryl 1 3 5-trinitrophenyl-methylnitramine N A Torpex 83% Comp B 17% TNT N A FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-17 1 Ranking oftoxicity LANLparameter Chemicals Toxicity Parameter and Annual Usage1 Table 19-9 Ranking ofTable LANL 19-9 chemicals based on andBased annual on usage Chemical Acetone Barium nitrate Benzene Carbon tetrachloride Chlorodifluoromethane2 Chloroform3 Dichlorodifluoromethane2 Dioxane Methanol Methyl ethyl ketone Methylene chloride n-Hexane Tetrachloroethylene Tetrahydrofuran TNT 2 4 6-trinitrotoluene Toluene chloroform Trichloroethylene Uranium Xylene2 4 Slope Factor SF mg kg-d -1 not in RAIS 0 055 0 13 0 0805 0 011 0 008 0 54 not in RAIS 0 03 0 4 - Reference Dose RfD mg kg-d 0 9 not in RAIS 0 004 0 0007 14 3 0 01 0 0571 0 5 0 6 0 06 0 06 0 01 not in RAIS 0 0005 0 08 0 2 0 0003 0 0006 0 0286 Ranked Based on Annual Use Cancer Effects kg SF x Annual Use Rank 18 800 108 873 181 10 7 558 73 5 32 200 3 088 249 4 32 200 32 0 35 8 6 600 22 000 2 200 17 6 304 10 540 5 692 2 79 37 950 1 139 3 3 300 39 300 27 719 11 088 1 47 500 290 - 1 Ranked Based on Non-cancer Effects 1 RfD x Annual Use Rank 20 889 13 45 250 9 797 143 5 2 252 17 308 800 7 563 923 6 13 200 14 36 667 12 36 667 11 5 067 16 1 054 000 4 75 900 909 3 41 250 10 16 500 8 92 396 667 1 79 166 667 2 10 140 15 All values were obtained from the Risk Assessment Information System RAIS available at http rais ornl gov Inhalation RfD was used because it was more conservative than the oral RfD In all other cases oral RfDs were used because they were most conservative 3 Inhalation cancer slope factor was used because it was more conservative than the oral slope factor In all other cases oral slope factors were used because they were most conservative 4 Combined congener values were used combined p- m- o- 2 19-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 References Blackwell HJ Pollutant Inventory Program sent to Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos NM Atomic Energy Commission 1971 Dobratz BM The Insensitive High Explosive TATB Development and Characterization - 1988-1994 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-13014-H 1995 Drake RW Routine Effluent Reports for GMX-7 May through September 1971 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1971 Drake RW Eyster EH Memorandum from E H Eyster to G L Voelz Uranium dispersed by experimental test shots at Los Alamos 1971 Enders J H-S group correspondance re CMB and CMF 1948-1969 nickel molybdenum platinum smarium tantalum aqua regia 1969 English S G Project Crave Survey of the U S Atomic Energy Commission Operations and Facilities Brookhaven NY Brookhaven National Laboratory BNL-157 1952 Ferenbaugh RW Memoranda on LANL air emissions Memo to Harry S Jordan regarding open burning of explosives at S-Site 1981 Goldie RH Memorandum from R H Goldie HSE-3 to D Pinyan HSE-3 Areas containing or contaminated by explosives 1984 Hansen WR Ferenbaugh RF Memorandum sent to Harry S Jordan Nitric Acid and NOx Emissions H8-82-628 35 dated November 30 1982 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1982 IT Corporation Sampling and Analysis Plan for Mixed Waste Surface Disposal Area at TA-14 1989 Johnson LJ Dahl DA Aerosolized Uranium lead and Beryllium from LASL Dynamic Experiments Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory LA-UR-77-68 1977 LANL Health Safety Reports by Month for January 1947 to September 1948 1948 LANL H-Division Progress Report LAMS-846 December 20 1948 - January 20 1949 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1949 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-19 LANL H-Division Progress Report January 20 - February 20 1951 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1951 LANL Solid Waste Management Units Report Environmental Restoration Records Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory TA-21 1990 LANL Environmental Restoration Project - Leakage From PCB Transformers Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory OU 1071 1993a LANL TA-39 Operations and Environmental Setting Draft Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1993b LANL High-Explosives Wastewater Treatment Facility - An Environmental Success Story HE Acetone Methanol Ethanol Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory DOE EA-1100 1998a LANL Laboratory releases surveillance well data oxalate LANL News Release 1998b LANL Lab releases first information from third characterization well HMX RDX TNT January 28th 1999 LANL News Release 1999 LANL Perchlorate detected in water-supply well July 20th 2000 LANL News Release 2000 LASL Pollutant Inventory - 1971 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1971 LASL Airborne Effluents 1973 1973a LASL Summary of Waste and Effluents Omega Site TA-2 dated August 27 1973 1973b LASL Materials and chemicals in current use by LASL Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1977a LASL Volatile and or Dangerous Chemicals checked out of the Storeroom 1972-1977 1977b Santa Fe Engineering Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan 1995 Santa Fe New Mexican LANL finds still-potent explosives during excavation of dump site Santa Fe New Mexican 1999 Schulte HF Pollutant Inventory Report 1971 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1972 19-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 Shipman TL H-Division Progress Report December 20 1952 - January 20 1953 Los Alamos National Laboratory 1953 U S Congress Complex Cleanup - The Environental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production Washington DC Office of Technology Assessment 1991 Unknown Chronological Record of Accidents at LASL Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory 1979 Unknown Disposal of Hazardous Materials by Burning Los Alamos NM Central Records Center Los Alamos National Laboratory Central Records Center Los Alamos National Laboratory Unknown PCB Cleanup at TA-3 OU 1114 1995-1997 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos National Laboratory PCB Cleanup at TA-3 OU 1114 1995-1997 USDOE The 1996 Baseline Environmental Monitoring Report Volume III - New Mexico - Wyoming Washington DC U S Department of Energy DOE EM-0290 1996 USEPA Region 9 Preliminary Remediation Goals online Available at http www epa gov region09 waste sfund prg files 02table pdf Valentine AM Office Memorandum to Harry S Jordan Nuclide Inventory Data H-1 dated Nov 9 1973 Los Alamos NM Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1973 Volez GL Office Memorandum Controlled Chemicals H-5 77-1646 sent to Master Division and Group Leaders dated November 14 1977 repo 279 1977 Zenzen JM Site History of Los Alamos History Associated Incorporated January 1993 1993 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 19-21 This page intentionally left blank 19-22 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 19 Chapter 20 A Screening-Level Evaluation of Airborne Beryllium Releases from LANL Operations Introduction Historical records indicate that beryllium was used at LANL for some time before its health hazards were fully recognized Shipman 1951 Hempelmann and Henrickson 1986 While beryllium has become recognized as a worker health hazard potential exposures to Los Alamos residents have not been as well characterized Because residents lived closer to LANL production and testing areas than at any other nuclear weapons complex site this screening-level assessment of potential public exposures was undertaken Identification of Sources of Beryllium Releases at LANL Based upon the review of information collected under the LAHDRA project screening level assessments were completed for the following historical operations at LANL involving processing or using significant quantities of beryllium Early machining operations at a shop in the Original Technical Area TA-1 known as V-Shop Machining in shops at TA-3 Building SM-39 that started late in 1953 Testing atomic bomb components by firing them from a 20-mm anti-aircraft autocannon in an annex to B Building at TA-1 Hot pressing of beryllium oxide powder in Q Building at TA-1 to make reactor components and Expending beryllium in explosive tests conducted at the PHERMEX facility at TA-15 Estimation of Release Rates over Averaging Periods Shorter Than a Year Limits on occupational and public exposures to beryllium are stated as concentrations that vary with averaging time including those specified for instantaneous concentrations as well as eight hour and 30 day average concentrations Generally the shorter the exposure or stack sampling time the higher the allowed concentration However reported LANL beryllium air concentrations are often reported or estimated in terms of annual averages or totals released over a year During any year concentrations over short periods will be greater than and at other times also less than the annual average Because there is evidence suggesting that the occurrence of chronic beryllium disease is not related to exposure duration ATSDR 2002 indicating that exposures over short periods can be of health significance the LAHDRA FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-1 team recognized the need for a method to predict the upper bounds of airborne beryllium concentrations over time intervals from less than an hour to 30 days based on data that represent concentrations or releases over a full year In order to estimate the magnitude of airborne concentration variations that would be expected within a year we looked at another material released in particulate form by LANL plutonium As was the case with beryllium facilities that exhaust plutonium to the air have been subject to increasingly stringent controls resulting in using filters on exhausts in the 1950s and high efficiency particulate air HEPA filters by the mid-1960 for both contaminants Samples of the exhaust air from plutonium facilities at LANL have also been collected on filters to assess effluent air concentrations Further discussion of similarities between plutonium and beryllium particles how they behave and how they have been assessed by others is provided elsewhere Shonka 2009 Unlike beryllium however plutonium samples have been routinely reported for time intervals as short as one work day In order to estimate how high beryllium release rates from chronic release sources could have been over averaging periods shorter than a year the LAHDRA team analyzed the detailed monitoring data available for airborne plutonium releases from DP West Site stacks for 1956 and 1957 The relationships between work-day averaged concentrations and weekly monthly and annual average concentrations were characterized and a table of multipliers was generated that could be applied to annual data to estimate peak releases over a series of shorter durations To support this preliminary screening airborne beryllium releases were assumed to vary over time similar to the measured airborne plutonium releases that is having similar ratios of annual averages to averages over shorter periods and estimated annual beryllium releases were converted to release rates over shorter durations so that airborne concentrations over appropriate averaging periods could be compared to occupational and ambient exposure limits If historical beryllium operations and releases are further evaluated a more detailed analysis of operational and air sampling data for beryllium activities might support a more direct characterization of the temporal variations of beryllium concentrations in exhaust streams Nine-hour averaged air concentrations of plutonium corresponding to weekday working hours for the four main stacks on Building 12 at DP West Site for calendar years 1956 and 1957 were entered into a spreadsheet Raw daily data have not been located for earlier years HEPA filters were added to the process exhaust system at DP West in 1959 and because the bulk of the releases from the facility appear to have come from exhausts that were not HEPA filtered the earlier data was chosen as most representative of the conditions of greatest interest 20-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 Averages were computed for nine h the raw data as well as for weekly 45 h monthly 196 h and annual 2 349 h averages The data were maintained as nine hour working days in order to match the recorded data In addition the actual days for each week and month within 1956 and 1957 were maintained Except for the annual average data which had only one data point for each series 1956 and 1957 the data for each averaging period were fit to lognormal distributions with excellent residuals A lognormal distribution can be fitted to an equation of the form y a × ebx where „y‟ is the natural log of the observed concentration and „x‟ is the standard deviation The exponential constant eb in the equation y a × ebx provides the geometric standard deviation of the lognormal distribution Both 1956 and 1957 had similar exponential factors and the data were averaged for a best estimate Data examination indicated no general time dependence in concentration over the course of a year such as slow falloff with time even though LANL emissions did trend lower over the decades of DP West operations The “b” value was plotted as a function of the log of the integration time and fit to a linear equation Using this equation the geometric standard deviations eb for treated particulate releases were predicted for various integration times ranging from six minutes to one month The analyses of the releases from DP West are summarized in Table 20-1 below The 95th percentile for monthly data would correspond roughly to a concentration reached on one day of each month As shorter time intervals are used the 95th percentile is reached more and more often and so is not a useful factor for use in a conservative analysis For example using the 95th percentile the 1-h data would be expected to either be larger or smaller than the annual average by a factor of 8 2 for one hour out of every 20 Thus hourly data would expect to be exceeded every one or three days and six minute 0 1 h data would be seen as often as twice a day As a result the table also lists the multiplicative factor that would be found for a concentration that would be attained once per 1600-h work year By using the “once per year” values Table 20-1 shows that the one hour data would exceed the annual average values by a factor of 30 for the estimated highest hour of the 1600 hour work year Although the regulatory requirements dictate an instantaneous limit this analysis has limited the averaging period to a minimum of 0 1 h The data indicate that at 30 min of sampling or exposure time 0 5 h the concentration would exceed annual averages by a factor of 47 once per year No “once per year” multipliers are provided for weekly or monthly time periods the 95th percentile should be used for screening for those time periods The duration factors are not used in estimating episodic releases for which releases for each event were estimated and converted to average concentrations over longer periods based on assumed numbers of events of stated material content within each period FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-3 Table 20-1 Geometric standard deviation data based on analysis of detailed DP West plutonium stack sampling data with factors to estimate release rates over periods shorter than one year Multiplicative factors to be applied to annual values to estimate values over specified intervals Time Interval Equivalent Hours “b” Value a 95th Percentile Once per year 6 min 0 1 1 3 13 6 149 30 min 0 5 1 1 9 5 47 Hour 1 1 1 8 2 30 Work Day 8 0 8 5 2 8 3 4 6 a Day 24 0 7 4 1 Work Week 40 0 6 3 6 Week 168 0 5 2 7 Month 730 0 3 1 9 Work Year 1 600 0 2 1 6 Year 8 760 0 1 The term eb represents the geometric standard deviation of the lognormal distribution fitted to DP West stack sample analysis results Estimation of Beryllium Release Rates for Identified Emission Sources Fabrication of components from beryllium metal and oxide TA-1 and TA-3 a New Beryllium Shop TA-3 South Mesa Building 39 “SM-39 ” Beryllium Shop 4 South Mesa Building 39 “SM-39 ” Beryllium Shop 4 was outfitted with a HEPA filter on the exhaust in 1964 Release measurements after this time period were found for six years in the 1960s and were reported in a manner that permits annual average releases to be computed The study of DP West stack particulate releases of plutonium discussed earlier provide a means to estimate the concentrations for shorter time periods The exhaust system apparently ran only during normal working hours but it is unclear if the stack sampler pump was only operated when the stack exhaust fan was operating This assessment assumes that the sampler pump also only ran during the hours of operation If it did not then the “sampler hours of operation” correction would provide an additional factor of 5 5 increase for the total beryllium released 8760 h 1600 h since the concentration in the stack would be expected to be much lower when the machining operations ceased during nonworking hours The documentation of the data for 1964 through 1966 did not identify fan hours of operation so the average of the operating hours 1600 for the 1968 through 1970 period was chosen 20-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 Table 20-2 and Table 20-3 below summarize the release data found LASL 1969 1970 Table 20-3 has the duration factors from Table 20-1 for each time interval applied to the data from 1970 to permit comparison with applicable limits The screening calculations utilize 1970 the highest year that has been found to date The annual release rate for 1600 h 0 0245 µg s-1 for 1970 must be adjusted by 1600 h 8760 h to correctly express the average release rate in a year In Table 20-2 the “Working Hours” column refers to the fan operating time which is also the operational release period The Mass Released column is the release for the specified year The stack flow rate was 2 000 ft3 min-1 LASL 1970 In Table 20-3 the time periods of one day or longer have been corrected for the fact that the release occurs over a shorter time than the integration period For example the year release rate is 0 0245 µg s-1 times 1602 6 h of operation divided by 8760 h y-1 For time periods less than the operating period i e one hour or less this factor is no longer applied since the six to nine hour workday was longer than those time periods so there is no need to correct for the time the stack exhaust was not operating The work day time period corresponds to an eight hour day the work week to a 40 h period the month to a 730 h period and the year to 8760 h These time amounts were chosen in order to permit comparison to occupational and ambient exposure limits Table 20-2 Measured beryllium releases from SM-39 shop at TA-3 after 1963 Year Working Hours 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1600 1600 1600 Mass Released g 0 0105 0 0106 0 0188 No data found 0 0089 0 0378 0 1416 1545 7 1687 7 1602 6 Working Hours Release Rate μg s-1 0 0018 0 0018 0 0033 0 0016 0 0062 0 0245 Table 20-3 Estimated SM-39 beryllium shop release rates after 1963 based on measurements made in 1970 and application of duration factors Release Rate for Stated Averaging Period µg s-1 Year 6 min 30 min Hour Work Day Work Week Month Year 1970 3 65 1 16 0 73 0 20 0 089 0 0086 0 0045 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-5 b TA-3 SM-39 Beryllium Shop Operations 1953 - 1963 The beryllium shop at SM-39 began operating in 1953 as a replacement for the inadequate facilities in the main shop at V-Building in the Original Technical Area At the start of operations no provisions were made for HEPA filtration of exhausts Release measurements were not found for the SM-39 shop in this era In order to estimate a lower bound for air concentrations and releases from the SM39 beryllium shop from 1953 to 1963 measurements from the late 1960s were adjusted to account for the fact that no HEPA filters were in place In general HEPA filters are assumed to attain a filtering efficiency of 99 97% USDOE 2003 This figure corresponds to a reduction of the effluent by a factor of 3 333 1 1-0 9997 This efficiency is obtained at a particle size diameter of 0 3 μm in diameter with better efficiencies realized for smaller and larger particles Data indicate that the filter systems used during this era attained efficiencies in the 90% range An assumed 95% efficiency would attain reduction by a factor of 20 The ratio of the pre- and post-1964 filter reduction factors is 167 3 333 20 For this assessment SM-39 exhaust monitoring data from 1970 were multiplied by 167 to estimate release rates for 1953 through 1963 see Table 20-4 Use of this factor likely understates the releases by a considerable amount given that the airborne particles larger or smaller than 0 3 micron diameter would have been filtered more efficiently A partially offsetting factor for this conservatism may come from the fact that an improperly installed HEPA filter may not have attained 99 97% efficiency Because the values represent long term averages they were multiplied by the factors in Table 20-1 for the desired sampling or exposure time to provide the data in Table 20-5 For comparison purposes the 1970 data that were the basis for 1953-1964 are repeated in Table 20-5 The 1 600 h y-1 exhaust operating period was also assumed The impact of the lack of HEPA filters before 1964 can readily seen in Table 20-5 by comparing the 1953–1963 data with the 1970 values Table 20-4 Estimated airborne releases from the SM-39 beryllium shop from 1953 to 1963 20-6 Year Working Hours Annual Average Concentration µg m-3 Mass Released g Working Hours Release Rate µg s-1 1953 – 1963 1600 4 24 4 1970 1602 6 0 0260 0 1416 0 0245 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 Table 20-5 Estimated SM-39 beryllium shop release rates for 1953–1963 based on measurements in 1970 correction for non-HEPA filtration and application of duration factors Release Rate for Stated Averaging Period µg s-1 Year 6 min 30 min Hour Work Day Work Week Month Year 1953-1963 610 194 122 34 15 1 4 0 7 1970 3 65 1 16 0 73 0 020 0 089 0 0086 0 0045 c V-Building Shop Operations at TA-1 between 1949 and 1953 The main shops in V-Building at the TA-1 were used for machining beryllium prior to the startup of the SM-39 shop at TA-3 in 1953 Around late 1948 when LANL was informed of beryllium‟s hazardous nature the high speed machining operations were relocated into an annex to V-Building and an exhaust system was added with filters For the purposes of this analysis it was assumed that the non-HEPA filters that were used had comparable filtering efficiencies to the filtering system used at the SM-39 shop at TA-3 before HEPA filtration was added Because the operations in the VBuilding shop appear to have been grossly similar to those at the SM-39 shop the estimated release rate for the SM-39 shop for 1953-1963 was used for V- Building shop from 1949 to 1953 The main difference between the two emission sources in terms of prioritization will be the shorter separation of V-Building from nearby residences Estimated beryllium releases are summarized in Table 20-6 and applied to various averaging periods in Table 20-7 Table 20-6 Estimated airborne releases from the V-Building shop at TA-1 from 1949 to 1953 Year Working Hours Annual Average Concentration µg m-3 Mass Released g Working Hours Release Rate µg s-1 1949 – 1953 1600 4 24 4 Table 20-7 Estimated V-Building beryllium shop release rates for 1949 through 1953 with duration factors applied Release Rate for Stated Averaging Period µg s-1 Year 6 min 30 min Hour Work Day Work Week Month Year 1953-1963 610 194 122 34 15 1 4 0 7 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-7 d V-Building Shop Operations at TA-1 between 1943 and 1948 At the start of LANL operations the main shops in V-Building at TA-1 were used for machining beryllium Prior to around 1948 when LANL was informed of beryllium‟s hazardous nature the operations occurred in the shop itself with no specialized exhaust ventilation Because the nature of the operations at the V-Building shop appear to have been grossly similar to the SM-39 shops at TA3 using that release rate estimate is appropriate However the releases were not collected by a process exhaust system and were not released through a stack We assume that the releases occurred from the normal ventilation of the shop area perhaps from a ventilation fan In contrast to the case of the post-1949 V-shop operations the main change in prioritization will be the diffuse release through building ventilation as opposed to a stack As in the case of the V-Building shops 1949 - 1953 because the nature of the operations was grossly similar to the TA-3 shops using the release rate estimate for the SM-39 shop 1953-1963 is appropriate As for all sources of chronic releases the Table 20-1 factors were applied to correct the annual average to the sampling or exposure time of interest Estimated beryllium releases are summarized in Table 20-8 and applied to various averaging periods in Table 20-9 Table 20-8 Estimated airborne releases from the V-Building shop at TA-1 from 1943 to 1948 Year Working Hours Annual Average Concentration µg m-3 Mass Released g Working Hours Release Rate µg s-1 1943–1948 1600 87 472 82 Table 20-9 Estimated V-Building beryllium shop release rates for 1943 through 1948 with duration factors applied Release Rate for Stated Averaging Period µg s-1 Year 6 min 30 min Hour Work Day Work Week Month Year 1943–1948 12 156 3 859 2 427 679 297 29 15 Gun testing of atomic bomb initiators containing beryllium– B-Building Annex at TA-1 In order to estimate beryllium releases from gun testing of atomic bomb initiators it was assumed that each of the daily initiator tests used 566 g the mass of a metal sphere of beryllium of 10 mm radius based on 20-mm barrel diameter of the gun at B-Building and an estimated 10% was aerosolized and exhausted from the room or 57 g per test Documents that describe initiator testing have a data block that lists typical values of 90 to 120 “Gr” projectile weights This mass is close to the mass of a normal 20-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 projectile the auto-cannon would fire and would be consistent with grams rather than grains If the projectile weight was in grains only eight grams would be used for the entire projectile which seems too low in mass to be realistic Using the stated mass of the projectile would mean that the beryllium released would be five times less that stated earlier solid sphere of beryllium of 20 mm diameter for each shot For this initial assessment 120 g is assumed to be expended of which 10% was released During the first 180 days of the program 180 initiator tests were conducted That being the case it appears that the BBuilding Annex alone released more than 2160 g 10% of 120 g for 180 tests over the one half year in 1944 for which data were found This total release would amount to 4 320 g y-1 After each test was fired the 10% fraction assumed to be aerosolized was dispersed into the room and removed by the ventilation system It was assumed that a flow rate sufficient to produce 12 air changes per hour was used If the beryllium was uniformly mixed into the room volume the concentration would drop exponentially with a time period equal to the inverse of the ventilation rate A time sufficient to produce two air changes 0 1 h or six min would remove most of the beryllium and was assumed to be the release period Thus the release would correspond to 12 g of beryllium over 360 s or 0 033 g s-1 The data sheets reviewed indicate test frequency of roughly once per day Thus a test was assumed to occur 365 days per year Because the release rate considers the release time the duration factors of Table 20-1 are not applied for these episodic releases With a release each day 365 d y-1 and duration of 0 1 h the release is assumed to occur over a 36 5-h operating period However the release rate when averaged over longer periods of time drops with the ratio of the averaging period to that of the considered duration of release No annual average concentration is provided The hours of operation of what is believed to have been a nominal 600 ft3 min-1 ventilation fan are not known Estimated beryllium releases are summarized in Table 20-10 and applied to various averaging periods in Table 20-11 Table 20-10 Estimated airborne beryllium releases from B-Building gun testing at TA-1 1944–1948 Years Operating Period h Mass Released g Release Rate µg s-1 1943–1948 36 5 4 320 33 333 Table 20-11 Estimated beryllium release rates from B-Building gun testing duration factors not applied Release Rate for Stated Averaging Period µg s-1 Years 6 min 30 min Hour Work Day Work Week Month Year 1943–1948 33 333 6 667 3 333 417 417 139 139 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-9 Explosive testing of bomb components containing beryllium During the peak year of dynamic testing 1964 a total of 106 kg of beryllium was used at TA-15 a fraction of which was aerosolized into fine particulate form that would distribute downwind While LANL has traditionally assumed 2% of the mass is aerosolized this assumption along with others fails to account for the mass of beryllium expended at the firing sites and found in nearby soils Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LLNL has assumed that 8% of the mass is aerosolized Both of those values either 2% or 8% resulted from experiments conducted by the laboratories Finally the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamics Test DARHT facility EIS which was published more recently assumed a value of 10% For this analysis it was assumed that 10% of the 106 kg expended in 1964 was aerosolized The amount of beryllium used in a specific experiment is classified In order to estimate a release rate it was assumed that between 50 and 150 experiments were performed at the three firing sites during the year less than once per week with a total of 100 experiments performed It was assumed that 80% of the experiments did not use beryllium at all and of the 20 experiments that did 16 used small amounts of beryllium together accounting for 50% of the total mass and four of them used larger amounts together accounting for 50% of the total mass Each of the larger experiments might have used 13 25 kg The duration of the exposure from the explosive test was taken to be 0 25 h as the puff drifted off-site with the prevailing wind This heuristic estimate is based partially on the estimated size of the puff a short time after detonation as well as subsequent dispersion of that puff as it drifted approximately 5 000 m off site with an average wind speed Because the release rate considers the release time the factors of Table 20-1 are not needed Table 20-12 provides the annual average values 10% of 106 kg dispersed in 0 25 h × 100 tests 25 h as well as the peak one of four tests in the year that dispersed 10% of 13 25 kg in 0 25 h Table 20-13 applies the peak rate to time intervals of a week or less and assumes the annual release rate for the year and the month Assuming that one of the shots that month used 13 25 kg and the rest averaged the 1 06 kg then the month would be a factor of 2 3 times larger This factor was not used in order to maintain a simpler set of assumptions Using this method provides an average rate for the month equal to the annual rate In fact it is likely that the month in which a larger-than- average quantity of beryllium was used in shots had higher release rates than 336 µg s-1 over the 730 h period These higher releases could be confirmed if beryllium release assessment continues and if detailed classified shot records are retrieved and summarized in a manner that could be publicly releasable 20-10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 Table 20-12 Estimated airborne beryllium releases from TA-15 explosive testing Year Duration of Exposure h Mass Released g Release Rate µg s-1 1964 year 25 10 600 117 778 1965 month 2 08 1 766 235 467 1964 maximum shot 0 25 1 325 1 472 222 Table 20-13 Estimated beryllium release rates from TA-15 explosive testing duration factors not applied Release Rate for Stated Averaging Period µg s-1 Year 6 min 30 min Hour Work Day Work Week Month Year 1964 1 472 222 736 111 368 056 46 007 9 201 672 336 Hot Pressing of Beryllium Oxide Powder in Q-Building at TA-1 LANL ordered 6 100 lbs of beryllium oxide BeO for use in its reactors by January 15 1944 LASL 1944 For this assessment it was assumed that the 6 100 lbs of BeO powder that was ordered was actually used in 1944 This amount represents a metric ton of the element beryllium alone In order to estimate the amount of BeO and Be that would be released the methods outlined in the USDOE Handbook of Airborne Release Fractions Rates and Respirable Fractions for Nonreactor Nuclear Facilities were used USDOE 1994 To apply these methods we estimated an Overall Release Fraction ORF The Atmospheric Release Fractions ARF and Respirable Factions RF were then multiplied to get a range of Overall Release Fractions ORF The geometric mean of the ORF computed as 0 0025 the square root of the product of the upper and lower bounds was then applied to the total BeO ordered for 1944 The ARF was estimated as between 5% of the mass on the high end and 0 5% of the mass on the low end The RF was estimated as the mass fraction below five μm diameter The upper bound was estimated from the known upper size limit -325 mesh or 44 μm and a geometric standard deviation of three was assumed for the particle size Two standard deviations 3×3 9 were used to estimate the geometric mean of five μm which means one half of the mass of BeO was below five μm and was respirable A value for respirable fraction RF that was ten times smaller was used as an estimate for the lower bound These values are summarized in Table 20-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-11 Table 20-14 Release fraction parameter values for BeO powder processing Upper Bound Lower Bound 0 05 0 5 0 025 0 0025 0 005 0 05 0 00025 Airborne Release Fraction ARF Respirable Fraction RF Overall Release Fraction ORF Geometric Mean of ORF Applying the geometric mean of the overall release fraction 0 25% to the 6 100 pounds of BeO used in 1944 results in a release of 6 932 g of respirable BeO from Q-Building during the year which would have contained 2 495 g of beryllium Table 20-15 and Table 20-16 provide the total releases and the release rates with duration factors applied for Q-Building BeO powder pressing during 1944 We can assume that these releases likely continued to occur until the late 1940s when LANL began to impose more stringent controls on beryllium operations Table 20-15 Estimated airborne beryllium releases from BeO powder pressing in Q-Building at TA-1 Year Duration of Exposure h Mass Released g Release Rate µg s-1 1944 1600 2 495 433 Table 20-16 Estimated beryllium release rates from BeO pressing in Q-Building at TA-1 with duration factors applied Release Rate for Stated Averaging Period µg s-1 Year 6 min 30 min Hour Work Day Work Week Month Year 1944 64 475 20 468 12 872 3 600 1 574 152 79 Estimation of Atmospheric Dilution Factors Beryllium Machining at V-Shop in the Original Technical Area Based on our review of drawings and 1940s photographs of TA-1 there was no stack on V-Building that met or exceeded the 2 5-times building height criterion for avoiding building wake effects Accordingly building wakes will be a consideration Based on review of drawings and photographs of TA-1 the surface area of V-Building AG was approximately 39 m × 15 m 585 m2 the square root of which is 24 2 m 2 5 times that value is 60 5 m The distance from V-Building to the nearest residence the southernmost Sundt apartment on 24th Street was approximately 165 m see Fig 20-1 As this value 20-12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 exceeds both 2 5-times the square root of AG and 100 m this case is represents an exposure outside the near-wake region The concentration at the exposure point can therefore be estimated as follows NCRP 1996 C Where f QB u C average atmospheric concentration at receptor μg m-3 f fraction of time that the wind blows toward the receptor of interest Q B effluent release rate μg s-1 in this application the Gaussian plume model diffusion factor modified for building wake effects u mean wind speed m s-1 Because the distance x to the nearest potentially exposed individual is less than 2 km Figure 1 5 of NCRP Report 123 was used to determine B That figure indicates that a value of 9×10-4 m-2 should be used for B when x 165 m and AG falls between 300 and 1 000 m2 The NCRP Report 123 method incorporates a value of 0 25 for f and recommends a default of two m s-1 for u when site specific data are not available The above equation can be rearranged to yield a relative concentration concentration for a unit release rate C Q as follows C Q 0 25 9×10-4 m-2 2 m s-1 -1 1 13×10-4 s m-3 To estimate the airborne beryllium concentration μg m3 at the southernmost Sundt apartment on 24th street in Los Alamos this value can be multiplied by the estimated release rate of beryllium from VBuilding μg s-1 To evaluate episodic releases when it is appropriate to assess concentrations when the wind is blowing toward the identified nearest exposure point f will be set to one and relative concentrations will be four times the C Q value shown above FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-13 Fig 20-1 Approximate distances from TA-1 beryllium facilities to nearest residences 20-14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 Beryllium Oxide Pressing at Q-Building in TA-1 Based on our review of drawings and 1940s photographs of the TA-1 there was no stack on Q-Building that met or exceeded the 2 5-times building height criterion Because of the stack height building wakes will be a consideration Based on our review of drawings and photographs of TA-1 the surface area of the Q-Building AG was approximately 10 m × 5 m 50 m2 the square root of which is 7 1 m 2 5 times that value is 17 7 m The distance from Q-Building to the nearest residence the southernmost Sundt apartment on 25th Street was approximately 136 m see Fig 20-1 As this value exceeds both 2 5-times the square root of AG and 100 m this case represents an exposure outside the near-wake region The concentration at the exposure point can therefore be estimated as follows NCRP 1996 Where C f QB u C average atmospheric concentration at receptor μg m-3 f fraction of time that the wind blows toward the receptor of interest Q B effluent release rate μg s-1 in this application the Gaussian plume model diffusion factor modified for building wake effects u mean wind speed m s-1 Because the distance x to the nearest residence is less than two km Figure 1 5 of NCRP Report 123 was used to determine B That figure indicates that a value of 2×10-3 m-2 should be used for B when x 136 m and AG falls between 0 and 100 m2 The NCRP Report 123 method incorporates a value of 0 25 for f and recommends a default of 2 m s-1 for u when site specific data are not available The above equation can be rearranged to yield a relative concentration concentration for a unit release rate C Q as follows C Q 0 25 2×10-3 m-2 2 m s-1 -1 2 5×10-4 s m-3 This value can be multiplied by the estimated release rate of beryllium from Q-Building μg s-1 to estimate the airborne beryllium concentration μg m3 at the southernmost Sundt apartment on 25th street in Los Alamos For evaluating episodic releases when it is appropriate to assess concentrations when the wind is blowing toward the identified nearest exposure point f will be set to one and relative concentrations will be four times the C Q value shown above FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-15 Beryllium Processing in the SM-39 Shops at TA-3 The photographs and documents that have been reviewed indicate that associated releases were not exhausted through a stack that met or exceeded the 2 5-times building height criterion for nearby structures Because of the stack height building wake will be a consideration The distance from Building SM-39 to the closest residential area Western Area housing is approximately 960 meters Fig 20-2 Based on our review of aerial photographs of SM-39 the width of the north end of the building is approximately 76 m Based on our review of historical photographs the height of that building is approximately that of a two story building or roughly seven m The cross-sectional area of the north end of the building is therefore 532 m2 the square root of that value is 23 and 2 5-times the square root is 58 As the distance to the nearest public exposure point exceeds 2 5-times the square root of AG this case represents an exposure outside the near-wake region The concentration at the exposure point can be estimated as follows NCRP 1996 C Where f QB u C average atmospheric concentration at receptor μg m-3 f fraction of time that the wind blows toward the receptor of interest Q B effluent release rate μg s-1 in this application the Gaussian plume model diffusion factor modified for building wake effects u mean wind speed m s-1 Because the distance to the nearest residence x is less than two km Figure 1 5 of NCRP Report 123 was used to determine B That figure indicates that a value of 5 5×10-5 m-2 should be used for B when x 960 m and AG falls between 300 and 1 000 m2 The NCRP Report 123 method incorporates a value of 0 25 for f and recommends a default of 2 m s-1 for u when site specific data are not available The above equation can be rearranged to yield a relative concentration concentration for a unit release rate C Q as follows C Q 0 25 5 5×10-5 m-2 2 m s-1 -1 6 88×10-6 s m-3 To estimate the airborne beryllium concentration μg m3 at the southernmost residences of the Western Area in Los Alamos this value can be multiplied by the estimated release rate of beryllium from the SM39 shops For evaluating episodic releases when it is appropriate to assess concentrations when the wind is blowing toward the identified nearest exposure point f will be set to one and relative concentrations will be four times the C Q value shown above 20-16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 Gun Testing of Weapon Components in the Annex to B-Building in TA-1 Based on our review of drawings and 1940s photographs of the TA-1 there was no stack on B-Building that met or exceeded the 2 5-times building height criterion therefore building wakes will be a consideration The surface area of the building AG is approximately 62 m × 15 m 930 m2 the square root of which is 30 5 m 2 5 times that value is 76 2 m The distance from the center of the rear southern facing side of B-Building to the southernmost Sundt apartment on 25th Street in Los Alamos was 49 m Fig 20-1 As this distance is less than both 2 5-times the square root of AG and 100 m this case represents exposure in the near-wake region The concentration at the exposure point can therefore be estimated as follows NCRP 1996 C Where f Q uhK k a constant of value 1 m and h the smaller of the building height or building width m In this case building height hb 15 m is less than its width hw 62 m The above equation can be rearranged to yield a relative concentration concentration for a unit release rate C Q as follows Because the B-Building gun tests were episodic releases concentrations will be estimated for the conditions when the wind was blowing toward the identified nearest exposure point by setting f to 1 C Q 1 3 14 × 2 m s-1 × 15 m -1 1 06 × 10-2 s m-3 This value can be multiplied by the estimated release rate μg s-1 of beryllium from the back center of BBuilding to estimate the airborne beryllium concentration μg m3 at the southernmost Sundt apartment on 25th Street in Los Alamos FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-17 Fig 20-2 Approximate distance from Building SM-39 at TA-3 to the southernmost residences of the Western Area in Los Alamos 20-18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 Beryllium Expended in Explosive Testing at TA-15 PHERMEX facility Based on our review of drawings photographs and descriptions of the TA-15 facilities associated releases were not exhausted through a stack that met or exceeded the 2 5-times building height criterion for nearby structures Because of the stack height building wakes or wakes from nearby structures will be a consideration The distance from the main PHERMEX building to the nearest residential area the Royal Crest Trailer Park on East Jemez Road is approximately 4 500 m see Fig 20-3 There were no large buildings in the immediate area of PHERMEX As the distance to the nearest public exposure point exceeded 2 5-times the square root of AG for all buildings in the area of the testing this represents an exposure outside the near-wake region Because the distance to the nearest public exposure point exceeds two km the concentration at the exposure point can be estimated as follows NCRP 1996 C Where f QB u C average atmospheric concentration at receptor μg m-3 f fraction of time that the wind blows toward the receptor of interest Q P effluent release rate μg s-1 in this application the Gaussian plume model diffusion factor as a function of downwind distance assuming a release height H at ground level 0 m u mean wind speed m s-1 Because x is greater than 2 km Figure 1 4 of NCRP Report 123 is used to determine P That figure indicates that a value of 5×10-6 m-2 should be used for P when x 4500 m and H 0 m The NCRP Report 123 method incorporates a value of 0 25 for f and recommends a default of 2 m s-1 for u when site specific data are not available The above equation can be rearranged to yield a relative concentration concentration for a unit release rate C Q as follows Because the PHERMEX explosive tests were episodic releases concentrations will be estimated for the conditions when the wind was blowing toward the identified nearest exposure point by setting f to 1 C Q 1 5×10-6 m-2 2 m s-1 -1 2 5×10-6 s m-3 This value can be multiplied by the estimated release rate of beryllium from explosive testing at TA-15 μg s-1 to estimate the airborne beryllium concentration μg m-3 at the Royal Crest Trailer Park on East Jemez Road in Los Alamos FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-19 Estimation of Concentrations at Points of Interest Concentrations of airborne beryllium at the nearest residence μg m-3 from each identified beryllium operation were estimated by multiplying the estimated release rate μg s-1 by the applicable relative concentration value s m-3 Results are shown in Table 20-17 The estimated release rate and concentration values for BeO powder pressing V-Shop and SM-39 Shop releases are presented as sixmin 30-min and eight-h average values that would be expected to be reached or exceeded once per year and monthly average concentrations that would be expected to be reached or exceeded 5% of the time For the explosive tests at TA-15 the results in Table 20-17 for periods longer than a week are values averaged over the periods shown based on 100 shots in a year each with 0 25-h duration of exposure that together released 10% of the total beryllium reported expended in 1964 For periods shorter than a month the results are values averaged over the periods shown based on one shot with 0 25-h duration of exposure occurring during the period and releasing 1 25% of the total beryllium reported as expended in 1964 20-20 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 Fig 20-3 Approximate distance from TA-15 PHERMEX area to the Royal Crest Trailer Park on East Jemez Road in Los Alamos FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-21 Table 20-17 Results of screening-level assessment of potential airborne beryllium concentrations in residential areas of Los Alamos B-Building Gun Testsa BeO Powder Pressing V-Shop Machining 1943-48 V-Shop Machining 1949-53 SM-39 Shop 1953 to 1963 SM-39 Shop after 1963 PHERMEX Explosive Testsa 49 140 170 170 960 960 4 500 Distance to exposure point m -3 1 1×10 Relative concentration s m -2 2 5×10 -4 1 1×10 -4 1 1×10 -4 6 9×10 -6 6 9×10 -6 2 5×10-6 Release rates μg s-1 for stated averaging periods 0 1 h 33 000 64 000 12 000 610 610 3 7 1 500 000 0 5 h 6 700 20 000 3 900 190 190 1 2 740 000 420 3 600 680 34 34 0 20 46 000 140 150 29 1 4 1 4 0 0086 670 8 h 730 h 1 month -3 Exposure point concentrations μg m for stated averaging periods 20-22 0 1 h 350c d 16d 1 4d 0 069d 0 0042 0 000025 3 7d 0 5 h 71c d 5 1d 0 44d 0 022d 0 0013 0 0000080 1 8d 8 h 4 4b d 0 90d 0 077d 0 0038 0 00023 0 0000014 0 12d 730 h 1 month 1 5d e 0 038d e 0 0033 0 00016 0 000010 0 000000059 0 0017 a Episodic releases b Possible exceedance of OSHA AEC 8-h time weighted average limit 2 μg m-3 c Possible exceedance of OSHA AEC ceiling limit 25 μg m-3 d Possible exceedance of USEPA Reference Concentration 0 02 μg m-3 e Possible exceedance of National Emission Standard for ambient air averaged over a 30-d period 0 01 μg m-3 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 Identification of Relevant Toxicologic or Regulatory Benchmarks The current OSHA permissible exposure limit PEL for occupational exposure to beryllium is two μg m-3 eight-h time weighted average A ceiling limit of five μg m-3 must not be exceeded during the work shift except that a 30-minute excursion over the ceiling limit is allowed as long as the air concentration never exceeds 25 μg m-3 during the 30-minute period NIOSH 2003 The U S Atomic Energy Commission issued “Recommendations for Control of Beryllium Hazards” in August 1951 that included three standards a two μg m-3 in plant eight-h average beryllium concentration a 25 μg m-3 beryllium air concentration that can never be exceeded and a 0 01 μg m-3 monthly average concentration at the breathing zone in the neighborhood of a plant handling beryllium Mitchell and Hyatt 1957 In 1999 the U S Department of Energy established an 8-hr TWA action level for beryllium of 0 2 µg m3 that triggers certain workplace precautions and control measures USDOE 1999 The current USEPA Reference Concentration RfC for beryllium is 0 02 μg m-3 USEPA 2009 The RfC is an estimate with uncertainty spanning an order of magnitude of a daily inhalation exposure of the human population including sensitive subgroups that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime The RfC is based on beryllium sensitization and progression to chronic beryllium disease CBD identified in studies published in 1996 Kreiss et al 1996 and 1949 Eisenbud et al 1949 The Kreiss et al 1996 occupational exposure study identified a LOAEL Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level for beryllium sensitization in workers exposed to 0 55 µg m-3 median of average concentrations A cross-sectional study was conducted of 136 139 of the then-current beryllium workers in a plant that made beryllia ceramics from beryllium oxide powder Measurements from 1981 and later were reviewed and the study includes area samples process breathing-zone samples and personal lapel samples the last year only The Eisenbud et al 1949 study using relatively insensitive screening methods suggests a NOAEL No Observed Adverse Effect Level of 0 01-0 1 µg m-3 in community residents living near a beryllium plant The LOAEL from the Kreiss et al study was used for the operational derivation of the RfC because the screening method used in the Eisenbud et al 1949 study was less sensitive than the method used in the Kreiss et al 1996 study According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ATSDR 2002 evidence suggests that the occurrence of chronic beryllium disease is not related to exposure duration and can have a long latency period Very few studies assessing the occurrence of chronic beryllium disease also measured airborne beryllium levels Eisenbud et al 1949 found no cases of chronic beryllium disease in residents FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-23 living at least 0 75 miles away from a beryllium manufacturing facility The airborne beryllium concentration at this distance was estimated to range from 0 01 to 0 1 µg m-3 ATSDR‟s opinion is that the available database does not support the derivation of acute intermediate or chronic duration inhalation MRLs minimal risk levels Eisenbud et al 1949 found no cases of chronic beryllium disease among community residents chronically exposed to 0 01-0 1 µg m-3 of beryllium The study used relatively insensitive methods to detect chronic beryllium disease however so it is not know if the residents exposed to 0 01 µg m-3 of beryllium would test positive for sensitization or subclinical chronic disease No human acute or intermediate duration studies that identify a NOAEL or LOAEL for respiratory effects were identified Animal studies have not identified a reliable NOAEL and the LOAELs are several orders of magnitude higher than the LOAEL from the Kreiss et al 1996 occupational exposure study Although the critical target of beryllium toxicity has been identified as the respiratory tract an animal model that mimics all aspects of chronic beryllium disease has not been identified It is therefore inappropriate to derive inhalation MRLs from the animal data ATSDR 2002 Several studies attempt to associate beryllium sensitization and or chronic beryllium disease with mean cumulative and peak exposure levels and employment duration but no consistent associations have been found Although the data are insufficient for establishing concentration-response relationships the available occupation exposure studies do provide exposure levels that may result in beryllium sensitization Beryllium sensitization and or chronic beryllium disease have been detected at exposure levels of 0 5 µg m-3 Respiratory disease is not likely to occur from exposure to beryllium levels in the general environment because ambient air levels 0 00003–0 0002 µg m-3 are very low ATSDR 2002 Comparison of Estimated Concentrations with Relevant Benchmarks The results of the preliminary screening of airborne beryllium concentrations in residential areas of Los Alamos in terms of estimated airborne concentrations over four different averaging periods are represented in Fig 20-4 along with representations of the regulatory limits that can be applied to beryllium concentrations in occupational or public settings The estimated airborne beryllium concentrations that exceeded one or more of those limits are also identified with footnotes in Table 20-17 While occupational exposure limits are not directly applicable to exposures of members of the public they are presented as benchmarks to which the calculated concentrations can be compared Limits imposed on exposures to members of the public are generally lower than those imposed on worker exposures so concentrations in residential areas must be maintained lower than those accepted in workplace environments 20-24 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 7 Fig 20-4 Screening-level estimates of airborne beryllium concentrations in public areas near LANL for six historical operations FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-25 Conclusions The screening results indicate that the eight-h time weighted average permissible exposure limit of two μg m-3 for beryllium adopted for workers by OSHA and the AEC could have been exceeded in residential areas by releases from the B-Building gun tests The OSHA AEC ceiling limit of 25 μg m-3 for workers could also have been exceeded for releases from those tests based on concentrations estimated for 0 5-h and 0 1-h averaging periods The USEPA reference concentration of 0 02 μg m-3 could have been exceeded in residential areas by releases from B-Building gun testing BeO powder pressing V-Shop machining and tests at PHERMEX The National Emission Standard of 0 01 μg m-3 for beryllium in ambient air averaged over a 30-d period could have been exceeded in residential areas from the BBuilding gun tests and BeO powder pressing References ATSDR Toxicological Profile for Beryllium Atlanta GA Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry U S Department of Health and Human Services 2002 Eisenbud MR Watna RC Dustan RC Steadman LC Harris WB Wolf BS Non-occupational berylliosis Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology 31 282-294 1949 Hempelmann LH Henrickson PW Transcript of an oral history interview of Dr Louis Hempelmann conducted by Paul Henrickson on 31 January 1986 LANL Archives Collection A-2006-006 1986 Kreiss K Mroz MM Newman LS Machining risk of beryllium disease and sensitization with median exposures below 2 ug m3 American Journal of Industrial Medicine 30 16-25 1996 LASL Beryllium memos from LANL Archives Collection A-1984-019 Box 36 Folder 1 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1944 LASL H-5 Air Sample Data Sheet - Beryllium Shops and Exhaust Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1969 LASL SD-1 Shop 4 Beryllium Shop 1954-1962 Folder from TA-59 EH S Records Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1970 Mitchell RN Hyatt EC Beryllium - Hazard Evaluation and Control Covering a Five-Year Study Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory presented at the American Industrial Hygiene Association Meeting 1957 20-26 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 NCRP Screening Models for Release of Radionuclides to Atmosphere Surface Water and Ground Bethesda MD National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report No 123 1996 NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards Washington DC National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Department of Health and Human Services 2003 Shipman T Memorandum dated 16 May 1951 to N E Bradbury regarding beryllium toxicity subject redacted Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1951 Shonka JJ LAHDRA Project Memo to File LANL Beryllium Source Terms Shonka Research Associates 2009 USDOE DOE Handbook - Airborne Release Fractions Rates and Respirable Fractions for Nonreactor Nuclear Facilities Volumes I and II Washington DC U S Department of Energy DOE-HDBK-301094 1994 USDOE Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program Final Rule 10 CFR Part 850 Fed Reg Vol 64 No 235 December 8 1999 p 68854-68914 1999 USDOE DOE Nuclear Air Cleaning Handbook Washington DC U S Department of Energy HDBK1169-2003 2003 USEPA Integrated Risk Information System Beryllium and compounds CASRN 7440-41-7 2009 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 20-27 This page intentionally left blank 20-28 FINAL REPORT OF CDC‟S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Public Involvement within the LAHDRA Project Public involvement played an important role in the LAHDRA project’s success and helped to maintain transparency and openness throughout the project The CDC and its team of contractor scientists from ChemRisk were dedicated to involving key stakeholders in the project Project scientists spent many hours interacting with concerned citizens and workers via meetings and roundtable discussions Public involvement activities and tools used to encourage and facilitate exchange of information included • Holding public meetings and roundtable discussions • Conducting focus group workshops with pueblo groups and other interested stakeholders • Soliciting and reviewing public comments on eight interim project reports • Providing public access to project-specific and related websites • Providing access to an Internet-accessible database of project records • Creating a document repository for project records at the University of New Mexico’s Zimmerman Library in Albuquerque and • Conducting tours of LANL operational areas and other New Mexico historical sites of importance for both LAHDRA project scientists and members of the public Public Meetings Unlike dose reconstruction projects the LAHDRA project was not advised by a committee formed according to the Federal Advisory Committee Act In contrast to a dose reconstruction the LAHDRA project’s primary mission was to gather information describing LANL operations associated with off-site releases and to perform initial release prioritization for possible use in future environmental dose reconstruction studies Advisory committees are often used during detailed dose reconstruction studies in which the availability of site documents and the selection of chemicals and radionuclides for dose reconstruction have been further established based on prior information gathering activities and advanced hazard screening analyses Because the LAHDRA project activities largely focused on information gathering the CDC elected to hold public meetings once or twice each year at various locations in the Los Alamos-Española-Taos-Pojoaque-Santa Fe region as a way to update the public as to the project’s information gathering progress and its ongoing prioritization of off-site releases FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-1 These meetings provided an open forum for an exchange of information and were used to inform the public of project activities and to solicit feedback and suggestions These meetings were publicized through mailings to individuals on the project mailing list press releases distributed to newspapers television and radio stations and through public notices published in the Federal Register Meetings consisted of • A project overview for new attendees • Presentations using visual aids such as PowerPoint® slides and historical charts and photos of LANL operations • Status updates on specific project aspects e g information gathering activities focus on key offsite release points • Updates on new information gained about historical activities and off-site releases including descriptions of the quantity and quality of data retrieved from LANL record centers • An overview of the challenges encountered while accessing and obtaining relevant documents • Status updates on the prioritization of historical releases of chemicals and radionuclides and • Sessions for public questions comments and suggestions In total 17 meetings and several workshops were held to keep the public informed of project activities and findings In addition to these meetings the CDC and project scientists also met with and offered briefings to representatives of the Eight Northern Pueblo Council and many of the individual pueblos in Northern New Mexico Valuable insights were gained from these workshops Meeting locations varied among the communities surrounding LANL and every effort was made to choose familiar locations that offered easy public access Six meetings were held in Pojoaque five in Los Alamos three in Española two in Santa Fe and one in Taos Figure 21-1 The LAHDRA public meeting held in July 2008 21-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 Updates on noteworthy aspects of the project were also presented at community colleges as well as at the technical conferences of relevant professional societies e g the Society of Risk Analysis the Health Physics Society Dates and major topics of the public meetings conducted during the project are listed below • Thursday January 25 2010 Overview of draft final report topical roundtable discussion groups presentation of discussion group action items and a question and answer session • Thursday June 25 2009 Presentation of the draft final project report public comment period and discussion of plans to complete the project • Wednesday July 23 2008 Project update status of document review • Wednesday July 18 2007 Progress of document reviews discussion of study of plutonium releases in the 1940s and 1950s and public exposures from the Trinity test report updates • Wednesday July 26 2006 Project update status of document review and presentation of new records database called as DocSleuth • Thursday June 23 2005 Project update and discussion regarding new project contract • Tuesday July 27 2004 CDC announces completion of work under first LAHDRA contract • Tuesday March 30 2004 Release of draft interim report and project team presentations • Wednesday July 9 2003 Project update and outlook for continued project activities • Wednesday July 10 2002 Project update and impact of access restrictions on project plans • Tuesday November 27 2001 Project update and presentation on record access issues • Tuesday April 24 and Thursday April 26 2001 Update on project activities LANL records access at LANL document reviews and availability • Wednesday September 13 2000 Project update interim project report and discussion of record access issues • March 8 2000 Project update • October 5 1999 Interviews with current and retired workers • July 27 1999 Project update and discussion of sample documents retrieved from LANL record centers • February 23 1999 Project introduction Fig 21-2 Historical photos of LANL on display at the July 2008 public meeting FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-3 Project Reports A total of eight interim versions of the LAHDRA project report were issued as information gathering progressed and as project scientists gained more knowledge about LANL operations and off-site releases CDC and project scientists invited public members to review and provide input Numerous comments and suggestions received during the review process provided valuable information to the project team and were used to address key issues and concerns raised by the public Public reviews of project reports proved to be another important tool used to ensure openness and transparency throughout the project Hardcopies and electronic DVD copies of each interim report were made available at public meetings on the project website and at the Zimmerman Library in Albuquerque Comments received on the final draft of the report as well as project team responses are provided in Appendix 21-A Project Website Early in the project a website was developed to make project-related information easily available to the public The website is available at http www lahdra org Postings and links offered on the LAHDRA website include • Announcements of upcoming meetings and workshops • Downloadable electronic copies of meeting presentations and presentation slides • Notifications of project interim reports and availability of downloadable and hardcopy reports • Information about the project team and team member qualifications • Downloadable video clips for selected public meetings • Downloadable electronic copies of project interim reports and • Link to the Internet accessible project records database known as DocSleuth Postings on the LAHDRA website also include brief overviews of all public meeting presentations and associated public comments and discussions summaries of workshops presenting more detailed overviews of project-related topics to interested LANL staff and the general public information about how to contact LAHDRA team members and access the project document collection and the DocSleuth database at local libraries and links to related websites Database of Project Records DocSleuth The project database called “DocSleuth ” was developed in order to facilitate public access to project documents a key aspect of the project’s transparency and openness goal The database is a compilation of over 8 500 relevant project documents selected and reviewed by project scientists and is useful for 21-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 reconstructing off-site releases from LANL The Web address for the database is http docsleuth lahdra org The database requires an account an ID and password for online access and is a valuable tool for public review of project documents Each database record consists of an electronic image of the project Document Summary Form DSF which highlights the document contents and offers a text-searchable Adobe® image file format of the document The online database offers an active search capability allowing a member of the public to search for a topic area or subject matter by keyword author title document number or any combination thereof Members of the public have indicated via comments to the LAHDRA team that they have found the database to be a valuable tool that has allowed them to gain a better understanding of the types of information project scientists have used to gain insight into past releases at LANL Comments regarding the functionality of the database and availability of LANL records have been very encouraging Availability of the database to the public has enhanced the public’s participation in the project improved the transfer of information to all interested parties and has created an additional level of transparency to the project For interested members of the public who may have limited access to the Internet a repository of project records was also established it is available at the University of New Mexico’s Zimmerman Library in Albuquerque Public Workshops Tours and Interviews Project scientists invited representatives of local activist groups to workshops and project meetings with LANL staff to address unclassified topics As an example a 2007 technical work session with LANL staff included LAHDRA project scientists and representatives from the New Mexico Environment Department and the Executive Director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety The public was also invited to attend unclassified tours of LANL Technical Areas and the Trinity site in southern New Mexico These tours provided a unique opportunity for the public to learn more about past releases and to exchange information with project scientists Touring the Trinity Test site and interviewing local residents provided the LAHDRA team with valuable information about the area’s characteristics as well as how people in the area lived and worked including their use of natural water supplies ponds creeks water and food consumption habits and other life styles and customs For example cisterns above and below ground water storage tanks were used for watering livestock which could be an important exposure pathway to further examine during a dose reconstruction study Rainwater collected from home rooftops was stored in the cisterns other uses of the cistern water could be investigated during a dose reconstruction study FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-5 The project also exchanged information with Chimayo resident Peter Malmgren who in his “Los Alamos Revisited” oral history program interviewed 145 of the people who built Los Alamos and or worked or lived near LANL These histories which were placed in the state archives include the testimony of community members ranging from janitors and housekeepers to senior nuclear weapons specialists Project scientists also conducted interviews with members of the public and over 50 current or retired workers in order to fill in gaps regarding historical operations materials used and releases that could have occurred as a result of LANL operations Many interviewees were local residents who voiced their concerns about health risks and past LANL releases and expressed the need for full transparency of all information being used for the project The interview process provided another unique opportunity for members of the public to express their concerns and share information potentially relevant to the project Members of the public were routinely encouraged to contact the CDC or project scientists to learn more about the project ask questions or to offer suggestions and comments There have been several questions from the community relating to potential future activities stemming from the LAHDRA project In recent years a number of major dose reconstructions have been completed by various groups many of which began with information gathering and historical document retrieval efforts similar to those completed during the LAHDRA project Appendix 21-B represents examples of such projects and suggests resources from which interested citizens might obtain further information relating to previous dose reconstruction efforts News Articles and Press Releases Periodic newspaper articles and television news reports regarding project-related current events and updates deemed newsworthy were also made available to the public This form of information sharing was especially useful for those members of the public who were unable access the project websites on the Internet or attend public meetings Examples of such news articles include New Hope for Trinity Downwind Residents - Joline Gutierrez Albuquerque Journal July 16 2010 Albuquerque New Mexico Group Briefed on Reduced Chromium Threat - Roger Snodgrass Los Alamos Monitor January 13 2010 Los Alamos New Mexico Citizens Get a Crash Course in History - Roger Snodgrass Los Alamos Monitor January10 2010 Los Alamos New Mexico Interesting and Disturbing Issues - Letter to the Editor from Ken LaGattuta Los Alamos Monitor July 13 2009 Los Alamos New Mexico 21-6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 LANL Winding Down Search for Health Records - Associated Press Albuquerque Journal North June 30 2009 Santa Fe New Mexico Gaps Remain As Document Retrieval Project Wind Down - Roger Snodgrass Los Alamos Monitor June 26 2009 Los Alamos New Mexico Health Study Meets on Draft Final Report - Roger Snodgrass Los Alamos Monitor June 10 2009 Los Alamos New Mexico Guest View Trinity Effects Re-Evaluated - John Groh Albuquerque Journal North Thursday July 31 2008 Santa Fe New Mexico LANL Airborne Plutonium Reporting Inaccurate - Raam Wong Albuquerque Journal North July 20 2007 Santa Fe New Mexico Lab Problems Don’t Affect CDC Project - Adam Rankin Albuquerque Journal North July 28 2004 Santa Fe New Mexico Document Retrieval to Resume - Roger Snodgrass Los Alamos Monitor July 28 2004 Los Alamos New Mexico CDC Readies New Contract for Contaminant Study - Roger Snodgrass Los Alamos Monitor April 4 2004 Los Alamos New Mexico Feds to Finish Lengthy Study of LANL Pollution - Jeff Tollefson The Santa Fe New Mexican April 3 2004 B3 Santa Fe New Mexico Report on LANL Pollution Released - The Santa Fe New Mexican March 26 2004 B4 Santa Fe New Mexico Lab Disputes CDC Complaints - Jeff Tollefson The Santa Fe New Mexican July 11 2003 1B 5B Santa Fe New Mexico CDC Says Lab Withholding Documents - Jeff Tollefson The Santa Fe New Mexican July 10 2003 Santa Fe New Mexico Nuke Toxic Release Probed Team Studies LANL Data - Adam Rankin Albuquerque Journal North July 10 2003 Santa Fe New Mexico CDC Reports on Lab Project - Roger Snodgrass Los Alamos Monitor July 10 2003 Los Alamos New Mexico Team Seeks Access to Lab Records - Albuquerque Journal Nov 28 2001 Albuquerque New Mexico Polution Study at Lab Resumes Security Fears Halted Federal Inquiry for Months - Jennifer McKee Albuquerque Journal North March 29 2001 1A Santa Fe New Mexico Security Concerns Nearly Halt Lab Study - Albuquerque Journal January 19 2001 Albuquerque New Mexico Security Threatens Inquiry- Jennifer McKee Albuquerque Journal North October 31 2000 Santa Fe New Mexico CDC Access to Laboratory Records Denied- John Marble Los Alamos Monitor September 14 2000 Los Alamos New Mexico LANL Contamination Probe at Standstill- Kristen Davenport The Santa Fe New Mexican September 13 2000 Santa Fe New Mexico Laboratory Records to be Reviewed by CDC- LANL News Bulletin January 8 1999 Los Alamos New Mexico FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-7 Summary An important commitment of the LAHDRA project was to involve the public early in the process and provide mechanisms and tools that both encouraged and facilitated active public participation in the project Effective exchange of information between the public and project scientists was made possible through a combination of public meetings workshops and focus group discussions site tours public review of project reports an internet-accessible project Web site and records database and interviews with a variety of stakeholders Sharing of information was enhanced through the availability of the LAHDRA project Web site and DocSleuth the project records database as well as mailings and frequent news articles and multi-media reports that provided updates on project activities and significant findings The project was able to achieve and sustain a high-level of openness and transparency through the effective use of these communication tools Active public involvement during the LAHDRA project led to a free open exchange of information and proved to be a highly effective means for addressing public concerns and feedback and provided valuable input that enabled project scientists to produce a more thorough accounting of past LANL operations and environmental releases 21-8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 Appendix 21-A Comments on the Final Draft LAHDRA Report Over the last eleven years the LAHDRA team has released eight drafts of this report to the public with each draft updated based on new information and comments received on the report or at public meetings In June 2009 the final draft version of the report was released and underwent peer-review by a panel of experts at the direction of the CDC In addition a public meeting was held in January 2010 to discuss the final draft report’s findings Comments received from the peer reviewers and the general public have been addressed to the best of our ability in this final report These comments are broken down by topic Trinity plutonium releases uranium releases beryllium releases tritium releases chemicals high explosives other radionuclide-related comments and overall general comments and summarized below Trinity Comment The Trinity site needs to be reexamined what is the current data Can an epidemiological study be performed in the surrounding communities Assessing doses to the public are outside of the current scope of the LAHDRA project however such an assessment is something that could be addressed by future work An epidemiological study is currently being performed by the National Cancer Institute NCI and is slated to be released in 2011 Comment The report on the Trinity site by W R Hansen as part of Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program FUSRAP should have been mentioned in the draft LAHDRA report The report by W R Hansen was reviewed and the information presented within was taken into consideration when writing the chapter on Trinity It can be found within the project database under repository #6005 and #2130 Comment Outside of the plume models of the Trinity test presented in the LAHDRA report are there any more detailed plume models available External exposure models related to fallout from the Trinity blast were developed by the Weather Service Nuclear Support Office and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LLNL Moreover a source term for the Trinity test was calculated by LLNL scientists and fallout FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-A1 patterns were reconstructed on behalf of the USDOE’s Off-Site Radiation Exposure and Review Project ORERP It is important to note that all assessments of exposure from the Trinity test issued to date are based on monitoring data and have not addressed internal doses received after intake of radioactivity through inhaling or consuming contaminated water or food Moreover these assessments have not been subjected to the rigorous quality control processes used in modern dose reconstruction studies that include data validation application of appropriate data adjustments correction factors and uncertainty analysis For more information on these assessments and information on monitoring results reported by LANL scientists following the blast see Chapter 10 of the LAHDRA report Plutonium releases Comment Why is it that only some of the available plutonium soil samples were used to estimate airborne plutonium releases Although a list of approximately 650 plutonium soil samples was provided by the LANL environmental staff to use for back calculating plutonium releases many of these samples were judged to be unsuitable for analysis Only a few of the 650 samples show clear evidence of a footprint decrease in plutonium concentration as distance from the source increased The majority of samples were over 10 km away from known release points Approximately 100 samples were judged to be impacted by LANL operations based on their plutonium cesium ratios and only 37 of these samples had desirable levels of statistical certainty Most of the samples were a considerable distance from DP Site and also tended to be located upwind based on average daily weather conditions Comment The second iteration of the back-calculation of plutonium in soil to an estimation of plutonium air releases presented in Chapter 17 of the draft LAHDRA report is biased high because of a large plutonium cesium ratio The LAHDRA team examined the feasibility of estimating airborne plutonium releases using two alternative methods one of which was a back-calculation based on soil concentrations The available historical LANL soil measurements that have been used to date in attempting the backcalculation of the LANL plutonium source term are not ideally suited for this task although the exercise proved useful for understanding the documentation that would important to retrieve 21-A2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 given the limitations of this method Please see our revised section on our suggestions for improving the current analysis in Chapter 17 Comment Figure 18-1 in the 2009 draft LAHDRA report presents a table of corrected annual releases from DP West Building 12 stacks for 1948 through 1955 The table presented raised a concern because the units of activity were stated to be grams not a usual measure of activity Also the table stated “total activity released ” not plutonium activity released Analyses presented in previous drafts of the LAHDRA report utilized a study by LANL’s industrial hygiene group which was reported by Mr Edwin Hyatt in 1956 Based on comments received after the 2009 draft LAHDRA report was published and further review by LAHDRA team members it was determined that the data presented by Mr Hyatt were in error These data which were presented in Figure 18-1 of the draft report are not used or presented in the final LAHDRA report Comment The draft LAHDRA report states the need for factor-of-20 correction in the plutonium air effluent data However it is suggested that Edwin Hyatt’s calculations of plutonium releases from DP West were a factor-of-20 too high thereby negating the necessity of applying the 20-fold correction factor Moreover correction factors for line loss and filter burial were incorrectly selected by the LAHDRA team The LAHDRA team agrees with the comment regarding calculations presented by Edwin Hyatt who was an industrial hygienist at LANL The Hyatt work was done in error and the data are not used in the final version of the LAHDRA report A paragraph has been added in Chapter 17 to explain the reasoning behind this change Sample line loss and filter burial correction factors have also been updated in the final report based on analyses performed by LANL staff Specifically a sample line loss correction factor equal to five for the years between 1945 and 1958 and two for years between 1959 and 1975 were used based on analysis performed by LANL staff Fuehne 2008 repository #7875 Reducing the correction factor beginning in 1959 is based on adding single stage high efficiency particulate air HEPA filters to the combined process exhaust system at DP West in 1959 The LAHDRA team also applied a dust loading and filter burial correction factor of 2 33 to plutonium release totals reported by LANL from 1948 through 1959 application of this correction factor was also based on assessments made by LANL staff Fuehne 2008 repository #7875 Moreover a burial factor of 1 6 measured by LANL staff FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-A3 in the 1970s was applied to data starting in 1959 since the addition of HEPA filtration likely reduced dust loading on the sampling filter Comment Soil concentration data from areas of known liquid effluent releases should not have been used to estimate airborne plutonium releases The LAHDRA team agrees that samples impacted by non-air effluents from LANL add uncertainty when back-calculating to air releases Our suggestions for improving the current analysis in future work can be found in Chapter 17 Comment Plutonium autopsy data for the “Clerical Worker” can be found in James McInroy's lab notebook #5 on p 114 this document is in the LANL archives This section of Chapter 17 was removed In its place a paragraph discussing the challenges of using autopsy data to establish bounds for LANL releases is discussed This new section can be found underneath the “Additional Avenues for Investigation” subheading Comment The proximity of residences to LANL plutonium production facilities in the early years makes high doses a real possibility for non-workers – could exposures of some significant fraction of a curie occur in a matter of hours under ‘favorable’ weather and wind conditions While reconstruction of exposure to off-site individuals was outside of the scope of the LAHDRA project two screening-level assessments for plutonium using the methodology of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report No 123 were performed to evaluate the off-site impact of plutonium releases from DP West The first assessment was performed for releases during 1949 which is the apparent year of peak emissions for the period prior to 1957 A second screening-level evaluation was performed for releases during 1959 the apparent year of peak emissions after 1957 The year 1957 is significant because it marks the appearance of the Group 18 housing area resulting in a significant change in the proximity of the nearest residents to DP West NCRP Report No 123 provides a series of simple screening techniques that can be utilized to compare estimated dose or risk received from radionuclides released into the environment with a benchmark reference level For atmospheric releases the report utilizes three conservative models and parameters Level I screening employs the simplest and most conservative approach which assumes a concentration based upon the radionuclide 21-A4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 concentration at a point source emission Level II screening accounts for dispersion into the atmosphere while Level III incorporates a more definitive pathway analysis It is important to emphasize that the results of the screening calculations are strictly for comparison to an environmental standard limiting value to determine if compliance with that standard is assured or if further investigation is warranted The screening values are not intended to represent estimates of actual doses to individuals If a dose reconstruction were to occur for members of the public a more rigorous model accounting for various atmospheric conditions would certainly be used More information on airborne plutonium releases and the results of the NCRP Report 123 screening-level evaluations can be found in Chapter 18 Uranium releases Comment Can inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry ICP-MS be used to distinguish between natural uranium and detonated uranium In short yes This type of spectrometry is highly sensitive and can differentiate between a range of metals and some non-metals at very low concentrations It could feasibly pick up fission products alongside uranium which could indicate that such uranium had been used in a fission process Tritium releases Comment Is it possible to get an estimate of tritium releases via evaporation as a waste disposal method The LAHDRA project was primarily a data gathering one However tritium sampling data were uncovered for the lagoons at TA-53 as well as other sites and these data could potentially be used as part of future work to estimate tritium releases due to evaporation Comment It does not seem possible that there was no tritium sampling data available prior to 1967 We did not come across any tritium sampling data that was collected prior to 1967 during our exhaustive document review process Comment Table 7 1 does not include the accidental releases of tritium listed in Chapter 16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-A5 This omission was an oversight by the LAHDRA team and both the data and the text for Chapter 7 have been appropriately modified Other radionuclide-related comments Comment Radionuclides were inappropriately grouped during screening level calculations Specifically a screening level of 1 00E-07 µCi mL was used for mixed fission products even though the U S Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Standards for Protection against Radiation 10 CFR 20 states that this value should be used for radionuclides with a half-life under two hours The draft LAHDRA report groups radionuclides such as Cs-137 and Co-60 into this category even though their half-lives are significantly longer than two hours The LAHDRA team agrees with this comment Upon review we found that page three of a document within the LAHDRA project database titled Nuclide Inventory Data repository # 265 clearly states that the releases for mixed fission products MFP should be considered as four month decayed fission products at the time of release primarily consisting of Cs-137 which has a maximum permissible concentration MPC of 2E-10 uCi mL and Sr-90 with an MPC of 6E12 uCi mL assumed to be Y Class The average of these two would be an MPC of 1E-10 uCi mL one half of the Cs-137 value Using this approach would increase the priority a factor of 1 000 over the current value of 1E-7 this change was incorporated into the final report Comment What proportion of the 15 500 Ci of mixed fission products that were reportedly released from TA-2 Omega West Reactor in 1967 is accounted for by radioiodines or precursors Is it possible that a large portion of this activity was inappropriately attributed to Argon-41 The LAHDRA team was unable to find any LANL documentation that would permit a comprehensive response to this question The team understands the importance of the comment but finding this information is beyond the scope of the LAHDRA project Several short-lived iodine radionuclides are created during the fission process however their release into the environment will depend on many factors including release mechanisms and any off-gas treatment to release from the stack Hopefully the documentation LAHDRA obtained will permit addressing this comment in the future Comment Did the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility LAMPF ever produce kilocurie quantities of radioiodine isotopes 21-A6 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 To answer this question the LAHDRA team interviewed Mr Mahlon Wilson a retired Industrial Fellow at LANL who was involved with the design and construction of the experimental areas at LAMPF Based on an interview held in March of 2004 Mr Wilson had no knowledge of LANL producing kilocurie quantities of radioiodine isotopes at LAMPF The LAHDRA team also contacted staff at Brookhaven National Laboratory BNL because BNL was the primary production center for DOE’s accelerator-produced isotopes BNL asserted that LANL was never the DOE’s primary production center for accelerator-produced isotopes More information specific to episodic releases of radioiodine from LAMPF can be found in repository #4110 which is a series of letters regarding accidental releases of radioiodine during 1985 The letters provide data that indicate abnormally high releases of 126I occurred in July of 1985 at TA-53 due to a CsCl target rupture however total releases between July 8th and August 26th 1985 indicate a total 126I release of only 24 66 mCi Comment Did Los Alamos scientists bombard uranium and thorium targets as large as 2 000 kilograms at the LAMPF in the 1980s If so were significant quantities of fission products generated and released The LAHDRA team interviewed LANL staff regarding use of uranium and thorium targets as large as 2 000 kilograms at LAMPF LANL staff insisted that uranium or thorium neutron production targets have never been operated at TA-5 experiments conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s however did irradiate uranium and thorium in solid form with the proton beam at low currents for brief periods of time LANL staff noted that the data from these experiments suggest that mCi quantities of 131I may have been produced and emphasized that such experiments did not create Ci quantities of 131I LANL’s responses to questions posed regarding uranium and thorium targets can be found in repository # 8129 Paralleling LANL’s responses retired Industrial Fellow Mr Mahlon Wilson indicated that although targets this large were planned to his knowledge actual experiments only utilized kilogram amounts of thorium and uranium his understanding was based on a personal interview he conducted with Gary Russell a retired LANL scientist Mr Wilson’s comments can be found in repository #8148 Comment Was LANL’s Omega West Reactor active in the production of Mo-99 Tc-99 and radioiodines during the 1980s FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-A7 Although the Omega West Reactor was operating in the 1980s it is unclear whether these isotopes were in production According to a LANL report LA-UR-00-3854 this reactor was shut down in 1992 Comment Was the Solution High Energy Burst Assembly SHEBA critical assembly ever operated at a large number of fissions 1018 without holding tanks to allow decay of the large quantities of radioiodines that would have been produced SHEBA I has been estimated to run at approximately 1016 fissions per run it did not have holding tanks for off-gas It ran from approximately 1980 until 1993 SHEBA II typically operated at around 1017 fissions and had holding tanks for decaying off-gas it never operated without them SHEBA II ran from 1993 until approximately 2004 For more information please refer to the interviews that the LAHDRA team conducted with Charlene Cappiello and Richard Malenfant repository numbers 8160 and 8161 respectively Comment Can the LAHDRA team provide additional information regarding the medical isotope production facility The largest accelerator facility at LANL is housed at TA-53 it is a large accelerator complex originally called the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility LAMPF Today the complex is called the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center and it includes LANL’s medical radioisotope production facility Airborne radionuclide releases from this complex consist of a mixture of short-lived radionuclides These radionuclides are produced when the proton beam from the accelerator is sent through air or when a fraction of the proton beam is lost through interactions with accelerator components These “activated” radionuclides known as mixed activation products MAP are composed of particulates from activated dust in air and gaseous activation products from air constituent gases More information regarding LANL’s medical isotope production can be found in Chapter 6 Comment Why does LAHDRA utilize ICRP 30 methodology which relies on the Reference Man model rather the methodology presented in ICRP publication 71 Originally published between 1979-1988 ICRP 30 “Limits for Intakes of Radionuclides by Workers ” involves calculating dose to workers Published in 1995 ICRP 71 “Age-Dependent 21-A8 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 Doses to Members of the Public from Intake of Radionuclides Part 4 Inhalation Dose Coefficients ” involves age-dependent doses to members of the public from intake of radionuclides ICRP 30 contains a less complex lung model based on the reference man concept which is a surrogate to represent “standard” anatomical parameters and is generally considered to be a more conservative approach than ICRP 71 This model was used simply because a majority of our data came from workers and the LAHDRA team did not know for certain how old these workers were when the doses occurred If a dose reconstruction were to occur for members of the public a more rigorous model incorporating age-adjusted factors would certainly be used to appropriately estimate dose to the public Comment It is not clear how mixed fission product effluents were determined between the years 1961 and 1966 Estimates for airborne releases of MFP are presented for 1961 through 1994 The data for 1961 through 1972 came from the 1979 LANL Final Environmental Impact Statement FEIS documentation see repository #688 Mixed fission product releases at LANL came from reactor operations primarily in TA-2 although for a brief period the UHTREX reactor in TA-52 was also included from hot cell operations with irradiated nuclear materials in TA-3 TA-21 and TA-48 and from waste disposal operations at TA-50 MFP is a generic term however as of 1973 LANL was applying a definition for reporting purposes under which MFP releases were considered as four month-decayed fission products at the time of release The “primary biologically significant nuclides” were therefore 90Sr and 137Cs The data for 1973 forward came from the environmental surveillance reports For more information on estimates of airborne MFP releases see Chapter 17 of the LAHDRA report Comment An out-of-date document may have been used to prioritize mixed activation products MAP We believe the commenter was referring to maximum effluent concentration data used for calculating priority indices for MAP which states that 1 00E-07 µCi mL should have been used instead of 2 00E-07 µCi mL The LAHDRA team agrees that 1 00E-07 µCi mL should be used in accordance with 10 CFR 20 Appendix B and tables and text in the report have been altered to reflect this change FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-A9 Comment Plutonium deposition data from worldwide fallout in the Los Alamos area found within Purtymun’s 1990 paper should be replaced with more recent data since the last draft of this report the Purtymun paper has been discredited The LAHDRA team recognizes that more study is needed While the underlying data may be correct the conclusions reached by Purtyman may not be accurate A careful study of fallout will be needed if this work is continued the text of the report has been updated to reflect this conclusion Comment A generic model should have been used estimate plutonium releases from DP West rather than National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP Report 123 “Screening Models for Releases of Radionuclides to the Atmosphere Surface Water and Ground ” since NCRP 123 was designed to be very conservative The LAHDRA team disagrees with this comment NCRP Report 123 was designed to conservatively estimate releases of radionuclides into the environment and we used it this way in the report It is true that NCRP 123 is by design very conservative but screening estimates are expected to be substantial overestimates for most members of the general population although they should not underestimate the dose to any person If dose reconstruction work were to be performed more precise models would certainly be used Comment Data collected by thermoluminescent dosimeters TLDs should have been more extensively used in this assessment dose information is more important than release information TLDs are small devices that store energy when impacted with external radiation and are designed to measure external dose As discussed in Chapter 14 TLDs were used at LANL as early as 1965 to assess ambient gamma radiation levels and detect potential impacts from radionuclide emissions from the laboratory particularly larger releases associated with accidents or other uncontrolled events A directed search for pre-1970 measurement results was unsuccessful during the project and by 1970 LANL reduced the number of TLD stations to 60 locations based on prior measurement experience and the recognition that for future monitoring one location would provide adequate spatial coverage in some areas that had used two to three TLDs during prior monitoring periods However LANL increased the number of TLD locations again in 1981 and has maintained more than 150 locations since that time Results of these TLD 21-A10 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 measurements can provide key historical dose information however the LAHDRA project was an information gathering project by design If a dose reconstruction were to be conducted in the future TLD data would certainly be utilized Comment Radon and thoron could have affected DP West stack sample results As far back as the 1940s LANL staff were aware of the radon and thoron influence on plutonium air sampling results and minimized their impact by allowing these daughter products to decay before analyzing the filters The LAHDRA team retrieved and archived various letters and reports that discuss the stack sampling methods used by LANL including radon and thoron stack sampling correction methods repository #197 General information on stack monitoring methods can also be found in Chapter 14 of the report Comment Several questions were asked regarding waste burial of the decommissioned components of the Clementine reactor During its exhaustive document search the LAHDRA project team did not discover the disposal location of the mercury used as coolant in this reactor Following the reactor’s decommissioning parts were temporarily stored at Area C and they are believed to be buried there as well The project team did not obtain any other information or leads regarding the disposal of Clementine’s components Comment Concerns were raised regarding strontium releases to the air and discharges to water and it was requested that the LAHDRA team perform a more thorough investigation of strontium use releases discharges accidents and waste disposal practices at LANL The LAHDRA team investigated the use and off-site release of 89Sr and 90Sr Episodic releases of strontium include experiments using high explosives and RaLa at the Bayo Canyon Site TA-10 The explosions resulted in the dispersion of 89Sr and 90Sr in the form of aerosols and debris to the atmosphere and onto the ground The LAHDRA team also investigated waterborne releases of 89 Sr and 90Sr Sources of waterborne 89Sr and 90Sr releases from LANL include DP Site TA-21 and the central liquid waste treatment facility at TA-50 More information on strontium use releases and accidents can be found in Chapters 9 and 17 of the LAHDRA report FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-A11 Comment Concerns were raised regarding polonium releases to the air and discharges to water and it was requested that the LAHDRA team perform a more thorough investigation into polonium use releases discharges accidents and waste disposal practices at LANL The LAHDRA team investigated use and subsequent off-site releases of polonium One of the main uses of polonium at LANL was in atomic bomb initiators At TA-1 polonium was handled in D-Building H-Building and Gamma Building The DP East Site facilities were also used to process polonium and actinium and to produce initiators Additionally polonium was expended in explosive testing at LANL The tests used conventional high explosives as well as uranium beryllium and polonium radiation sources These experiments were conducted primarily to verify nuclear weapon initiator designs and were performed in underground chambers and on surface firing pads More information regarding use and discharge of polonium can be found in Chapter 9 of the LAHDRA report Polonium is also addressed in Chapter 17 in the “Data Completeness” Section - “Significant quantities of polonium were used at LANL however no effluent data have been found for polonium other than gross alpha measurements of buildings and stacks at DP East Site where polonium and other materials were handled and processed Due to polonium’s shorter half-life perhaps thousands of times more Ci of polonium then plutonium were used at LANL In LANL’s early years plutonium was considered the most valuable substance on earth and its use was strictly controlled Once polonium became more readily available however it was not inventoried as closely as plutonium Large amounts were used in nuclear weapon initiator explosive or destructive tests ” Beryllium releases Comment How does beryllium interact with the environment in air soil and water Beryllium dust will settle over land and water It can enter water from industrial waste most beryllium compounds will stick to sediments at the bottom of bodies of water Most beryllium in soil stays bound to soil More information on how beryllium interacts with the environment can be found on the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s website http www atsdr cdc gov tfacts4 html 21-A12 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 Chemicals Releases Comment Why was chromium overlooked by the LAHDRA team The LAHDRA team did not overlook chromium we reported sampling as early as the 1950s in Chapter 14 An accident involving chromium is reported in table 16-1 and we also included it in our analysis of prioritizing chemicals presented in Chapter 19 High explosives Comment Regarding radioactive lanthanum RaLa explosive tests what byproducts are associated with these tests LANL used RaLa in the form of 140La was between 1944 and 1962 as an aid in hydrodynamic tests conducted primarily to perfect the implosion process Oak Ridge National Laboratory initially provided 140La to LANL as a mixture of both 140Ba and 140La Chemists at LANL’s TA-10 chemical process building prepared RaLa sources by separating a solution containing the parent 140 Ba and other impurities such as 89Sr and 90Sr RaLa was then used in implosion testing at Bayo Canyon TA-10 from September 21 1944 through March 6 1962 Preparing RaLa at TA-10 generated liquid and radioactive wastes that were disposed of in subsurface pits and leaching fields at the site Almost two million Ci of 140Ba were handled at TA-10 and TA-35 by the time the RaLa program was terminated in 1963 In addition to the release of 140La about 226 mCi of 90Sr was reportedly released over 80% of the 226 mCi was released in seven shots in 1945 Further information on RaLa separation and hydrodynamic testing can be found in Chapter 9 General Comments Comment The data set reviewed by the LAHDRA team is incomplete with reduced access following the events of 9 11 often being cited Stating in the report that not all historical documents were seen is problematic as far as public perception goes The LAHDRA team agrees that the gathered set of information is neither perfect nor complete Some documents that were generated will never be found because of their loss or destruction others are difficult to read because of their age and repeated photocopying and most of the authors and participants from the periods of highest releases have passed away Moreover as mentioned in the comment for the latter part of the project some documents containing certain categories of sensitive information were withheld from review by LAHDRA analysts Because FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-A13 documents in these categories include types of information not relevant to studies of off-site releases or health effects it does not appear that any information needed for assessment of offsite releases was withheld In spite of the factors mentioned above the LAHDRA team believes that enough information exists to reconstruct public exposures from the most significant of LANL’s releases to a sufficient degree of certainty Comment A very large database developed during the same period as the LAHDRA team’s study of LANL was available to the LAHDRA team but may not have been adequately utilized The importance of the Risk Analysis Communication Evaluation and Reduction RACER database may be significant RACER was developed during the latter part of the LAHDRA project and was not available when LAHDRA developed draft source terms to aide our understanding of what facilities required the greatest attention for records review Our review of RACER for older data specific to plutonium in soil has shown that it is the same data provided by LANL to the LAHDRA analysts several years before RACER was funded and developed RACER does have a great deal of other data in addition to the plutonium in soil data assembled into a convenient database and the LAHDRA team agrees with the comment that RACER should be examined along with all other data available in any continuation of this work to ensure that all applicable data is included in any formal environmental dose reconstruction effort Comment Several requests for extended work and dose reconstruction have been made to answer additional questions and to compare to other DOE facilities We agree that additional research is needed but additional work including a dose reconstruction is outside of the LAHDRA project’s current scope Future work may be undertaken based on the CDC’s recommendation Comment Please take into account the complex terrain of the Pajarito Plateau The current analyses represent simplified screening calculations that do not account for details such as these However the complex terrain is a factor that would likely be taken into consideration in future refined analyses regarding LANL releases Comment Gaps within the historical data should be addressed 21-A14 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 Every attempt was made to locate and identify all available data However data gaps do exist and we have accounted for these data gaps as best as we could Future work may fill in these gaps by utilizing alternative data sources such as soil or autopsy data Comment How is the traditional use of land by Natives integrated into studies and research The integration of traditional land use in the areas surrounding LANL is outside the scope of this project If a dose reconstruction of any sort were to occur traditional land use would certainly be taken into account when determining what types of doses residents may have received Comment Additional investigation into the “Incidents Documented in H Division Reports ” which document chronic problems episodic events fugitive and unmonitored emissions and contamination that had spread onto private property should be performed The LAHDRA project team examined a large number of health-related progress reports published by the Health Group Health Division H Division and successor organizations that carried out programs related to worker and environmental health A complete listing of the documents issued by the H Division and it successor groups that the LAHDRA team located and selected as relevant to off-site releases or health effects is presented as an appendix to Chapter 14 of the LAHDRA report Comment Why wasn’t the full length of the Rio Grande included in all maps within the report Portions of the Rio Grande were included in maps within the report as a point of reference The purpose of these maps and figures were to highlight portions of LANL that were of particular interest In response to this request Figure 2-4 was revised to include a greater portion of the Rio Grande Comment How are exotic and classified radioactive toxic and hazardous materials accounted for in the LAHDRA project All significant chemical and radiological releases that were encountered during our document review process are documented within the report FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-A15 Comment It was requested that a summary of anecdotal stories regarding waste burial dumping and transportation be included in the report The LAHDRA team reviewed waste burial dumping and transport activities at LANL paying considerable attention to the files of Ms M A Rogers a LANL employee who did extensive work in this area When Ms Rogers left the laboratory she was involved in a lawsuit that resulted in LANL publishing her work That work represents the most comprehensive effort available to date of compiling waste activities information including anecdotal stories Beyond that publication repository # 3115-3116 in the LAHDRA database the LAHDRA team also reviewed the legal files associated with Ms Rogers’s case as well as other documents located in the records center generated by Ms Rogers during her tenure at LANL We believe that this collection provides background information useful for any future work in this area It is our understanding that following Ms Rogers’s departure LANL used the data she compiled including anecdotal stories regarding waste burial dumping and transportation in its environmental restoration efforts Beyond examining the Rogers files the LAHDRA team made no effort to compile a separate list of burial dumping and transportation information since these activities would not in most cases necessarily have resulted in exposures to offsite populations When such activities did result in offsite releases such as MDA-g the LAHDRA team requested the relevant documents for inclusion in the project database Comment Why are activities at the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility TA-18 after 1972 not discussed within the draft LAHDRA report These activities are discussed Table 16-1 discusses an incident at TA-18 in 1979 Comment Memos written by Dr Margo Clark regarding LANL stack emissions are not mentioned in the draft LAHDRA report Although the Dr Clark’s memos regarding stack emissions are not specifically mentioned results of her work can be found within Scott Miller's radioactive airborne effluent release summary covering 1943 to 1991 repository #2744 which was one of the primary information sources used to estimate airborne releases of radionuclide effluent as discussed in Chapter 17 21-A16 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 Comment The LAHDRA team needs to address the reliability of data and how it should be evaluated and weighed To some extent reliability was certainly considered especially when data were relied upon for screening calculations However the purpose of the LAHDRA project was to locate and identify relevant release data and information from historical LANL documents If future work were to be executed data would be scrutinized in much more detail to ensure its reliability and accuracy Comment An algebraic error was discovered in 2005 regarding the initial soil assessment of plutonium old data are reported and no reference to error or a revised assessment is made in the draft LAHDRA report The LAHDRA team acknowledged the error that was due to an inverted constant in interim reports The error has been corrected in the final report Comment The report claims gradual reduction of soil concentrations of plutonium at one specific location over time LANL has not reported any significant reduction and there is no statistically significant decrease The LAHDRA team studied ten years of data at one site after a major plutonium release by LANL this ten year period showed a decline in concentration However LANL staff found that inclusion of more data obscured this trend as such this discussion has been removed from Chapter 17 Comment More should have been reported in the draft report regarding the public's role in the project The LAHDRA team agrees with this comment and Chapter 21 has been expanded to include additional information regarding the public’s involvement in the project Comment The LAHDRA team did not evaluate air surveillance monitoring data from a number of stations placed about the lab and community FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-A17 AIRNET is a collective array of LANL and regional air monitoring stations this system is mentioned several times throughout the report Comment The amount of uncertainty associated with geometric standard deviations is misrepresented in Chapter 17 and the executive summary of the draft report regarding plutonium air releases estimated via back-calculation from soil concentrations 1 2 and 1 3 are not representative of high uncertainty and 5 and 9 are not representative of low uncertainty We agree that the stated uncertainty associated with these geometric standard deviations was incorrect These discussions have been removed from both Chapter 17 and the executive summary in the final LAHDRA report Comment There were comments requesting minor clarifications typographical fixes reference adjustments and inappropriate language modification The LAHDRA report has been thoroughly reviewed for grammatical errors sentence structure and consistency between term and acronym use Changes were made throughout the report 21-A18 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 Appendix 21-B Previous Dose Reconstruction Projects of AEC DOE sites 1 Fernald Dosimetry Reconstruction Project The Fernald Feed Materials Production Center in Ohio was a DOE facility that was part of the United States nuclear weapons production complex from 1951 to 1988 During that period the facility processed uranium recycled from nuclear production into various uranium products releasing radioactive material onto the site during the process In 1990 CDC initiated the Fernald Dosimetry Reconstruction Project in order to examine the degree to which the community may have been affected by that release Timeline of Key Events • 1988-1990 o CDC was contacted by the United States Congress regarding a potential epidemiologic study in surrounding area o • CDC determined that a dose reconstruction study was a necessary first step 1990-1998 o CDC’s Fernald Dosimetry Reconstruction Project was conducted o Draft released to public in August 1996 o Final report issued in December 1998 For more information http www cdc gov nceh radiation brochure profile_fernald htm 2 Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project HEDR The Hanford nuclear site was built during the 1940s in southeastern Washington and served as a production facility for plutonium used in nuclear weapons Large amounts of radioactive Iodine-131 and other radioactive material were released into the air between 1944 and 1957 prompting congress to initiate the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study The Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction HEDR project was established in support of this study in order to estimate the radiation dose delivered to the thyroid glands of study participants Timeline of Key Events • 1988 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-B1 o • Congressional mandate for Hanford Thyroid Disease Study 1990s o CDC-initiated peer review of study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 1997 and 1999 • 2002 o CDC and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center released the Final Report in June 2002 For more information http www cdc gov nceh radiation brochure profile_hanford htm 3 Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory INEEL Dose Reconstruction Project The INEEL is located in southeastern Idaho and was used by the federal government as a gunnery test rang during the 1940s In 1949 the facility was designated as the National Reactor Testing Station by the Atomic Energy Commission after which it was used to develop and test nuclear reactors and other related facilities Radioactive waste storage and disposal commenced in 1954 and in subsequent years contaminants were released into the environment In 1992 the CDC was asked to conduct a dose reconstruction in order to determine the level of chemical releases that took place at INEEL as well as any potential health effects to the surrounding community Timeline of Key Events • 1992 o • CDC asked to perform dose reconstruction 2004 o CDC completed its two-phase analysis with final results being presented in August 2004 For more information http www cdc gov nceh radiation brochure profile_ineel htm 4 Savannah River Site Dose Reconstruction Project The Savannah River Site SRS located in South Carolina was constructed during the early 1950s to produce materials used to fabricate nuclear weapons especially tritium and plutonium-239 SRS operated from 1954 to 1992 at which point the CDC began a study to determine whether the health of people who lived near the site was affected by past release of chemicals and radioactive materials 21-B2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 Timeline of Key Events • 1992 o • CDC initiated an environmental dose reconstruction study at SRS 1995 o Comprehensive data assessment and retrieval phase of project completed in June 1995 o In October 1995 began estimating releases of the most significant radionuclides and chemicals from various facilities • 2001 o • Final results of estimated releases produced following peer review 2006 o Conclusions and recommendations based on dose reconstruction released in August 2006 For more information http www cdc gov nceh radiation brochure profile_savannah htm 5 Oak Ridge Dose Reconstruction Project A large portion of the activities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been researching and developing chemical technologies for separating materials from irradiated nuclear fuels and liquid wastes From late 1994 to early 1999 researchers analyzed past releases of radioactive iodine mercury and polychlorinated-biphenyls to the Oak Ridge Reservation and Clinch River in Tennessee that took place as a result of the facility’s activities The project was implemented in order to estimate the previous doses and potential health risks incurred by individuals living near the facility Timeline of Key Events • 1993 o • 1994 o • Results of dose reconstruction feasibility study released Oak Ridge Reconstruction Project begins 1999 o Reports issued regarding historical releases of chemicals and dose reconstruction efforts o Conclusion of Oak Ridge Dose Reconstruction project FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 21-B3 For more information http www cdc gov niosh ocas pdfs tbd k254-r1 pdf 6 Rocky Flats Radiation Dose Reconstruction The Rocky Flats Plant located in Colorado was built in 1951 produced plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons and processed weapons for plutonium recovery Following a 1989 agreement between DOE and the state of Colorado the Colorado Department of Health and Environment began a study to evaluate the doses received and potential health impacts to nearby residents who may have been exposed to chemicals previously released from the plant The project consisted of an extensive review of previous operations and chemical releases from the plant as well as a dose reconstruction Timeline of Key Events • 1991 o • Work on Rocky Flats project begins 1999 o Final results of the Rocky Flats study released in September 1999 For more information http www cdc gov niosh ocas rocky html 21-B4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Findings of the LAHDRA Project The LAHDRA project has significantly expanded the quantity of original publicly available documents relating to past LANL operations LANL personnel activities within New Mexico and potential public health effects from past environmental releases The body of information gathered by LAHDRA document analysts is neither perfect nor complete and the project team was only able to scratch the surface in terms of carefully analyzing its contents Some documents generated at LANL will never be found because of they have been lost or destroyed others are difficult or impossible to read because of their age and repeated photocopying and many of the authors and participants from the periods of highest releases have passed away Yet in spite of these factors the members of the LAHDRA study team believe that enough information exists to reconstruct public exposures from the most significant of LANL’s releases to a degree of certainty sufficient to allow health professionals to judge if significant elevations of health effects should be expected or measurable For the latter part of the project some documents containing certain categories of sensitive information were withheld from review by LAHDRA analysts Because documents in these categories included nuclear weapon design details foreign intelligence and other types of information that are truly not relevant to studies of off-site releases or health effects it does not appear that any information needed for dose reconstruction was withheld This conclusion was reached thanks in part to the existence of an appeal process by which a federal CDC employee could review withheld documents to verify that they contained no needed information And while text was redacted from many selected documents prior to public release LAHDRA analysts had access to original and redacted copies and could verify that the redacted text did not contain information needed for dose reconstruction The LAHDRA project has been conducted with a high level of transparency so that interested parties could review documents selected by team members perform their own assessments if they so chose and see if they reach the same conclusions Significant effort was directed to making DocSleuth and the LAHDRA collection of over 8 000 documents available to all interested parties in the most readily usable fashion From the beginning of the project search plans were shared at public meetings and progress reports highlighted significant milestones accomplishments and challenges Preliminary prioritization assessments were openly shared even though the possibility existed that information obtained later might prompt revisions of approaches assumptions or conclusions Members of the public activist groups and LANL personnel were encouraged to comment on the search plans draft work products and make FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 22 22-1 recommendations for refinement or follow-up work The quality and utility of the products of the LAHDRA project has been enhanced by this interaction with scientists and members of the public The information gathered by the LAHDRA team indicates that airborne releases to the environment from LANL operations were significantly greater than has been officially reported or published to the scientific community to date The preliminary prioritization steps that have been performed within the LAHDRA project while quite simple have yielded information regarding the relative importance of past releases of airborne radionuclides waterborne radionuclides and chemicals In general the LAHDRA team concluded that early releases were more important 1940s-1960s than those that followed and that plutonium was the most important radionuclide in those early years Airborne activation products from accelerator operations were most important after the late-1970s and plutonium was the most important constituent for waterborne releases from the mid-1940s on Among chemicals organic solvents as a class were likely most important followed by TNT and uranium as a heavy metal While prioritization analyses have provided relative rankings of contaminants within categories the preliminary analyses described herein provided no estimates of concentrations to which members of the public were exposed resulting intakes or doses to members of the public that could be converted to estimated health risks or compared to toxicologic benchmarks or decision criteria Priority Indices for radionuclide releases are based on dilution volumes required to be in compliance with maximum allowable effluent concentrations They do not reflect how uptake factors vary between radionuclides or the decay that occurs between release point and the location of potential public exposure And because of the scarcity of details regarding chemical uses and releases before the 1970s the preliminary ranking process used for toxic chemicals did not incorporate estimates of the fractions of chemical quantities that were on-hand available for release to the environment or likely released As part of it s effort to prioritize past releases from LANL the project team was able to advance to screening-level analyses of potential public exposures from airborne releases of plutonium beryllium tritium and uranium While those analyses yielded information relevant to evaluating the potential health significance of the four materials of interest it is important to keep in mind that screening results are not meant to represent actual doses received by members of the public or concentrations to which residents might have been exposed Such results are instead meant to be used to help decide if further investigation of identified releases are warranted LAHDRA has been almost exclusively an information gathering effort To complete historical exposure estimates to members of the public for any of the releases identified and prioritized by the LAHDRA 22-2 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 22 team complete pathways of human exposure must be delineated environmental fate and transport must be characterized and doses and subsequent health risks to groups who were exposed must be calculated Methods for performing these steps have been developed and used at numerous other atomic weapons complex sites but they would need added dimensions in order to properly reflect the effects of LANL’s complex surrounding terrain they would need to take into account for example the transport of waterborne releases that often soak into dry stream beds before they travel very far transported to a large degree by the occasional high flow events that wash contaminants toward the Rio Grande LAHDRA analysts have identified a number of historical operations that might be particularly important in terms of off-site exposures In addition critical information gaps have been identified in several areas Early airborne releases of plutonium Plutonium was processed in crude facilities in DBuilding during World War II and many roof-top vents were unfiltered and unmonitored After DP West Site took over plutonium production late in 1945 some releases were filtered but poor monitoring practices caused releases to be underestimated Documents indicate that DP West releases for 1948-1955 alone were over 10-times the total reported by LANL for operations before 1973 Screening-level assessments of public exposures from plutonium releases in 1949 and 1959 indicate that airborne plutonium releases warrant further evaluation Airborne beryllium releases LANL used significant quantities of beryllium before its health hazards were fully appreciated and it was processed very close to residential areas Preliminary screening indicated that early beryllium processing could have resulted in concentrations in residential areas that exceeded worker exposure limits the USEPA reference concentration and the National Emission Standard for beryllium Public exposures from the Trinity test Residents of New Mexico were not warned of the 1945 Trinity blast informed of any health hazards afterward or evacuated at any point before during or after the test Exposure rates in public areas near the world’s first nuclear explosion were measured at levels 10 000-times higher than currently allowed Residents reported that fallout “snowed down” for days after the blast Most residents had dairy cows and most collected rain water off their roofs for drinking All assessments of doses from the Trinity test issued to date have been incomplete in that they have not addressed internal doses received after intakes of radioactivity through inhaling or consuming contaminated water or food Airborne uranium releases LANL has used uranium since its beginnings in enrichments ranging from depleted to highly enriched It has been machined and fabricated into weapon and FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 22 22-3 reactor components and large quantities have been expended in explosive testing Operational airborne uranium releases warrant further investigation based on the preliminary screening calculations we performed for TA-3 and TA-21 Tritium releases before 1967 LANL used tritium as early as 1944 and received it in increasing quantities in the decades that followed for use at ten or more different Lab areas In spite of this documented use LANL compilations of effluent data include no tritium releases before 1967 LAHDRA team members located scattered documents describing numerous episodic releases within the 22-year period of tritium usage for which official reports of LANL releases include no data for it These documents call into question the release estimates reported by LANL for 1967 onward and indicate that releases before 1967 constitute a data gap that must be addressed if the health significance of LANL tritium releases is to be correctly evaluated Based upon the information gathered and the LAHDRA projects findings the CDC and other interested parties will judge not only if the available information indicates that past releases of any materials could have been so sufficiently high that a detailed investigation of past releases and public exposures is warranted but also if sufficient information exists to support detailed investigation if the requisite funding could be made available Potential further investigations that could be undertaken for one or more high priority contaminants could range from screening level assessments of potential public exposures to more rigorous exposure assessments similar to those known as dose reconstructions that have been conducted for other MED AEC DOE sites Unlike the prioritization analyses performed to date these assessments would likely incorporate environmental transport modeling exposure pathway analysis and would reflect the uncertainties and variability associated with input data assumptions and models so that the ranges of exposures received by likely members of the public could be specified at a stated level of confidence Assessments of this type are often performed in an iterative fashion with uncertainty analyses focusing research on assessment components that contribute most to the overall uncertainty of results Further refinement can be directed to those elements and the process can be repeated until the uncertainty of results either becomes acceptable or cannot be further reduced 22-4 FINAL REPORT OF CDC’S LAHDRA PROJECT – Chapter 22