Radiological Environment: Radioactive Contamination/Material Worldwide

Published by: jack 2010-03-17

What are the known areas and types of radiological contamination and potential sources of radioactive material (RAM) worldwide? Potential sources of RAM include but are not limited to reactors, weapons generating plants, reprocessing plants, spent fuel repositories, and industrial repackaging facilities.

Also, do you know if radiological weapons generating plants are included in your answer? I am particularly interested in the weapons part of my question.

lesotter-ga, Here's some additional information on nuclear sites (both power plants, and contaminated sites) that I trust will be useful for you in your project: http://www.prop1.org/prop1/radiated/drh.htm Nuclear Radiation Hazards USA [map] http://www.prop1.org/prop1/radiated/states.htm [radiation hazard sites listed by state] ========== http://www.insc.anl.gov/pwrmaps/ [nuclear power plants -- good international map collection] ========== http://www.eh.doe.gov/beta/eren/advocacy/faclist/showfacility.cfm [This resource lists sites in the US contaminated by nuclear materials as well as chemical substances involving the US weapons/energy programs -- it seems it would be a terrific resource not only for this current question, but for your other question involving non-nuclear hazards as well] A typical record looks like this: ===== Ashland Oil Also Known As: Ashland #1 Also Known As: Ashland #2 Also Known As: Ashland Oil Company Also Known As: Haist Property Also Known As: E. Haist and co owners State: New York Location: Tonawanda Time Period: AWE 1944-1960; 1974-1982 Facility Type: Atomic Weapons Employer Facility Description: In August 1944, the Manhattan Engineer District purchased the Ashland #1 property, formerly known as the Haist Property, for use as a disposal site for approximately 7,250 metric tons (8,000 tons) of uranium ore tailings and concentrate refining residues generated at the nearby Linde site. When the uranium residues were transported to the Ashland #1 site, they were spread over two-thirds of the property to estimated depths of 0.3 to 1.5 meters (one to five feet). In 1960, the Atomic Energy Commission determined that the levels of residual radioactivity at Ashland #1 site were below then current criteria and released the land as surplus. The Ashland Oil Company eventually acquired the property . From 1957 to 1982, the Ashland Oil Company used a portion of the Ashland #2 site as a landfill for disposal of general plant refuse and industrial and chemical wastes and materials. Between 1974 and 1982, Ashland Oil transported from the Ashland #1 site an unknown quantity of soil mixed with radioactive residues to the Ashland #2 landfill. Although the Ashland Oil facility was designated for the Formerly Utilized Site Remediation Action Program (FUSRAP) in 1984, no actual remediation under this program occurred prior to its transfer to the Army Corp. ===== Search for keyword "radioactive" turns up 48 results -- other terms [e.g. "uranium" ] produce different lists. It is also possible to see the full list of all 366 facilities, which include both nucler and non-nuclear sites. Again, I hope these help you in your efforts. As for your other question, I have to be honest -- it just seems an overwhelming task to me to identify all (or even very many) of the types of sites you asked about. I imagine there are literally millions of such facilities around the world. However, some of the resources I already identified -- especially the DOE link above -- should at least be a way to get started. By the way, the questions posted here are not "assigned" to a particular researcher -- all the Google Answers researchers can see all the questions posted, and any one of the researchers that feels they can answer the question can then "lock" it, and work on an answer. It may be the case that the other researchers felt as I do about your new question -- that it is so broad in scope as to be extremely difficult to answer. Best of luck with your work... pafalafa-ga

Hello lesotter-ga, I have to start with a story. Years ago, I was attending a professional meeting in Paris that was taking place in the same building that housed the International Atomic Energy Agency. As I checked in at security, they mistook me for a dignatary who was late for a presentation he was to give at the IAEA. I was quickly ushered into the VIP elevator and up to the grand conference space of the IAEA, where I was hastily mis-introduced and expected to give a talk on the Russian radionuclide situation. I never knew who was more chagrined, them or me. But still, the IAEA holds a special place in my heart. It also happens to be the agency that collates information from more than 100 countries around the world in terms of nuclear facilities that could pose a radiation hazard at some time, and thus need special oversight. So, I turned to the IAEA website as my first source of information and -- with a bit of searching -- came up with this: http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Reports/Anrep2003/annex_tables.pdf This is a link to the Annex tables in the IAEA 2003 annual report. In particular, Table A24 is titled: "Facilities under Agency safeguards or containing safeguarded material on 31 December 2003". This table is the motherlode. It lists more than 1,000 facilities around the world , grouped by country and by the type of facility. The list begins with nuclear power reactors, and begins with Argentina: Atucha Nuclear Power Plant in Lima Embalse Nuclear Power Plant in Embalse and so on. Note that many cities have multiple listings, usually indicating multiple facilities at a single site. For instance, seven distinct nuclear power plants are listed for Kashiwazaki-shi, Niigata-ken, Japan. ========== As comprehensive as this report is, there are some glaring omissions. For the most part, facilities in the US and Russia are not listed in this report (I believe that's because the nuclear weapons superpowers are handled in a different framework by the IAEA). So, a bit of fishing around is needed to fill in the missing information. Russian facilities can be found at other IAEA sites: http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/cnpp2003/CNPP_Webpage/PDF/2002/Documents/Documents/Russian%20Federation%202002.pdf Information on nuclear facilities in Russia can be found in Figure 3, which shows a map of Russian nuclear power plants, while this link: http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Meetings/2001/MSIMorozov-Session4.pdf Safety Status Safety Status of Russian Nuclear Research Facilities of Russian Nuclear Research Facilities provides a list of spent fuel storage facilities and their cities in which they are located (page 8). ========== Information on nuclear facilities in the US can be accessed at the site of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/ Among the tabs at the top of the page is one called "Facility Info Finder". Click on this to take you to: http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder.html which allows you to access information about nuclear facilities throughout the US. This link provides a list of all nuclear power plants, as well as a map: http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/#AlphabeticalList Similarly, here is a map and list of fuel facilities as well as uranium mines: http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/location-maj-facilities.html ========== Lastly, this site: http://www.wano.org.uk/WANO_Documents/WANO_Map/WANO_Map.pdf provides a highly-detailed world map of nuclear power plants. ========== This is a huge topic, and I've tried to select the most pertinent sources of information for the query you posted. I trust this information will fully meet your needs, and then some. However, before rating this answer, please let me know if there's anything else you need. Just post a Request for Clarification, and I'll be happy to assist you further. All the best with your research.... pafalafa-ga search strategy: Used bookmarked sites for nuclear power information, as well as Google searches on [ nuclear facilities russia 2002..2004 ] and similar searches for other country names.

Environmental Protection Agency: ref-7 - Health, environment, and us::
Contamination The deposition of unwanted radioactive or hazardous material on radiological activities at ETEC, Area IV contains radioactive contamination in
http://www.scribd.com/doc/1954668/Environmental-Protection-Agency-ref7HOME

Chemical, biological and radiological terrorism::
Otherwise radioactive contamination has a medium-to-longer term effect which may way to transport enough radioactive material to provide doses this high
http://www.assembly-weu.org/en/documents/sessions_ordinaires/rpt/2004/1858.htmlHOME

This information is great! You had mentioned before a "fairly discrete universe of sites" that could be used to create a list of major known sites of radioactive contamination. Are these sites of known contamination included in your answer or is your answer more geared toward potential sources of contamination if there was an accident?

lesotter-ga, What sort of information are you looking for regarding the sources of RAM? There are certainly too many sources to list them all individually (even if such a list were available). And there's a big difference between actual contamination (a fairly discrete universe of sites) and potential contamination (an almost unlimited number of sites). Do you want a list of major known sites and types of radioactive contamination? Do you want summaries of the types of facilities known to handle radioactive materials? Any additional perspective you can provide on the particulars of what you need would be most helpful in researching your question. Thanks. pafalafa-ga

For sources of RAM I am looking for reactors, weapons generating plants, reprocessing plants, spent fuel repositories, and industrial repackaging facilities. I guess these would be potential sites of contamination if they had an accident or were blown up. Also any known sites that are already contaminated for whatever reason. I do not want summaries of the types of facilities known to handle radioactive materials, but rather where these facilities are actually located. The idea is to be able to indicate on a map where actual/potential sources of RAM are in any given area.

Hi paf, I posted another question a couple of days ago on identifying the Known or Suspected CBRNE Manufacture, Storage, and Deployment Sites Worldwide. Since you are already looking into the 'RN' of these sites, I wonder if you could be assigned this inquiry also? It looks a s though it has not been assigned to a researcher yet...

Hello lesotter-ga, Thanks for the clarification. I can point you to sources that -- taken together -- list well over 1,000 nuclear/radiological facilities around the world. The lists are not, themselves, highly detailed. For instance, the list with the largest number of facilities includes reactors, research and assembly facilities, conversion plants, fuel fabrication facilities, reprocessing plants, nuclear R&D facilities, enrichment plants, storage facilities, and an assortment of miscellaneous facilities without a clear-cut category heading. To give you a bit of the flavor for this list, here are some of the miscellaneous entries for the Ukraine: Ukraine: Chernobyl unit 4 shelter ..........Chernobyl Khmelnitski FF Storage ..........Neteshin KHFTI ..........Kharkov Rovno FF Storage ..........Kuznetsovsk South Ukraine Storage ..........Yuzhnoukrainsk Zaporozhe FF Storage ..........Energodar Sevastopol subcritical assembly ..........Sevastopol IR-100 RR ..........Sevastopol There are quite a number of other entries in the Ukraine in the other categories as well. Would information at this level of detail for more than 1,000 facilities around the world meet your needs? Let me know. pafalafa-ga

Yes, this information looks good. I think if I can determine what city the facility is in and what type of facility it is, my needs will be met. Thank you.

lesotter-ga, Thanks for the feedback -- I glad to hear that the links I provided are what you needed. As for your follow-up questions, I want to take a while to make sure I've identified the best sources. So hang tight for a few days, and I'll get back to you with an update. paf