Ambient air sampling for radioactive air contaminants at Los Alamos National Laboratory: A large research and development facility

This paper describes the ambient air sampling program for collection, analysis, and reporting of radioactive air contaminants in and around Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Particulate matter and water vapor are sampled continuously at more than 50 sites. These samples are collected every two weeks and then analyzed for tritium, and gross alpha, gross beta, and gamma ray radiation. The alpha, beta, and gamma measurements are used to detect unexpected radionuclide releases. Quarterly composites are analyzed for isotopes of uranium ({sup 234}U, {sup 235}U, {sup 238}U), plutonium ({sup 238}Pu, {sup 239/249}Pu), and americium ({sup 241}Am). All of the data is stored in a relational database with hard copies as the official records. Data used to determine environmental concentrations are validated and verified before being used in any calculations. This evaluation demonstrates that the sampling and analysis process can detect tritium, uranium, plutonium, and americium at levels much less than one percent of the public dose limit of 10 millirems. The isotopic results also indicate that, except for tritium, off-site concentrations of radionuclides potentially released from LANL are similar to typical background measurements