Publications

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Objectives: Automate the labor-intensive process of generating Analytical Action Levels (AALs) in Turbo FRMAC to shorten the timeline for planning sampling campaigns and sample analysis during a response. Make the tool output results in a format that is easily imported to RadResponder as a Mixture for use in Analysis Request Forms. Deliver training to EPA on using this new tool in Turbo FRMAC (Delayed due to COVID.

The Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) Assessment Manual is the tool used to organize and guide activities of the FRMAC Assessment Division. The mission of the FRMAC Assessment Division in a radiological emergency is to interpret radiological data and predict worker and public doses. This information is used by Decision Makers to recommend protective actions in accordance with Protection Action Guides (PAGs) issued by government agencies. This manual integrates many health physics tools and techniques used to make these assessments.

An interlaboratory effort has developed a probabilistic framework to characterize uncertainty in data products that are developed by the US Department of Energy Consequence Management Program in support of the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the probability distributions of input variables and the statistical methods used to propagate and quantify the overall uncertainty of the derived response levels that are used as contours on data products due to the uncertainty in input parameters. Uncertainty analysis results are also presented for several study scenarios. This paper includes an example data product to illustrate the potential real-world implications of incorporating uncertainty analysis results into data products that inform protective action decisions. Data product contours that indicate areas where public protection actions may be warranted can be customized to an acceptable level of uncertainty. The investigators seek feedback from decision makers and the radiological emergency response community to determine how uncertainty information can be used to support the protective action decision-making process and how it can be presented on data products.

This scenario was drafted for inclusion in a revision of Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) Assessment Manual, Volume 2 - Pre-Assessed Default Scenarios. The contents of this scenario were reviewed and approved by the FRMAC Assessment Working Group in March 2020. The scenario is being issued separately from the full volume ahead of the Mars 2020 launch. The full volume will be published in the future once all scenarios are complete.

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This report was developed to help the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency understand the radionuclide detection requirements necessary to establish air monitoring systems that can detect airborne radionuclide activity at levels that could warrant protective actions.. The report provides representative integrated air activity derived response levels that correspond to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's protective action guidelines for the Early Phase (0-96 h) following a release to the environment. Environmental releases from nuclear fallout, nuclear power plants, and radiological dispersal devices are considered.

The goal of this project, started in FY17, is to develop and execute methods of characterizing uncertainty in data products that are developed and distributed by the DOE Consequence Management (CM) Program. This report presents the results of uncertainty analyses performed in FY18 for additional scenarios of increased complexity, including different time phases and radionuclide source terms.

The goal of this project is to develop and execute methods for characterizing uncertainty in data products that are deve loped and distributed by the DOE Consequence Management (CM) Program. A global approach to this problem is necessary because multiple sources of error and uncertainty from across the CM skill sets contribute to the ultimate p roduction of CM data products. This report presents the methods used to develop a probabilistic framework to characterize this uncertainty and provides results for an uncertainty analysis for a study scenario analyzed using this framework.

This Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) Assessment Manual has been prepared by representatives of those Federal and State agencies that can be expected to play the major roles during a radiological emergency. Federal Agencies include: the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This final manual was reviewed by experts from across the community and their input has been incorporated.

A set of radionuclide - decay chain truncation rules have been developed for use in the Turbo FRMAC and Specialized Hazard Assessment Response Capability (SHARC) software programs used to support radiological emergency response activities . Following the proposed rules, the software will truncate a decay chain after it encounters a progeny radionuclide with a half - life greater than 5,000 years. An analysis of the projected dose from many parent and progeny radionuclides over a 50 - year time period yielded that a radionuclide half - life cutoff of 5,000 years will exclude a negligible dose. Implementing the truncation rules will reduce the time required for assessments and minimize computer hardware requ irements without having a significant detrimental effect on dose projections and emergency response decisions. It is noted that the truncation rules may not be suited for long - term ( greater than 50 year) environmental assessments.

The Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) Assessment Manual is the tool used to organize and guide activities of the FRMAC Assessment Division. The mission of the FRMAC Assessment Division in a radiological emergency is to interpret radiological data and predict worker and public doses. This information is used by Decision Makers to recommend protective actions in accordance with Protection Action Guides (PAGs) issued by government agencies. This manual integrates many health physics tools and techniques used to make these assessments.

This goal of this project is to address the current inability to assess the overall error and uncertainty of data products developed and distributed by DOE’s Consequence Management (CM) Program.

This goal of this project is to address the current inability to assess the overall error and uncertainty of data products developed and distributed by DOE’s Consequence Management (CM) Program. This is a widely recognized shortfall, the resolution of which would provide a great deal of value and defensibility to the analysis results, data products, and the decision making process that follows this work. A global approach to this problem is necessary because multiple sources of error and uncertainty contribute to the ultimate production of CM data products. Therefore, this project will require collaboration with subject matter experts across a wide range of FRMAC skill sets in order to quantify the types of uncertainty that each area of the CM process might contain and to understand how variations in these uncertainty sources contribute to the aggregated uncertainty present in CM data products. The ultimate goal of this project is to quantify the confidence level of CM products to ensure that appropriate public and worker protections decisions are supported by defensible analysis.

The Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) Assessment Manual is the tool used to organize and guide activities of the FRMAC Assessment Division. The mission of the FRMAC Assessment Division in a radiological emergency is to interpret radiological data and predict worker and public doses. This information is used by Decision Makers to recommend protective actions in accordance with Protection Action Guides (PAGs) issued by government agencies. This manual integrates many health physics tools and techniques used to make these assessments. Volume 1 contains the scientific bases and computational methods for assessment calculations. These calculations are broken up into sections: Section 1 – Public Protection; Section 2 – Emergency Worker Protection; Section 3 – Ingestion Pathway Analysis; and, Section 4 – Supplemental Methods. FRMAC’s broad-based staff is the key to achieving Assessment's objectives. The staff is drawn from multiple agencies and has a variety of skills. The staff includes health physicists, data analysts, cartographers, modelers, meteorologists, and computer scientists. These professionals facilitate the analysis, interpretation, presentation and preservation of incident specific radiological data. These individuals are primarily drawn from the NNSA and the EPA. However, staff also includes members from the NRC, USDA, FDA, CDC, and other Federal agencies. State, Local, and Tribal scientific specialists are also invited to participate.

This report reviews the method recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for calculating Derived Intervention Levels (DILs) and identifies potential improvements to the DIL calculation method to support more accurate ingestion pathway analyses and protective action decisions. Further, this report proposes an alternate method for use by the Federal Emergency Radiological Assessment Center (FRMAC) to calculate FRMAC Intervention Levels (FILs). The default approach of the FRMAC during an emergency response is to use the FDA recommended methods. However, FRMAC recommends implementing the FIL method because we believe it to be more technically accurate. FRMAC will only implement the FIL method when approved by the FDA representative on the Federal Advisory Team for Environment, Food, and Health.

A proposed method is considered to classify the regions in the close neighborhood of selected measurements according to the ratio of two radionuclides measured from either a radioactive plume or a deposited radionuclide mixture. The subsequent associated locations are then considered in the area of interest with a representative ratio class. This method allows for a more comprehensive and meaningful understanding of the data sampled following a radiological incident.

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