Atmospheric dispersion of ammonia accidentally released from the 242-A Evaporator, Hanford Site, Richland, Washington

Two errors have been identified in the authorization basis for the 242-A Evaporator at the Hanford Site. These errors, which appear in the 242-A Evaporator/Crystallizer Final Safety Analysis Report analysis of ammonia gas concentrations accidentally released from the 242-A Evaporator, are: (1) the vessel ventilation system flow rate used in the previous calculations is a factor of ten higher than the actual flow rate, and (2) the previous calculations did not account for the ammonia source term reduction that would occur via condensation of ammonia vapors, which will remove a large fraction of the ammonia from the exhaust gas stream. The purpose of this document is to correct these errors and recalculate the maximum ground-level concentrations of ammonia released to the environment as a result of potential errors in blending Evaporator feed. The errors offset each other somewhat, so it is unlikely that the 242-A Evaporator has operated outside its current authorization basis. However, the errors must be corrected and the results incorporated into a revision of the 242-A Evaporator/Crystallizer Safety Analysis Report, WHC-SD-WM-SAR-023. An EPA-approved atmospheric dispersion model, SCREEN3, was used to recalculate the maximum ground-level concentrations of ammonia that would be released from the 242-A Evaporator as a result of a feed-blending error. The results of the re-analysis of the 242-A Evaporator`s ammonia release scenario are as follows. The onsite receptor 100 m away from the release point (242-A vessel vent stack) is projected to be exposed to a maximum ground-level concentration of ammonia of 8.3 ppm. The maximally-exposed offsite receptor, located at the nearest Hanford Site boundary 16 km away from the 242-A vessel vent stack, will be exposed to a maximum ground-level concentration of 0.11 ppm ammonia