Re[2]: Road kill sampling method: -Reply

[jeff.king@srs.gov]

     As I understand it, and I'm going to hedge a bit since the Facility in 
     question is no longer my direct area of cognizance, this would be 
     200,000 Disintegrations per minute Beta-Gamma as read off of a 
     hand-held count rate meter with the probe in close proximity (~1 cm) 
     to the surface.  Typically these units would be reported as per a 
     given area, but this gets left off fairly often in common practice 
     around here (100 cm^2 is a good assumption).  Can't tell you what 
     instrument was used, since I wasn't there at the time.  The retention 
     basin the beastie was found in collects run-off from the Tank Farms on 
     site and could thus theoretically contain just about any nuclide with 
     a half-life of about a year or more.  In general, Cs-137 and Sr-90 are 
     the main actors, though others show up now and then.
     
     Had the alligator been found outside of a Radiological Buffer Area 
     (the retention basin is posted as a Contamination Area and the 
     surrounding area is an RBA), it would most likely have been a 
     reportable event per DOE's Occurrence Reporting and Processing System.
     
     Hope this helps,
     Jeff King
     US DOE Facility Representative
     Savannah River Operations Office


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Road kill sampling method: -Reply
Author:  rkathren@tricity.wsu.edu at Mailhub
Date:    4/17/98 8:28 PM


Mr. King --
     
So that I and perhaps others can better understand your posting, could you 
please explain what "  probing about 200,000 dpm b/g" means.  I am not 
familiar with the units, and would be curious as to exactly what 'probing' 
means in the context you used, as well what instrument(s) was (were) used 
and what the nuclides were.
     
Many thanx.
     
Ron Kathren
     
     
   At 02:35 PM 4/17/98 -0500, jeff.king@srs.gov wrote:
>
>     This is not exactly my area of expertise here on Site, but my wife did 
>     work with the deer control people as a temp when she first moved into 
>     the area.  Your assessment of the lack of sport would not be terribly 
>     off-target.
>
>     I believe, but am not sure, that last year was the first year we ever 
>     found a deer high enough above background that it could not be
>     released to the folks who kilt it.  I suppose there might be an ORPS 
>     report running around on this, but I'm not sure.
>
>     On a different note, there is an alligator that periodically makes its 
>     way into one of our retention basins.  Yesterday a subcontractor was
>     working on sediment removal when he showed back up.  Animal control 
>     captured him and then had to "put him to sleep" as he was probing
>     about 200,000 dpm b/g.
>
>     Just some of the joys of working in an outdoor nuclear facility. 
>
>     Jeff King
>     DOE Facility Representative
>     Savannah River Operations Office 
>
>
>______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
>Subject: Road kill sampling method: -Reply 
>Author:  MFORD@pantex.com at Mailhub 
>Date:    4/13/98 11:47 AM
>
>
>Mark,
>
>The Savannah River Site holds (or used to hold) an annual deer 
>hunt (more like a harvest) to cull the deer population to a
>sustainable size.  There's not much sport to it... really just a blast 
>fest, but the desired result is achieved.  A few feral hogs got in the 
>way also.
>
>The deer are field-dressed on site and monitored for Cs-137 content 
>before being released.  I believe SRS's environmental sampling 
>group may also participate in this activity.
>
>Interestingly enough, it was found that Cs-137 concentrations were 
>relatively constant throughout most of the deer populations in the 
>Southeast and largely attributable to fallout.  Not SRS operations. 
>
>Perhaps an SRS RADSAFEr could provide a more recent picture. 
>My opinions only.
>v/r
>Michael
>*************************
>Michael S. Ford, CHP
>Texas Radiation Advisory Board
>Address:
>Radiation Safety Department
>Battelle Pantex
>Amarillo, TX
>806.477.5727 phone
>806.477.4198 fax
>mford@pantex.com
>*************************
>
>