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Department of Energy Field Office, Oak Ridge Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6269 151 9th Avenue North, TERRA Building FOLDER NOTIFICATION OF REPEATED RADIOTRACERSTUDY - OAKRIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY (ORNL) BUILDING 1504 Reference: 1. Notification of Planned Radiotracer Study - ORNL Building 1504, 2. Addendum to NPDES Permit No. 002941 Renewal Application: ORNL Building 1504 Experimental Ponds, August 13,1991 This letter serves as notification that ORNL research personnel duplicated an experiment which released small quantities of radiotracers into laboratory streams in Building 1504. The purpose of these National Science Foundationsponsored studies is to measure the rates of uptake and release of phosphate in a network of experimental streams dominated by Merent algal communities. TO benefit from more favorable experimental conditions, the radiotracer experiment was repeated on March 30, 1992, following the same procedures previously described (Reference 1). The scientific results of the previous experiment were afTected by a minor water quality problem, probably due to rainfall. Please note that the water quality problem neither affected the quantity of phosphorus-33 (P-33) released from the building in the first experiment nor caused the procedure to be altered in the second experiment. The effluent &om the laboratory streams in Building 1504 is discharged to a group of six ponds behind the building which then overflow through piping into the northwest tributary just up stream of its confluence with First Creek. The National Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Applications for the pond discharges were submitted to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC)in August 1991 T h e total radiotracer release was approximately 0.8 millicuries (mCi) of P-33. A 0.1 mCi dose of the radiotracer was released over a 60-minute period in each of eight laboratory streams with exactly two of the eight streams receiving the dose at one time. Concentrations in the receiving ponds and in the Northwest Tributary were each orders of magnitude below the Department of Energy Derived
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Concentration Guide (DCG) for P-33. It should be noted that the half-life of P-33 is The pertinent concentrations are indicated below: Concentration in ponds behind Building 1504 1.33~10-7 u C U d All personnel involved in the study were trained in the safe use of radionuclides, and activities were monitored by a health physicist during the experiment. If there are any questions o r if additional information is required, please contact Mark Belvin at (615) 576-7321. When referencing this document, please refer to Deputy Assistant Manager for Energy Research and Development