ACCELERATED SITE TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYMENT COST AND PERFORMANCE REPORT COMPARABILITY OF ISOCS INSTRUMENT IN RADIONUCLIDE CHARACTERICATION AT BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY

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This report describes a DOE Accelerated Site Technology Deployment project being conducted at Brookhaven National Laboratory to deploy innovative, radiological, in situ analytical techniques. The technologies are being deployed in support of efforts to characterize the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor (BGRR) facility, which is currently undergoing decontamination and decommissioning. This report focuses on the deployment of the Canberra Industries In Situ Object Counting System (ISOCS) and assesses its data comparability to baseline methods of sampling and laboratory analysis. The battery-operated, field deployable gamma spectrometer provides traditional spectra of counts as a function of gamma energy. The spectra are then converted to radionuclide concentration by applying innovative efficiency calculations using monte carlo statistical methods and pre-defined geometry templates in the analysis software. Measurement of gamma emitting radionuclides has been accomplished during characterization of several BGRR components including the Pile Fan Sump, Above Ground Ducts, contaminated cooling fans, and graphite pile internals. Cs-137 is the predominant gamma-emitting radionuclide identified, with smaller quantities of Co-60 and Am-241 detected. The Project used the Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual guidance and the Data Quality Objectives process to provide direction for survey planning and data quality assessment. Analytical results have been used to calculate data quality indicators (DQI) for the ISOCS measurements. Among the DQIs assessed in the report are sensitivity, accuracy, precision, bias, and minimum detectable concentration. The assessment of the in situ data quality using the DQIs demonstrates that the ISOCS data quality can be comparable to definitive level laboratory analysis when the field instrument is supported by an appropriate Quality Assurance Project Plan. A discussion of the results obtained by ISOCS analysis of objects that could not be analyzed readily by conventional methods demonstrates a powerful application of the instrument. In conclusion, a comparison of costs associated with the analysis on the ISOCS instrument to the costs of conventional sampling and laboratory analysis is presented.