Final report on the radiological surveys of designated DX firing sites at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Abstract

CHEMRAD was contracted by Los Alamos National Laboratory to perform USRADS{reg_sign} (UltraSonic Ranging And Data System) radiation scanning surveys at designated DX Sites at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The primary purpose of these scanning surveys was to identify the presence of Depleted Uranium (D-38) resulting from activities at the DX Firing Sites. This effort was conducted to update the most recent surveys of these areas. This current effort was initiated with site orientation on August 12, 1996. Surveys were completed in the field on September 4, 1996. This Executive Summary briefly presents the major findings of this work. The detail survey results are presented in the balance of this report and are organized by Technical Area and Site number in section 2. This organization is not in chronological order. USRADS and the related survey methods are described in section 3. Quality Control issues are addressed in section 4. Surveys were conducted with an array of radiation detectors either mounted on a backpack frame for man-carried use (Manual mode) or on a tricycle cart (RadCart mode). The array included radiation detectors for gamma and beta surface near surface contamination as well as dose rate at 1 meter above grade. The radiation detectors were interfaced directly to an USRADS 2100 Data Pack.