AEC Research and Development Report: Hanford Radiological Sciences Research and Development Annual Report for 1964

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UC-48, Biology and Medicine HANFORD RADIOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ANNUAL REPORT Staff Members of Physics and Instruments Department PACIFIC NORTHWEST LABORATORY

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Printed in the USA. Charge $8. 71. Available from the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, Division of Technical Information Extension, P. 0. Box 1001, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. the procurement of other classified AEC reports. Please direct to the same address inquiries covering

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TABLE OF CONTENTS A Model of Diffusion and Transport for a Continuous Release Measurements of Dispersion from a Continuous Elevated Point Source in an Unstable Atmosphere - C. E. Elderkin Area Dosage Relationships Downwind of a Point Source - A Sampler for Recording the Concentration of Airborne Field Testing of a Fluorescein-Zinc Sulfide Dual Atmospheric Improvements i n Micrometeorological Instrumentation - Radioactivity Measured i n Alaskan Natives, 1 9 62 - 19 64 - Seasonal Variations of Cs137 in Alaskan Eskimos -

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (Contd.) Humans Exposed to Uranium Mine Atmospheres - H. E. Palmer, Standardization of Whole Body Countere - R. A. Jalbert and Progress in Plutonium Whole Body Counting - K. L. Swinth Counting Plutonium in Animals and in Excreta - K. L. Swinth A Helium Ion Separator for the Positive Ion Accelerator -

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (Contd.) Calorimetric Determination of the Mean Beta Energy and Stopping Power Ratios f o r Radiation Nonequilibrium - Radiation-Induced Swelling and Hemolysis of Red Blood Cells - Radiation Chemistry of Erioglaucine in Frozen Aqueous Yield of p-Nitroaniline Radicals Formed in Irradiated Aqueous Comparison of Radicals Formed by Gamma Irradiation and Dithionite Reduction of Aromatic Nitro-Compounds in Water - Kinetics of Diffusion Through Human Erythrocyte Membranes - Development of Apparatus and Techniques for Pulsed

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The Radiochemical Determination of Plutonium in Soil - A Rapid Method for the Determination of Plutonium in Urine - Application of Tertiary Amine Extraction to the Determination The Direct Measurement of Radionuclides in Bioassay Samples The Determination of Rare Earth and Yttrium Radionuclides in Reactar Effluent Water by U s e of Multidimensional GammaEvaluation of Radiochemical Methods for Radiological Purposes - The Effect of W a t e r Treatment Chemicals and pH on Reactor Removal of Fission Products from Contaminated Water by Spectrometry for High Sensitivity Analysis of Radionuclide

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (Contd.) An Anti c oinci denc e Shielded - Mult i dim en sional Gamma - R ay Airborne -Radionuclide Measurements and Physical Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Various Fallout A i r Concentrations of Short -Lived Radionuclides Resulting Measurement of Airborne Radionuclides in Alaska - A i r Concentrations of 1 2 Radionuclides from 1962 Through Determination of Columbia River Flow Times Using Radioactive Tracers Introduced by the Hanford Reactors - Behavior and Transport of Radionuclides in the Columbia River Between Hanford a n d the Ocean - R. W. Perkins,

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Scouring of Radionuclides Deposited with Columbia River Studies of Radionuclides in Columbia River Sediments - Studies of the Mechanism of Retention of Radionuclides in Distribution of Sediments and Associated Radionuclides in the Measurement of a Large Group of Radionuclides in Columbia 1131 Measurements in Large Volumes of Columbia River Collection of Radioisotopes from River and Sea Water by A Comparison of the Ratios of Cs136 to Cs137 and Ba-La Washout Studies Using Natural Tracers from Radiochemical Investigation of Inert Atmospheric Tracers ; Xe

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (Contd.) CHEMICAL EFFLUENTS TECHNOLOGY . Soil Chemistry and Geochemistry . Some Adsorption, Diffusion and Dispersion Characteristics 1 Clay Mineral Composition of Two Hanford Soils - B. F. Hajek Self-Diffusion Coefficients of Some Cations in Open Zeolites - Linde 13X Equilibria with Trivalent Cerium and Yttrium The Movement of Ground Waters in Confined Aquifers Beneath I A Sequence for Predicting Waste Transport by Ground Water - The Permeability Integral: A Key to Measurement in Earth Material Sampling by Coring Techniques - Analytical Description of Soil Characteristics for Partially Measurement of Soil Characteristics for Partially Saturated Prediction of One-Dimensional, Transient, Partially

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (Contd.) Iterative Calculation af One- Dimensional, Transient, Comparison of Approximate Solution for Flow in Heterogeneous Atmospheric Radioactivity and Fallout, Aerosol Studies Analysis of Particle Size Frequency Distributions - Theoretical Expressions for the Motion of Particles in a Electrical Charges on Particles Produced by a Spinning Disc - Particle Deposition and Retention in Vertical Conduits Improved Aerosol Generators and Applications - Radiological Measurement Methods and Instrumentation Alpha Energy Analysis Plutonium A i r Monitoring - Detection of Low Energy Beta Particles - C. A. Ratcliffe Method for Beta-Gamma Hand and Shoe Counting Under

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Advanced Alpha-Beta-Gamma Hand and Shoe Contamination Detection and Measurement of Airborne Plutonium - Compact Solid State High Voltage Supply - E. M. Sheen Integrator for a Portable Neutron Dose Rate Meter - Biological and Biomedical Instrumentation . Instrument for the Automatic Regulation of Inhaled Aerosols - Animal Physiological Function and Radionuclide Uptake Improvements t o the Biology Animal Scanning Counter Dosimetery and Atmospheric Physics Instrumentation. Peak Pulse Measuring Instrumentation for Use with Ion

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (Contd.) Gamma Spectrometer for Use in Whole Body Counting - Automatic Data Collection System for Meteoroloscal Tower

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A Model of Diffusion and Transport for a Continuous Release in a Stable The Hanford diffusion model expresses the exposure distribution resulting from a release to the atmosphere a s parameters, u and u , were derived from experimental data deviation of exposure D,,,, atmosphere. The horizontal growth parameter, , depends period of release and the mean wind speed. release heights of 23 and 185 ft show that: Relationships for the plume growth and a r e depen&nt on i! he time of plume travel. only on the standard deviation of the wind directio2 during the is related to the stability of the Experiments successfully completed during 1964 with Ground exposures from elevated releases initially were less than those that were observed from releases near the ground, but approached the ground source values at longer travel times. Increasing the height of release reduces the maximum The time to the maximum exposure is linearly related to atmospheric stability. Hanford has for years sustained a program to investigate the diffusive capacity of the atmosphere. provided guidance to those responsible for plant operation and contributed knowledge in a relatively new discipline, Early experiments were necessari ly limited to gathering data within afew hundred meters from the point of t r a c e r release because of the inadequacy of sampling equipment that w a s available. In 1959, as a result of successful experiments with the p a r - ticulate tracer, zinc sulfide, and the development of detection and assaying systems, 28 experiments were completed. In those tests, a i r samples were obtained 1 6 mi from the source. The results which followed from the analysis of the data were factored into the solution of many practical problems, and they led to the formulation of several new concepts i n diffusion Results obtained in field experiments

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Analysis of the 28 mesoscale experiments showed that the relationships between cloud growth and distance w e r e not significantly different than those that had been deduced from the early small scale tests. fically, the standard deviation of the crosswind m a s s distribution, u w a s directly proportional to the distance raised to the 0.8 power. air exposure was inversely proportional to the distance raised to the 1 . 7 the average data reasonably well, further refinement could be made with other mathematical formulations. It w a s noted, however, that even though the power functions fitted There w e r e also other challenges. Of immediate practical importance w a s the desire to specify the diffusive capability of the atmosphere at any given time to the meteorological conditions that prevailed at that time. Generalizations w e r e made, but many of the differences observed from test to test were not explained. Data were gathered at Hanford; at Cape Kennedy, Florida; and at Vandenberg A i r Force Base, California. By 1962, there w a s a sufficient number of field experiments conducted under a wide range of atmospheric conditions to examine in detail those variations that were not understood. Diffusion data obtained in the mountain-valley regime (Hanford) and Land-sea regime (Cape Kennedy and Vandenberg) could be compared. details of these analyses a r e included in the 1 9 6 2 and 1963 issues of this during the release, analogous to a mathematical model derived for Brownian motion by the classic theorist, G. I. Taylor, in 1921. The unexplained differences in diffusion data became ordered with respect to specific meteorological variables when plotted a s a function of travel time, not travel distance. and a procedure for predicting the exposure distributions that a r e observed in prolonged releases (several hours) was evolved. Details on the concepts a r e given in Reference (1.1). * It w a s shown that cloud growth depended on wind variability Independent confirmation of this fact was obtained,

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These results led to the significant improvement of the Hanford diffusion model, first by enabling more precise definition of the diffusion in relation to the existing meteorological state and, second, by permitting solutions to more complex problems than had previously been possible. The model accounted for meteorological parameters significant in diffusion processes, yet it w a s direct, simple, and adaptable for operational use. In a planned release of trace quantities of radioiodine, predictions of the exposure distribution made while the 40 min release w a s in progress agreed extremely w e l l with the exposures computed from air samples taken within 2 mi of the source. Discussion of the model, its parameters, and its application was *given in the 1963 issue of this report. An example of obtaining problematical exposure estimates by introducing climatological data into the model is shown in Reference (1. 2). 3In the formulation, the distribution of air exposure (g-sec/m ) is represented as bivariate normal: E is the air exposure, Q is the total amount of material released, h is the height of the release, Uh is the average wind speed during the release at the height of release, and y is the cross-wind coordinate. a r e usually easily determined and pose no problem. in diffusion research and that must be related to the variable properties of the atmosphere. the geometry of a plume and the controlling meteorological properties. Inadequacies in theoretical development and absence of ability to measure turbulence i n sufficient detail contributed to the dilemma. Empirical generalizations formulated from experimental data served to guide industrial The variances of the and mz , a r e the statistics that have stimulated activities2 2 It has not been an easy task to find the relation between * HW-81746, HAPO, General Electric, Richland, Washington.

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atmospheric conditions define the diffusivity for ranges of atmospheric states and are still being effectively applied t o many problems. Average growth curves ( a and uz versus X) for representative From an analysis of Hanford experiments a more specific relationship between plume growth and the controlling meteorological parameters w a s derived. This result is important because it permits the evaluation of the consequences of any release using direct meteorological measurements obtained during the release. From experimental data, the lateral growth of the p lune was found to depend directly on the variations in the wind direction and the mean wind speed. e t e r resulted in the capability of quantitatively specifying the exposure in t e r m s of the wind direction, speed, and stability. Furthermore, the consequences of prolonging the release over periods of hours are automatically accounted for in the wind variability parameter. The Hanford relationship between 3 and the properties of the wind permits a more precise delineation of the results of diffusion and can be more simply and readily applied to industrial problems than can older methods. The specification of the 0 paramThe expression for lateral time (sec), Q (rad) is the standard deviation of the wind direction over the release period, and ti ( m l s e c ) is the average wind speed at release ically determined from data collected during stable atmospheric tests. variance (c‘ ) is related to the travel time, t, as (m ) is the variance of the m a s s distribution, t is the travel The variance for the vertical exposure distribution has been empir-

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parameters are given i n Table 1.1. are functions of the degree of stability. Values of these VALUES OF STABLE ATMOSPHERIC DISPERSION PARAMETERS Degree of Stability Parm et er Moderate High The exposure for a given release can be determined from Equation(1) Values of the growth parameters are dictated by existing meteorological conditions. This is the Hanford diffusion model, the parameters derived from experimental data. From 1959 through 1962, the release of the zinc sulfide tracer was In 1 9 6 3 , some releases were made frommade near the ground surface. a 2 3 ft stack in stable atmospheres, but no detailed analysis w a s made. 1964, other releases were made from 185 ft on the Hanford Meteorology Tower and all the exposure data gathered from the elevated releases for stable atmqspheres w e r e compared with those values obtained for ground Figure 1.1 is a summary of the results of the experimental tests. On the ordinate is represented the centerline exposure normalized f o r the mean wind speed, a,and the source strength, Q. The travel-time is plotted on the abscissa. The shaded areas, therefore, show the manner in which exposure w a s observed to vary with the travel time for releases at several heights in stable conditions. exposure values for the elevated releases generally approach the values that would be expected for a ground release. dicted by Equation (l), for with large travel-times oz becomes large, h /wz approaches zero, and the exposure value approaches that which would occur from a ground release. With increasing time, the ground This characteristic is pre-

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Normalized Exposure Versus Travel Time for Stable Hanford Tests The quality of the 12tests with 23ft source height was very good, so the stratification of the data shown in the graph is considered to have physical sigmficance rather than to reflect random errors in sampling. It is noted that with increased stability, the time of maximum exposure becomes greater. Also, with increasing stability, the maximum value of the exposure decreases , again consistent with expectations derived

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depend directly on the standard mezsure of atmospheric stability, the Empirically, the time to maximum exposure w a s found to Data from tests of release height, 185 ft, appeared to behave in a similar manner but were too few in number t o justify quantitative There are several major problems associated with the analysis and interpretation of diffusion data that have been identified for some time; yet little progress has been made in their solution. relates the exposure to the wind speed, commonly taken by the experimentalist to be the wind speed at the release height. however, a particle …