Application of the National Ignition Facility distinguishable-from-background program to accelerator facilities at...

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory must control potentially activated materials and equipment in accordance with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Order 458.1, Radiation Protection of the Public and the Environment, which requires DOE approval of the process used to release volumetrically contaminated personal property and establishes a dose constraint of 10 µSv y(-1) (1 mrem y(-1)) for clearance of such property. The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory developed a technical basis document and protocol for determining the radiological status of property that is potentially activated from exposure to neutron radiation produced via fusion of tritium and deuterium. The technical basis included assessment of the neutron energy, the type of materials potentially exposed and the likely activation products, and the sensitivity of radiation detectors used to survey the property. This paper evaluates the National Ignition Facility technical basis document for applicability to the release of property from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's various accelerator facilities considering the different types of particles accelerated, radiations produced, and resultant activation products. Extensive process knowledge regarding the accelerators' operations, accompanied by years of routine surveys, provides an excellent characterization of these facilities. Activation studies conducted at the Stanford Linear Accelerator and the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization in Japan corroborate that the long-lived radionuclides produced at accelerator facilities are of the same variety produced at the National Ignition Facility. Consequently, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory concludes that the release protocol developed for the National Ignition Facility can be used appropriately at all its accelerator facilities.