Nevada Security Site radiation reported below annual limit
The total annual radiation dose from activities at the Nevada National Security Site in 2014 was well below the Department of Energy limit, according to a report summary released Thursday by the department's Nevada Field Office.
The activities include disposal of low-level nuclear waste in a landfill in Area 5, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Contaminated materials and equipment from cleanup of the nation's nuclear weapons complex are buried there.
The security site's environmental team continues to watch for ground water contamination from hundreds of below-ground nuclear weapons detonations, particularly from tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. The nation's full-scale nuclear weapons tests were conducted at the site from 1951 to 1992.
Fifteen wells within the boundaries of the Rhode Island-size site exceed the safe drinking water standard for tritium. However, "all community sampling locations, which are on Bureau of Land Management or private land, have undetectable levels of tritium," according to the report summary.
Scientists calculated the annual dose from all exposure pathways — air, water and direct radiation — at 3.25 millirem. The DOE limit is 100 millirem per year.
According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Americans on average receive about 620 millirem each year, about half from natural background radiation and half from medical, commercial and industrial sources. A yearly dose of 620 millirem has not been shown to harm humans.
Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2.
