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- NFS collects and analyzes over 7500 environmental samples per year
- Cleaned up a former on-site licensed radioactive waste burial ground
- Fishery Park Project – Rerouted Tate Spring Branch through a wetlands (created by NFS) to improve the water quality of Tate Spring Branch. Built bridges, walkways and informational signs…also installed some bat boxes!
- Cleaned up former on-site waste water impoundments
- Off site remediation of groundwater. Current results show contaminate concentrations are reduced to well-below state requirements.
- Conduct yearly Educational Programs with the local school system at Fishery Park using NFS technical staff to educate on wetlands and water quality
- Support Science Fairs by providing Technical Staff for judging
- Groundwater Remediation – Injection of a carbon source (molasses), which has reduced the chlorinated solvents plume by approximately 90 percent.
Does NFS release anything into the environment?
NFS does make permitted, approved releases into the environment. These releases are pre-treated at the NFS site and are closely monitored by environmental specialists. All releases are reported to state and federal agencies and are within regulatory requirements. NFS carefully controls any environmental releases, and in fact a recent study concludes that our operations are safe and our environmental releases remain appropriately within state and federal requirements.
The drinking water in Erwin and surrounding areas is safe and is not impacted in any way by NFS operations. Erwin Utilities and other utilities conduct annual water quality tests. Their results are available to the public. NFS has a robust monitoring program, which includes regular sampling of groundwater, and shows no off-site impacts from radioactive materials. There is a small area of limited impact from organic chemicals used many years ago to clean parts in our maintenance shop.
NFS monitors radiation levels at the plant site and the surrounding areas. NFS annually reports allowable plant discharges and the results of environmental monitoring to the NRC. In addition, the NRC conducts periodic on-site inspections of each company’s environmental monitoring programs to ensure compliance with the agency’s requirements.
NFS works hard to assure that our operations have no adverse environmental consequences. Our analyses, reviewed by the NRC and State of Tennessee, continue to indicate that the local air and water are safe and NFS operations are able to operate at levels more than 1000 times less than the applicable limits. In other words, our operations have less consequence to a member of the public than the radiation received by an hour of air travel, or from regular television viewing. In this section of NFSFacts.com, some of the details and data associated with assessment of the local environment are provided to help you better understand how our commitment to protecting you is fulfilled.
What types of environmental exposure pathways exist from NFS?
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Members of the public can be exposed to minute amounts of radioactive material from emissions from NFS process air stacks and from effluents that are discharged into the Nolichucky River after processing in NFS' treatment facility.
Airborne Pathway - To make the most accurate possible estimates of potential exposure to a member of the public, NFS safety professionals use data for wind speed and direction, in combination with data continuously collected from the air stacks, to estimate maximum dose that a person that is off-site could receive. This theoretical person is called the “maximally exposed individual,” or MEI. The location of the MEI varies depending on wind direction and the relative contributions from the various air stacks. In reality, there is no real person that can receive the exposure attributed to the MEI in a given year, but it is a conservative and regulator-accepted way to demonstrate that dose to the public is being maintained below the applicable limit.
The following chart provides recent data on dose to the MEI from the airborne pathway:
Waterborne Pathway - To make the most accurate possible estimates of potential exposure to a member of the public NFS safety professionals use data for flow in the Nolichucky River, in combination with data collected for all liquids discharged to the river, to estimate maximum dose that a person that is off-site could receive. This theoretical person is called the “maximally exposed individual,” or MEI. The MEI for the waterborne pathway is a person that drinks water directly from the river at the nearest drinking water intake point. This MEI is a conservative and regulator-accepted way to demonstrate that dose to the public is being maintained below the applicable limit.
The following chart provides recent data on dose to the MEI from the waterborne pathway:
Is there any other way to receive radiation exposure from NFS’ operations?
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The materials NFS works with emit a low-level of penetrating radiation, some of which makes it to the facility fence line. Unlike the air and water pathways (see above) exposure to a member of the public from this direct radiation can only come from spending time near NFS’ fences. In order to monitor and assure control over this source of radiation, NFS places monitoring devices on the fence in multiple locations surrounding the site. The highest value from these devices is used to derive a potential exposure to a person that is literally occupying a position at the fence line (which NFS controls and does not allow a person to occupy for any extended period of time for security reasons). Data from the highest monitoring location varies, but typically provides an estimated exposure potential of less than 5 mrem for a given year. It is expected that, with the completion of an on-going project to add new security fences around the NFS facility over the next couple of years, this already low exposure potential will become even lower. NFS’ monitoring method is a conservative and regulator-accepted way to demonstrate that dose potential to the public is being maintained below the applicable limit. |
What regulatory limits apply to public dose exposed from these pathways?
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NFS complies with both State of Tennessee and Federal regulatory dose limits. The State limit is 100 mrem for a year. The Federal limit is also 100 mrem for a year, except for radioactivity from sources that are involved in commercial nuclear fuel manufacture, for which a limit of 25 mrem in a year applies. NFS BLEU Prep Facility and BLEU Complex are involved in the production of materials used in commercial power reactors, and are therefore subject to the lower 25 mrem limit.
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How do we monitor the local environment to assure that impact is maintained within acceptable limits?
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In addition to the direct effluent measurements already discussed, NFS samples air, water, vegetation, soil and river/creek sediments, looking for traces of radioactivity that might indicate the presence of radioactivity from NFS sources.
NFS Scientists Taking Samples
Water, Air, Soil, Sediments/Silt, Vegetation
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