Industrial safety and applied health physics. Annual report, 1979

In connection with personnel monitoring, there were no external or internal exposures to personnel which exceeded the standards for radiation protection as defined in DOE Manual Chapter 0524. Only 55 employees received whole-body dose equivalent of one rem or greater. The highest whole-body dose equivalent to an employee was 2.8 rem. The highest internal exposure was less than one-half of a maximum permissible dose for any calendar quarter. During 1979, 57 portable health physics instruments were added to the inventory and 75 retired. The total number in service on January 1, 1979, was 977. With regards to environmental monitoring, there were no releases of gaseous waste from the Laboratory which were of a level that required an incident report to DOE. There were no releases of liquid radioactive waste from the Laboratory which were of a level that required an incident report to DOE. Soil samples were collected at all perimeter and remote monitoring stations and analyzed for eleven radionuclides including plutonium and uranium. Plutonium-239 content ranged from 0.01 to 0.06 pCi/g, and the uranium-235 content ranged from 0.01 to 0.05 pCi/g. Grass samples were collected at all perimeter and remote monitoring stations and analyzed for twelve radionuclides including plutonium and uranium. Plutonium-239 content ranged from 0.001 to 0.010 pCi/g, and uranium-235 content ranged from 0.001 to 0.010 pCi/g. Two radiation incidents involving radioactive materials were recorded during 1979. This compares with 14 incidents in 1978. (ERB