Environmental Surveillance and Oversight Program (ESOP)
Radiological Monitoring of Surface Water and Sediments
Radiological surface water and sediments are monitored on and adjacent to SRS. Routine samples from surface water locations are collected weekly for tritium analysis. Samples are also collected weekly from each location to produce a monthly composite. The monthly composites from each location are analyzed for gross alpha, gross beta and beta-gamma-emitting radionuclides.
To provide downstream drinking water customers with advance notice of an SRS
release, ESOP staff collects surface water samples every Monday, Wednesday
and Friday. Automatic samplers are programmed to collect stream water every
30 minutes at locations that are also part of the existing surface water ambient
monitoring network. Samples are analyzed on the same day they are collected.
If tritium is found at any location or any combination of locations at a concentration
that would allow tritium in the Savannah River to approach 20,000 picocuries
per liter (pCi/L), then an emergency protocol system would be activated. ESOP
would immediately notify DOE at SRS, the SCDHEC Nuclear Emergency Response
Section and the SCDHEC Region 8 District office so that additional samples
could be collected and appropriate actions taken. This method of projecting
tritium concentrations in the Savannah River from stream samples is dependent
upon real-time stream and river flow. Sediment samples are also collected
and analyzed for beta-gamma-emitting radionuclides such as cesium.