Radiological Remediation at the Department of Energy's Energy Technology Engineering Center
P.D. Rutherford; M.E. Lee; R.A. Marshall; E.R. McGinnis; B.D. Sujata; and D.M. Trippeda (Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power, The Boeing Company)
The Rocketdyne Division of The Boeing Company currently owns and operates the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, California. Research and development of space-based and land-based nuclear power systems was conducted by Atomics International (AI) in Area IV of SSFL for the Atomic Energy Commission, and later the Department of Energy, from 1955 to 1989. A portion of Area IV was known as the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC). AI designed, developed and tested the Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) reactors in the 1950s and 1960s. Since 1989, Rocketdyne has performed decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of buildings and environmental remediation of land. The latest facility to be decommissioned housed the SNAP 8 Developmental Reactor (S8DR). This paper describes the demolition, excavation and radiological release process employed for the S8DR facility. Implementation of the ALARA process in the remediation of all buildings and land at ETEC has been effective in removing residual contamination to levels well below federal and state approved cleanup standards. Cleanup standards, approved by the DOE and the California Department of Health Services are based on DOE Order 5400.5 (Regulatory Guide 1.86) surface contamination limits and soil concentration limits based on a TEDE of 15 mrem/y to a residential user. Post remedial measurements and sampling are used to calculate individual and collective doses for a variety of exposure scenarios including workers occupying a released building, an on-site resident, disposal of building debris and soil to landfills, and recycling scenarios. All calculated doses are small compared to dose limits. This work was funded by the Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC03-99SF21530. We acknowledge the assistance and support of Michael Lopez of DOE's Oakland Operations Office.
