Establishing Radiological Screening Levels for Defense-related Uranium Mine (DRUM) Sites on BLM Land Using a Recreational Future-use Scenario.

Establishing Radiological Screening Levels for Defense-related Uranium Mine (DRUM) Sites on BLM Land Using a Recreational Future-use Scenario. Health Phys. 2018 Jun;114(6):588-601 Authors: Brown SH, Edge R, Elmer J, McDonald M Abstract Thousands of former uranium mining sites in the United States, primarily in the southwestern states of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, are being identified and evaluated to assess their potential for causing public and environmental impacts. The common radiological contaminant of concern that characterizes these sites is naturally occurring uranium ore and associated wastes that may have been left behind postmining. The majority of these sites were abandoned and in general, are referred to as abandoned uranium mines, regardless of the government authority currently managing the land or in some cases, assigned responsibility for the oversight of assessment and remediation. The U.S. Department of Energy has identified over 4,000 defense-related uranium mine sites from which uranium ore was purchased by the U.S. government for nuclear defense programs prior to 1970. U.S. Department of Energy has established a program to inventory and perform environmental screening on defense-related uranium mine sites. The focus of this paper is the approximately 2,400 defense-related uranium mine sites located on federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. This pa...
Source: Health Physics - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: Health Phys Source Type: research