The results of the environmental surveillance program conducted at Site A/Plot M in the Palos Forest Preserve area for Calendar Year 2008 are presented. Based on the results of the 1976-1978 radiological characterization of the site, a determination was made that a surveillance program be established. The characterization study determined that very low levels of hydrogen-3 (as tritiated water) had migrated from the burial ground and were present in two nearby hand pumped picnic wells. The current surveillance program began in 1980 and consists of sample collection and analysis of surface and subsurface water. The results of the analyses are used to (1) monitor the migration pathway of hydrogen-3 contaminated water from the burial ground (Plot M) to the hand-pumped picnic wells, (2) establish if other buried radionuclides have migrated, and (3) monitor for the presence of radioactive materials in the environment of the area. Hydrogen-3 in the Red Gate Woods picnic wells was still detected this year, but the average and maximum concentrations were significantly less than found earlier. Hydrogen-3 continues to be detected in a number of wells, boreholes, dolomite holes, and a surface stream. Analyses since 1984 have indicated the presence of low levels of strontium-90 in …

MINERvA experiment has a highly segmented and high precision neutrino detector able to record events with high statistic (over 13 millions in a four year run). MINERvA uses FERMILAB NuMI beamline. The detector will allow a detailed study of neutrino-nucleon interactions. Moreover, the detector has a target with different materials allowing, for the first time, the study of nuclear effects in neutrino interactions. We present here the work done with the MINERvA reconstruction group that has resulted in: (a) development of new codes to be added to the RecPack package so it can be adapted to the MINERvA detector structure; (b) finding optimum values for two of the MegaTracker reconstruction package variables: PEcut = 4 (minimum number of photo electrons for a signal to be accepted) and Chi2Cut = 200 (maximum value of {chi}{sup 2} for a track to be accepted); (c) testing of the multi anode photomultiplier tubes used at MINERvA in order to determine the correlation between different channels and for checking the device's dark counts.