[en] Environmental restoration of the Gunite and Associated Tanks (GAAT) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was a priority to the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) because of their age and deteriorating structure. These eight tanks ranging up to 170,000 gallons in capacity were constructed in 1943 of a Gunite or ''sprayed concrete material'' as part of the Manhattan Project. The tanks initially received highly radioactive waste from the Graphite Reactor and associated chemical processing facilities. The waste was temporarily stored in these tanks to allow for radioactive decay prior to dilution and release into surface waters. Over time, additional wastes from ongoing ORNL operations (e.g., isotope separation and materials research) were discharged to the tanks for storage and treatment. These tanks were taken out of service in the 1970s. Based on the structure integrity of GAAT evaluated in 1995, the worst-case scenario for the tanks, even assuming they are in good condition, is to remain empty. A recently completed interim action conducted from April 1997 through September 2000 removed the tank liquids and residual solids to the extent practical. Interior video surveys of the tanks indicated signs of degradation of the Gunite material. The tanks continued to receive inleakage, which generated a relatively high volume waste stream that required periodic removal, treatment, and disposal. For these reasons, DOE chose in-place stabilization of Tanks W-3 through W-10 as a non-timecritical removal action under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). Tank stabilization activities involved removal of liquid from inleakage and placement of a grout mixture or ''flowable fill'' into the tanks to within 3-ft of the ground surface. Bechtel Jacobs Company, LLC (BJC) awarded Safety and Ecology Corporation (SEC) a subcontract in March 2001 to complete the documentation and fieldwork necessary to achieve tank stabilization in accordance with the Action Memorandum. Tank stabilization activities began on April 23, 2001, and were completed one month ahead of schedule on August 31, 2001. Over 7400 cubic yards of grout were placed in these tanks stabilizing over 4,000 Ci of radioactive material in place. This schedule acceleration was the result of good pre-planning during pre-mobilization by working with BJC, grout vendor, and pumping company, and other subcontractors. This planning allowed refinement of the pump and hose system used to convey the grout and the formulation of the grout mixture. Because of expediting the work, additional activities could be accomplished at the GAAT site that resulted in complete site restoration to a paved area for future parking, which was completed by September 30, 2001. This paper will focus on the following items associated with this successful environmental restoration project: regulatory process; integrated safety management systems used to achieve zero accident performance while expediting the schedule; tank stabilization design and implementation; and implementation strategies involving partnering of multiple subcontractors, DOE, and regulators

[en] Building 7602 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was constructed in 1963 as a Reactor Service Building for the Experimental Gas-Cooled Reactor; the reactor was never fueled or operated, and the project was terminated in 1965. Significant building modifications were performed during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Beginning in 1984, separation processes and equipment development and testing were initiated for the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program (CFRP). The principal materials used in the processes were depleted and natural uranium, nitric acid, and organic solvents. CFRP operations continued until 1994 when the program was discontinued and the facility declared surplus to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Systems and equipment were shut down; feed and waste materials were removed; and process fluids, chemicals, and uranium were drained and flushed from systems. This paper will present an overview of the Building 7602 D and D activities, final radiological survey , facility modifications, and project interfaces

No abstract available

[en] This paper presents plans and strategies for remediation of the liquid low-level radioactive waste (LLLW) tanks that have been removed from service (also known as inactive tanks) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Much of the LLLW system at ORNL was installed more than 50 years ago. The overall objective of the Inactive Tank Program is to remediate all LLLW tanks that have been removed from service to the extent practicable in accordance with the regulatory requirements

[en] Full text: We have proposed and evaluated an iodine biokinetic model to reconstruct the organ doses of hyperthyroid patients. The biokinetic model has compartments that represent thyroid, iodide, protein-bound iodine, salivary glands, stomach, small intestine, urine and feces. The model was developed using archival measurement data from 3138 patients treated with ¹³¹I between 1946 and 1965 in thirty different hospitals for hyperthyroidism and other thyroid conditions. These subjects represent a subset of a much larger population studied for many years as part of the Thyrotoxicosis Therapy Follow-up Study (TTFUS, about 35,000 patients). Our measurement database has results of individual measurements of ¹³¹I activities in the thyroid, blood (inorganic and organic iodine), and urine for the 3138 patients at various times after administration of ¹³¹I, though not all patients have complete data. Information is also available on the administered activity, as well as estimates of the thyroid mass of each patient. The model rate constants have been derived to date, for several hundred patients using the ¹³¹I measurements and using the SAAMII computer code to build the biokinetic model. The proposed model takes into account the available patient data along with normative data from the literature. For patients with complete data, the organ doses are calculated based on the administered activity and the predictions of the amounts of iodide and protein-bound-iodine present in each organ and tissue as well as the biological behavior of ¹³¹I in the body. Presently, we are estimating the absorbed doses to major organs and tissues of the body for all 3138 patients who will make it possible to estimate organ doses to all hyperthyroid patients in the TTFUS according to type of disease, level of severity, age and gender. This paper will describe the proposed systemic model that fits the available data and will present the estimated organ and tissue doses. (author)

No abstract available

[en] The information for the present discussion on the uncertainties associated with estimation of radiation risks and probability of disease causation was assembled for the recently published NCRP Report No. 171 on this topic. This memorandum provides a timely overview of the topic, given that quantitative uncertainty analysis is the state of the art in health risk assessment and given its potential importance to developments in radiation protection. Over the past decade the increasing volume of epidemiology data and the supporting radiobiology findings have aided in the reduction of uncertainty in the risk estimates derived. However, it is equally apparent that there remain significant uncertainties related to dose assessment, low dose and low dose-rate extrapolation approaches (e.g. the selection of an appropriate dose and dose-rate effectiveness factor), the biological effectiveness where considerations of the health effects of high-LET and lower-energy low-LET radiations are required and the transfer of risks from a population for which health effects data are available to one for which such data are not available. The impact of radiation on human health has focused in recent years on cancer, although there has been a decided increase in the data for noncancer effects together with more reliable estimates of the risk following radiation exposure, even at relatively low doses (notably for cataracts and cardiovascular disease). New approaches for the estimation of hereditary risk have been developed with the use of human data whenever feasible, although the current estimates of heritable radiation effects still are based on mouse data because of an absence of effects in human studies. Uncertainties associated with estimation of these different types of health effects are discussed in a qualitative and semi-quantitative manner as appropriate. The way forward would seem to require additional epidemiological studies, especially studies of low dose and low dose-rate occupational and perhaps environmental exposures and for exposures to x rays and high-LET radiations used in medicine. The development of models for more reliably combining the epidemiology data with experimental laboratory animal and cellular data can enhance the overall risk assessment approach by providing biologically refined data to strengthen the estimation of effects at low doses as opposed to the sole use of mathematical models of epidemiological data that are primarily driven by medium/high doses. NASA’s approach to radiation protection for astronauts, although a unique occupational group, indicates the possible applicability of estimates of risk and their uncertainty in a broader context for developing recommendations on: (1) dose limits for occupational exposure and exposure of members of the public; (2) criteria to limit exposures of workers and members of the public to radon and its short-lived decay products; and (3) the dosimetric quantity (effective dose) used in radiation protection. (memorandum)

[en] We report on the search for very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from the regions around three nearby supersonic pulsars (PSR B0355+54, PSR J0357+3205, and PSR J1740+1000) that exhibit long X-ray tails. To date there is no clear detection of TeV emission from any pulsar tail that is prominent in X-ray or radio. We provide upper limits on the TeV flux, and luminosity, and also compare these limits with other pulsar wind nebulae detected in X-rays and the tail emission model predictions. We find that at least one of the three tails is likely to be detected in observations that are a factor of 2–3 more sensitive. The analysis presented here also has implications for deriving the properties of pulsar tails, for those pulsars whose tails could be detected in TeV.

[en] Blazars are known for their variability on a wide range of timescales at all wavelengths. Most studies of TeV gamma-ray blazars focus on short timescales, especially during flares. With a decade of observations from the Fermi-LAT and VERITAS, we present an extensive study of the long-term multiwavelength radio-to-gamma-ray flux-density variability, with the addition of a couple of short-time radio-structure and optical polarization observations of the blazar 1ES 1215+303 (z = 0.130), with a focus on its gamma-ray emission from 100 MeV to 30 TeV. Multiple strong GeV gamma-ray flares, a long-term increase in the gamma-ray and optical flux baseline, and a linear correlation between these two bands are observed over the ten-year period. Typical HBL behaviors are identified in the radio morphology and broadband spectrum of the source. Three stationary features in the innermost jet are resolved by Very Long Baseline Array at 43.1, 22.2, and 15.3 GHz. We employ a two-component synchrotron self-Compton model to describe different flux states of the source, including the epoch during which an extreme shift in energy of the synchrotron peak frequency from infrared to soft X-rays is observed.

[en] The recent discovery of electromagnetic signals in coincidence with neutron-star mergers has solidified the importance of multimessenger campaigns in studying the most energetic astrophysical events. Pioneering multimessenger observatories, such as LIGO/Virgo and IceCube, record many candidate signals below the detection significance threshold. These sub-threshold event candidates are promising targets for multimessenger studies, as the information provided by them may, when combined with contemporaneous gamma-ray observations, lead to significant detections. Here we describe a new method that uses such candidates to search for transient events using archival very-high-energy gamma-ray data from imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). We demonstrate the application of this method to sub-threshold binary neutron star (BNS) merger candidates identified in Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. We identify eight hours of archival VERITAS observations coincident with seven BNS merger candidates and search them for TeV emission. No gamma-ray emission is detected; we calculate upper limits on the integral flux and compare them to a short gamma-ray burst model. We anticipate this search method to serve as a starting point for IACT searches with future LIGO/Virgo data releases as well as in other sub-threshold studies for multimessenger transients, such as IceCube neutrinos. Furthermore, it can be deployed immediately with other current-generation IACTs, and has the potential for real-time use that places a minimal burden on experimental operations. Lastly, this method may serve as a pilot for studies with the Cherenkov Telescope Array, which has the potential to observe even larger fields of view in its divergent pointing mode.