NTIS Price Codes Microfiche A01Printed Copy " ' SUMMARY Ground-water discharges to the Columbia River are evaluated by the Hanford Environmental Surveillance and Ground-~/ater Surveillance Programs via monitoring of the Columbia River and Hanford ground water, respectively. Both programs have concluded that Hanford ground water has not adversely affected Columbia River water quality downstream from the Hanford Site, nor has it affected the public through use of the river as a source of municipal drinking water, for irrigation of foodstuffs, or for fishing and other forms of recreation.This report presents the results of a study undertaken to supplement the efforts of the above mentioned programs by investigating the general characteristics of ground water entering the Columbia River from the Hanford Site. Specific objectives of the exploratory investigation were to identify general shoreline areas where Hanford-related materials were entering the river via ground-water seepage, and to evaluate qualitatively the physical characteristics and relative magnitudes of those discharges.The study was conducted in two sequential phases between October 1982 and September 1983. Phase 1 involved visual inspection of approximately 41 miles of Columbia River shoreline, within the Hanford Site, for indications of ground-water seepage. A.s a result of that inspection, 115 "springs" suspected of discharging ground water were observed and recorded. These springs were accessible only during the periods of low water level caused by reductions in Columbia River discharge rates from Priest Rapids Dam.During Phase 2, water samples were collected from a distribution of these springs and analyzed for Hanford-related materials known to be present in the ground water. The specific materials used as ground-water indicators for the majority of samples were tritium and nitrate (as N03} due to their predominance in much of the Hanford ground water. Uranium analyses were used in place of tritium for samples collected in the vicinity of the 300 Area where uranium is a primary ground-water constituent. The magnitude vii and distribution of concentrations measured in the spring samples were consistent with concentrations of these materials measured in ground water near the sampled spring locations.Water samples were also collected from the Columbia River to investi~ gate the localized effects of ground-water discharges occurring above and below river level. These samples were collected within 2 to 4 m of the Hanford shoreline and analyzed for tritiumi nitrate, and uranium. Elevated concentrations were measured in river samples collected near areas where ground-water and spring concentrations were elevated. All concentrations were well below applicable DOE Concentration Guides. viii

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The Hanford Dose Overview Program is a Hanford site-wide service administered by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The program was established at the request the DOE Richland Operations Office (DOE-RL) to provide a method of assuring the consistency of Hanford-related environmental dose assessments. This document serves as a guide to the Hanford contractors for obtaining or performing Hanford-related environmental dose calculations. It is structured in two parts. The first section provides a background description of the Hanford Dose Overview Program, its objectives, scope, and review services. The second section is a description and listing of the calculations, models, and data standardized for use at Hanford. Because environmental dose estimation techniques are state-of-the-art and are continually evolving, the data and standard methods presented herein will require periodic revision. This document is scheduled to be updated annually, but actual changes to the program will be made more frequently if required. For this reason, PNL's Environmental Evaluations Section should be contacted before any Hanford-related environmental dose calculation is performed.

In 1957, Hanford became the first major U.S. nuclear facility to calculate and report potential radiation doses to people living nearby. Th~ assessment of offsite doses began in 1957 when all of the information necessary to make such an assessment first became available. This document summarizes these radiation doses as reported each year from 1957 through 1984.Plutonium facilities at Hanford began operating in late 1944, and together with the uranium program at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, began to produce materials to be used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. With this historical change, a new phase developed in the philosophy of radiation protection. In 1946, the National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP) and later the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) were reestablished and shifted their emphasis from X-rays and radium to include radiation protection for radiation workers and for members of the public living in the vicinity of nuclear-energy facilities. The development of sophisticated radiation dt!tection equipment and the results frou1 research and experience gained from working with radiuactivt! materials made it possible in 1957 to estimate radiation doses to members of th~:: public living near Hanford.This document does not attempt to assess the potential doses to the offsite public resulting from Hanford operations before 1957. There are several reasons why an accurate assessment using the historical records would be extremely difficult to make.• Data collected before 1957 were not directed toward dose assessment, and the measurements of radioactive materials in the environrn~::nt were made with simple state-of-the-art instruments.• The historical record is incomplete because of the scheduled routine destruction of some documents.• Historical data related to effluent releases are inconsistent in many cases because different working groups at Hanford made estimates for different purposes.• Accurate information on the dietary habits and population distribution of early local residents is not known.iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors gratefully acknowledge the extensive editorial assiStdnce of K. R. Hanson and the word processing efforts of A. Jewell during the preparation of this report. We also dfe grateful for the many helpful suggestions made by numerous PNL and Hanford-contractor peer reviewers. reports. These evaluations included estimates of potential radiation exposure to members of the public, either in terms of percentages of the then permissible 1 imits or in terms uf radiation dose. The evaluations of potential radiation dose provided i11 these annual reports hctve been rt:!viewed and are discussed in this report. The estimated potential radiation doses to maximally exposed individuals from each year of Hanford operations, as given in the annual reports, are summarized in a series of tables and figures. The applicable standard for radiation dose to an individual for whom the maximum exposure was estimated is also shown on each table and figure. To the extent they were av...

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