Comparison of the radiological dose from the Cerro Grande fire to a natural wildfire

doi:10.1016/S0160-4120(03)00076-X

Environment International

Volume 29, Issue 7, January 2004, Pages 987-993

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-4120(03)00076-X Get rights and content

Abstract

Since the Cerro Grande fire burned portions of a Department of Energy facility where nuclear weapons research occurs, it is important to determine if the fire posed greater risk to the public than a natural fire. All wildfires release radioactive as well as other toxic pollutants into the atmosphere. Thus, it is important to determine if the radioactive air emissions from the Cerro Grande fire were statistically different than those from a natural wildfire, specifically the Viveash fire.

Section snippets

History of Los Alamos National Laboratory

In 1942, the US Army Manhattan Engineer District was established to develop the atomic bomb. The laboratory has used a variety of radioactive and hazardous materials. The radioactive materials included tritium (H-3), curium (Cm-242 and Cm-244), uranium (U-238), phosphorus (P-285), polonium (Po-210), thorium (Th-232), radium (Ra-226), cesium (Cs-137), strontium (Sr-90), and americium (Am-241). The hazardous materials included lithium hydride, beryllium, mercury, iodine, trisodium phosphate,

Environmental setting

The geology of the Pecos Basin, like that of Los Alamos, reflects the interplay of volcanism in the surrounding Pecos Mountains and the Rio Grande rift, a series of north–south trending fault troughs extending from southern Colorado to southern New Mexico. During this interplay of volcanism and rifting, erosion has removed materials from the highland areas to the west and deposited them downslope to the east. The area is covered primarily with a mixed conifer forest. The Pecos Basin is

Fire results comparison

Attempting to compare the results from the Cerro Grande sampling and that conducted during the Viveash fire posed some difficulties in that the quantity of data from the Cerro Grande fire was substantially greater than from the Viveash fire. This difference in magnitude of data results from the facts that the Cerro Grande fire was a national emergency and the Viveash fire was not, as well as fact the Cerro Grande fire lasted almost a month while the Viveash fire was only a few days in duration.

Recommendations for further research

Further studies could be conducted to investigate the connection between particle size and radionuclide dose. The data from this study suggested that only the fine particle size fractions contributed to the dose. This observation should be tested at other sites in order to gain a greater understanding of the transportation of the radionuclides in smoke that will allow development of means to minimize the dose to the public.

Since the amount and type of data collected during the Cerro Grande and

Acknowledgements

Funding for this study was provided by Sherry Pigford. I also want to commend the fire fighters who worked to control both the Cerro Grande and Viveash fires; without their help, the damage would have been far greater, thank you.

Dr. John M. Volkerding completed his B.S. in Chemistry at New Mexico State University. After which he served as an Officer in the United States Navy Nuclear Engineering Program. Upon leaving the military, John worked as an environmental consultant with a company serving several federal agencies to include the Department of Energy, United States Air Force, and United Stated Environmental Protection Agency. For the past 7 years, John has worked for the State of New Mexico Environment Department

References (20)

Dusha-Gudym SI. Forest Fires on the Areas Contaminated by Radionuclides from the Cherobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident,...
J.C Elder et al.
Oxidation of depleted uranium penetrators and aerosol dispersal at high temperatures LA-8610-MC
(1980)
Environmental News Service. Fires Devour Forests in Western States....
New Mexico Environment Department. New Mexico Environment Department Information Regarding the Cerro Grande Fire....
New Mexico Environment Department. http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/aqb/fires/data/NMED_UPU2.htm; 2000b [Accessed 19 May...
New Mexico Environment Department. http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/aqb/fires/data/NMED_rad.htm; 2000c [Accessed 19 May...
New Mexico Environment Department. http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/aqb/fires/data/erams1.htm; 2000d [Accessed 19 May...
New Mexico Environment Department. http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/aqb/fires/rap1.htm; 2000e [Accessed 19 May...
S Sugihara et al.
Distribution and mean residence time of natural radionuclides in the forest ecosystem
J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem.
(1997)
United States Department of Energy. Health Physics Codes for the PC. http://www.llnl.gov/nai/technologies/hotspot/;...

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (6)

Predicted cumulative dose to firefighters and the offsite public from natural and anthropogenic radionuclides in smoke from wildland fires at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina USA
2018, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
The contaminated ground surface at Savannah River Site (SRS) is a result of the decades of work that has been performed maintaining the country's nuclear stockpile and performing research and development on nuclear materials. The volatilization of radionuclides during wildfire results in airborne particles that are dispersed within the smoke plume and may result in doses to downwind firefighters and the public. To better understand the risk that these smoke plumes present, we have characterized four regions at SRS in terms of their fuel characteristics and radiological contamination on the ground. Combined with general meteorological conditions describing typical and extreme burn conditions, we have simulated potential fires in these regions and predicted the potential radiological dose that could be received by firefighting personnel and the public surrounding the SRS. In all cases, the predicted cumulative dose was a small percent of the US Department of Energy regulatory limit (0.25 mSv). These predictions were conservative and assumed that firefighters would be exposed for the duration of their shift and the public would be exposed for the entire day over the duration of the burn. Realistically, firefighters routinely rotate off the firefront during their shift and the public would likely remain indoors much of the day. However, we show that even under worst-case conditions the regulatory limits are not exceeded. We can infer that the risks associated with wildfires would not be expected to cause cumulative doses above the level of concern to either responding personnel or the offsite public.
Radionuclide activity concentrations in forest surface fuels at the Savannah River Site
2013, Journal of Environmental Management
A study was undertaken at the United States Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, South Carolina to investigate radionuclide activity concentrations in litter and duff from select areas at SRS. Litter (i.e. vegetative debris) and duff (i.e. highly decomposed vegetative debris) can often be the major fuels consumed during prescribed burns and have potential to release radiological contaminants into the environment.
Repeated samples from 97 locations were collected systematically across SRS and analyzed for radionuclide activity. Radionuclide activity concentrations found in litter and duff were compared. As spatial trends were of interest, spatial distributions of radionuclide activity concentrations found in litter and duff and spatial dependency amongst the data were explored.
⁷Be, ⁴⁰K, and ¹³⁷Cs showed statistically significant proportional differences between litter and duff samples. Duff sample concentrations for ¹³⁷Cs (p < 0.0001) and ⁴⁰K (p = 0.0015) were statistically higher compared to litter samples. ⁷Be activity concentrations were statistically higher in litter as compared to duff (p < 0.0001). For ⁴⁰K litter and duff samples, spatial correlation tests were not significant at p = 0.05 and the maps did not indicate any apparent high concentrations centered near possible radionuclide sources (i.e. SRS facilities). For ⁷Be litter samples, significant spatial correlation was calculated (p = 0.0085). No spatial correlation was evident in the ⁷Be duff samples (p = 1.0000) probably due to small sample size (n = 7). ¹³⁷Cs litter and duff samples showed significant spatial correlations (p < 0.0001 and p < 0.0001, respectively).
To date, few studies characterize radionuclide activity concentrations in litter and duff, and to our knowledge none present spatial analysis. Key findings show that across SRS, ¹³⁷Cs is the primary radionuclide of concern, with the highest number of samples reported above MDC in litter (51.4%) and duff samples (83.2%). However, ¹³⁷Cs litter and duff spatial trends in the maps generated from the kriging parameters do not appear to directly link the areas with higher activity concentrations with SRS facilities. The results found herein provide valuable baseline monitoring data for future studies of forest surface fuels and can be used to evaluate changes in radioactivity in surface fuels in the southeast region of the U.S.
Radioactivity in smoke particulates from prescribed burns at the Savannah River Site and at selected southeastern United States forests
2012, Atmospheric Environment
Citation Excerpt :
Low activity concentrations of airborne 137Cs across SRS burn areas (Fig. 4b) may be attributed to prescribed fires which are typically surface fires and may not have high enough temperatures to volatilize 137Cs with a boiling point of 678.4 °C. This will be different during forest fires which have expected temperatures between 100 and 1000 °C (Volkerding, 2004). Gross alpha activity concentrations in air appear to be similar at SRS and offsite locations (Fig. 3 and Table 2).
In this study we compare airborne radionuclide concentrations during prescribed burns at the Savannah River Site (SRS) and a sample of forests in the Southeastern United States. The spatial trends of airborne radionuclide concentrations from prescribed burn areas at SRS are also characterized. Total suspended particulate (TSP) samples were taken at three settings (subsequently termed burn sample populations): during prescribed burns at SRS (n = 34), on nonburn days at SRS (n = 12) and during prescribed burns at five offsite locations in the Southeastern United States (n = 2 per location). Mass concentrations of TSP were calculated and alpha, beta and gamma spectroscopy was performed to determine radionuclide activity concentrations. Spatial correlation in radionuclide concentration was assessed and ordinary kriging was used to create continuous surface maps across our study area. Median activity concentrations of natural radionuclides including ⁴⁰K, thorium and uranium isotopes (n = 34) were higher in samples from SRS prescribed fires (p < 0.02) compared to offsite locations (n = 10) and nonburn days (n = 12). Median gross beta activity was also higher at SRS (p < 0.0001). Median concentrations of anthropogenic radionuclides did not significantly differ among burn sample populations except for ²³⁸Pu (p = 0.0022) and ^239, ²⁴⁰Pu (p = 0.014) with median concentrations of 8.41 × 10⁻⁴ and 6.72 × 10⁻⁵ pCi m⁻³ at SRS compared to 1.55 × 10⁻⁴ and −7.07 × 10⁻⁶ pCi m⁻³ (nonburn days) and 1.46 × 10⁻⁴ and 2.78 × 10⁻⁶ pCi m⁻³ (offsite burns) respectively. Results from our spatial analysis found that only ⁴⁰K demonstrated significant spatial correlation (X² = 15.48, p = 0.0004) and spatial trends do not appear to directly link areas with higher activity concentrations with SRS facilities.
Modelling and mitigating dose to firefighters from inhalation of radionuclides in wildland fire smoke
2015, International Journal of Wildland Fire
Exposure Data
2010, IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans
Painting, firefighting, and shiftwork
2010, IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans

View full text