A simplified method for quantitative assessment of the relative health and safety risk of environmental management activities

Abstract

A Simplified Risk Model (SRM) is being developed to support environmental restoration and waste management (EM) planning activities. The SRM is designed to be able to quantitatively estimate risk for various EM alternatives within hours or days, given limited information about the processes covered within the alternative. The risk model covers radiological, chemical, and industrial risk from both accidents and normal, incident-&ee operations. A simple risk equation is used to model accident risk. Normal, incident-free operation risk is modeled using a multiplier on accident risk. Ongoing applications of the SRM are expected to lead to significant improvements to the model in the near hture.

Environment, Safety, and Health Risk Assessment Program (ESHRAP)

“…The mixes of radionuclides for each waste/material category generally were determined based on representative wastes/materials from various DOE EISs. Details of the decay table generation are presented in Eide et al (1996). For simplicity, SNM was assumed not to decay over the time period zero to 1,000,000 years.…”

“…A comparison of the INEEL term (4*5p 24-h ) with results from a Gaussian plume model using Pasquill-Gifford coefficients (Eide et al 1996) is presented in Table 12. To compute the term (4*5p 24-h ), the following equation is used: (4*5p 24-h …”

“…Finally, for workers located 100 meters away, the Gaussian plume atmospheric dispersion results (stability class E) are used (Eide et al 1996). It is assumed these workers require one hour to evacuate and their breathing rate is average.…”

“…The model used was for a homogeneous medium of infinite lateral extent and finite depth with constant, unidirectional flow. The results are as follows (Eide et al 1996):…”

“…(DOE 1996b). 4*5b water was estimated using site-specific population distribution information from the DOE (1997a) and groundwater dispersion (concentration reduction factors) obtained from Eide et al (1996). FI, the fraction of the population using groundwater for drinking water for each site, is mainly a placeholder at this time.…”