The report from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which covers the period from October 1981 to September 1982, is divided into three major sections. The first section, progress reports, includes studies in areas of industrial hygiene, instrument development, environmental protection, radiation protection and fire safety. The second section, technical notes, contains reports on interesting activities of a more limited scope. The third section lists recent publications. (JMT)

Plutonium-fueled radioisotopic heat sources find application in a spectrum of space, terrestrial, and underseas applications to generate electrical power by thermoelectric or dynamic-cycle conversion. Such systems under postulated accident conditions could release radioactivity into the environment resulting in risks to the general population. The released radioactivity could be dispersed into various environmental media, such as air, soil, and water and interact with people through various exposure pathways leading to inhalation, ingestion, and external radiological doses and associated health effects. The authors developed short-term exposure (RISK II) and long-term exposure (RISK III) models for use in safety risk assessments of space missions utilizing plutonium-fueled electric power systems. To effectively use these models in risk assessments, representative input values must be selected for a spectrum of environmental transfer parameters that characterize the behavior of plutonium in the environment. The selection of appropriate transfer parameters to be used in a given analysis will depend on the accident scenarios to be modeled and the terrestrial and aquatic environments to be encountered. The authors reviewed the availability of plutonium in the environment. This report summarizes the research programs presently being conducted at six Department of Energy Laboratories and makes recommendations on areas where further research …

To quantify the potential for {sup 129}I to migrate from buried waste at the Savannah River Plant (SRP) burial ground, a four year study was made. Spent berl saddles containing 68.7 mCi of {sup 129}I from separations process air filters were buried in a 10 ft. {times} 10 ft. {times} 12 ft. deep lysimeter exposed to normal weather conditions at the burial ground. During the four year study leaching and migration released 48.5 nCi of {sup 129}I from the 68.7 mCi buried in the lysimeter. This represents an average 1.77 {times} 10{sup {minus}7} fraction/year released. The release rate was relatively constant during the four years, varying mainly with seasonal rainfall. Calculations based on these results indicate a release of <3 {mu}Ci/year of {sup 129}I from SRP buried waste to the groundwater. Qualitatively this release and subsequent migration has recently been confirmed by measurement of 0.25 pCi {sup 129}I /1 in water from a well 600{prime} southwest of the burial ground.

Plutonium fueled radioisotopic heat sources find space, terrestrial, and undersea applications to generate electrical power. Such systems under postulated accident conditions could release radioactivity into the environment resulting in risks to the general population in the form of radiological doses and associated health effects. The evaluation of the radiological impact of postulated scenarios involving releases of activity into the environment includes identification of postulated accident release modes, including the probability of release and the release location; source term definition, including the activity of each radionuclide released and the corresponding chemical form and particle size distribution; analysis of the environmental behavior of the released radioactivity to determine the concentrations in environmental media (air, soil, and water) as a function of time; and analysis of the interaction between the environmental concentrations and man, leading to ingestion, inhalation, and external doses through each environmental exposure pathway. 443 refs., 2 figs., 4 tabs.