This report presents the environmental dose assessment methods and the estimated potential doses to the public from 2020 Savannah River Site (SRS) air and liquid radioactive releases. Also documented are potential doses from special-case exposure scenarios, such as the consumption of wildlife or goat milk.
Dose to the Offsite Representative PersonThe 2020 dose to the offsite representative person from SRS liquid releases was 0.35 mrem and from SRS air releases it was 0.012 mrem. To show compliance with the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) allpathway dose standard of 100 mrem/yr, SRS conservatively adds these two doses for a total representative person dose of 0.36 mrem which is 0.36% of the DOE standard.
Sportsman DosesOnsite Hunter: SRS conducts annual hunts to control onsite deer and feral hog populations. The estimated dose from consuming harvested deer or hog meat is determined for every onsite hunter. During 2020, the maximum potential dose an onsite hunter received was 10.6 mrem, or 10.6% of DOE's 100 mrem/yr allpathway dose standard.Creek Mouth Fisherman: SRS estimated the maximum potential dose from fish consumption at 0.53 mrem from bass collected at the mouth of Steel Creek. This dose is 0.53% of the DOE standard. SRS bases this hypothetical dose on the low probability scenario that, during 2020, a fisherman consumed 24 kg (53 lbs) of bass caught exclusively from the mouth of Steel Creek.
Release of Material Containing Residual RadioactivitySRS did not release any real property (land or buildings) in 2020. SRS unconditionally released a total of 11,312 items of personal property (such as tools) from radiological areas in 2020. Most of these items did not leave the Site. However, all of these items required no additional radiological controls post-survey as they met DOE Order 458.1 release criteria.
Radiation Dose to Aquatic and Terrestrial BiotaSRS conducts screening evaluations of plant and animal doses for aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. For 2020, all SRS aquatic system locations passed the initial (Level 1) and Level 2 screenings and no further assessments were required at those locations.For the land-based systems evaluation, SRS performed initial screenings using concentration data from the five onsite radiological soil sampling locations. Typically, SRS collects and analyzes only one soil sample per year from each location. For 2020, all land-based locations passed their initial (Level 1) pathway screenings.