(cid:44)(cid:36)(cid:40)(cid:36)(cid:3)(cid:54)(cid:68)(cid:73)(cid:72)(cid:87)(cid:92)(cid:3)(cid:54)(cid:87)(cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:71)(cid:68)(cid:85)(cid:71)(cid:86) (cid:73)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:83)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:87)(cid:72)(cid:70)(cid:87)(cid:76)(cid:81)(cid:74)(cid:3)(cid:83)(cid:72)(cid:82)(cid:83)(cid:79)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:71)(cid:3)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:72)(cid:81)(cid:89)(cid:76)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:80)(cid:72)(cid:81)(cid:87) (cid:53)(cid:72)(cid:80)(cid:72)(cid:71)(cid:76)(cid:68)(cid:87)(cid:76)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:3)(cid:51)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:70)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:3) (cid:73)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:36)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:68)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:36)(cid:73)(cid:73)(cid:72)(cid:70)(cid:87)(cid:72)(cid:71)(cid:3)(cid:69)(cid:92)(cid:3)(cid:3) (cid:51)(cid:68)(cid:86)(cid:87)(cid:3)(cid:36)(cid:70)(cid:87)(cid:76)(cid:89)(cid:76)(cid:87)(cid:76)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:71)(cid:3)(cid:3) (cid:36)(cid:70)(cid:70)(cid:76)(cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:81)(cid:87)(cid:86) (cid:54)(cid:68)(cid:73)(cid:72)(cid:87)(cid:92)(cid:3)(cid:42)(cid:88)(cid:76)(cid:71)(cid:72) (cid:49)(cid:82)(cid:17)(cid:3)(cid:58)(cid:54)(cid:16)(cid:42)(cid:16)(cid:22)(cid:17)(cid:20) REMEDIATION PROCESS FOR AREAS AFFECTED BY PAST ACTIVITIES AND ACCIDENTS Safety standards survey The IAEA welcomes your response. Please see: http://www-ns.iaea.org/standards/feedback.htm The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: AFGHANISTAN GREECE NORWAY ALBANIA GUATEMALA PAKISTAN ALGERIA HAITI PANAMA ANGOLA HOLY SEE PARAGUAY ARGENTINA HONDURAS PERU ARMENIA HUNGARY PHILIPPINES AUSTRALIA ICELAND POLAND AUSTRIA INDIA PORTUGAL AZERBAIJAN INDONESIA QATAR BANGLADESH IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA BELARUS IRAQ ROMANIA BELGIUM IRELAND RUSSIAN FEDERATION BELIZE ISRAEL SAUDI ARABIA BENIN ITALY SENEGAL BOLIVIA JAMAICA SERBIA BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JAPAN SEYCHELLES BOTSWANA JORDAN SIERRA LEONE BRAZIL KAZAKHSTAN SINGAPORE BULGARIA KENYA SLOVAKIA BURKINA FASO KOREA, REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA CAMEROON KUWAIT SOUTH AFRICA CANADA KYRGYZSTAN SPAIN CENTRAL AFRICAN LATVIA SRI LANKA REPUBLIC LEBANON SUDAN CHAD LIBERIA SWEDEN CHILE LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA SWITZERLAND CHINA LIECHTENSTEIN SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC COLOMBIA LITHUANIA TAJIKISTAN COSTA RICA LUXEMBOURG THAILAND CÔTE D’IVOIRE MADAGASCAR THE FORMER YUGOSLAV CROATIA MALAWI REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA CUBA MALAYSIA TUNISIA CYPRUS MALI TURKEY CZECH REPUBLIC MALTA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MARSHALL ISLANDS UGANDA OF THE CONGO MAURITANIA UKRAINE DENMARK MAURITIUS UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MEXICO UNITED KINGDOM OF ECUADOR MONACO GREAT BRITAIN AND EGYPT MONGOLIA NORTHERN IRELAND EL SALVADOR MONTENEGRO UNITED REPUBLIC ERITREA MOROCCO OF TANZANIA ESTONIA MOZAMBIQUE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ETHIOPIA MYANMAR URUGUAY FINLAND NAMIBIA UZBEKISTAN FRANCE NETHERLANDS VENEZUELA GABON NEW ZEALAND VIETNAM GEORGIA NICARAGUA YEMEN GERMANY NIGER ZAMBIA GHANA NIGERIA ZIMBABWE The Agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957. The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’. IAEA SAFETY STANDARDS SERIES No. WS-G-3.1 REMEDIATION PROCESS FOR AREAS AFFECTED BY PAST ACTIVITIES AND ACCIDENTS SAFETY GUIDE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2007 COPYRIGHT NOTICE All IAEA scientific and technical publications are protected by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention as adopted in 1952 (Berne) and as revised in 1972 (Paris). The copyright has since been extended by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) to include electronic and virtual intellectual property. Permission to use whole or parts of texts contained in IAEA publications in printed or electronic form must be obtained and is usually subject to royalty agreements. Proposals for non-commercial reproductions and translations are welcomed and considered on a case-by-case basis. Enquiries should be addressed to the IAEA Publishing Section at: Sales and Promotion, Publishing Section International Atomic Energy Agency Wagramer Strasse 5 P.O. Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria fax: +43 1 2600 29302 tel.: +43 1 2600 22417 email: [email protected] http://www.iaea.org/books © IAEA, 2007 Printed by the IAEA in Austria March 2007 STI/PUB/1282 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Remediation process for areas affected by past activities and accidents : safety guide. — Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2007. p. ; 24 cm. (IAEA safety standards series, ISSN 1020–525X ; no. WS-G-3.1) STI/PUB/1282 ISBN 92–0–113306–5 Includes bibliographical references. 1. Nuclear power plants — Accidents — Environmental aspects. 2. In situ remediation. I. International Atomic Energy Agency. II. Series. IAEAL 07–00475 FOREWORD by Mohamed ElBaradei Director General The IAEA’s Statute authorizes the Agency to establish safety standards to protect health and minimize danger to life and property — standards which the IAEA must use in its own operations, and which a State can apply by means of its regulatory provisions for nuclear and radiation safety. A comprehensive body of safety standards under regular review, together with the IAEA’s assistance in their application, has become a key element in a global safety regime. In the mid-1990s, a major overhaul of the IAEA’s safety standards programme was initiated, with a revised oversight committee structure and a systematic approach to updating the entire corpus of standards. The new standards that have resulted are of a high calibre and reflect best practices in Member States. With the assistance of the Commission on Safety Standards, the IAEA is working to promote the global acceptance and use of its safety standards. Safety standards are only effective, however, if they are properly applied in practice. The IAEA’s safety services — which range in scope from engineering safety, operational safety, and radiation, transport and waste safety to regulatory matters and safety culture in organizations — assist Member States in applying the standards and appraise their effectiveness. These safety services enable valuable insights to be shared and I continue to urge all Member States to make use of them. Regulating nuclear and radiation safety is a national responsibility, and many Member States have decided to adopt the IAEA’s safety standards for use in their national regulations. For the Contracting Parties to the various international safety conventions, IAEA standards provide a consistent, reliable means of ensuring the effective fulfilment of obligations under the conventions. The standards are also applied by designers, manufacturers and operators around the world to enhance nuclear and radiation safety in power generation, medicine, industry, agriculture, research and education. The IAEA takes seriously the enduring challenge for users and regulators everywhere: that of ensuring a high level of safety in the use of nuclear materials and radiation sources around the world. Their continuing utilization for the benefit of humankind must be managed in a safe manner, and the IAEA safety standards are designed to facilitate the achievement of that goal. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Background (1.1–1.2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Objective (1.3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Scope (1.4–1.7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Structure (1.8). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. REGULATORY INFRASTRUCTURE AND RESPONSIBILITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 General (2.1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Regulatory framework (2.2–2.7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Responsibilities (2.8–2.10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Prioritization of contaminated or potentially contaminated areas (2.11–2.14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3. OVERVIEW OF THE REMEDIATION PROCESS AND INITIAL DECISION MAKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 General (3.1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Overall approach in the remediation process (3.2–3.13). . . . . . . . . . . 7 Historical site assessment (3.14–3.17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Remediation criteria (3.18–3.23) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Site characterization (3.24–3.31) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4. PLANNING OF REMEDIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 General (4.1–4.2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Justification and optimization of remedial measures (4.3–4.12) . . . . 15 Remediation plan (4.13–4.19). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Radiological surveys (4.20–4.21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Dose assessment (4.22–4.23). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Safety and environmental assessments (4.24–4.25) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Funding of remediation (4.26–4.28). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 5. OPERATIONAL ASPECTS OF REMEDIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 General (5.1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Staff and training (5.2–5.5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Organization and administrative control (5.6). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Radiation protection during remediation (5.7–5.8). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 On-site and off-site monitoring during remediation (5.9–5.10) . . . . . 24 Waste management (5.11–5.14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Emergency planning (5.15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Site security (5.16) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Quality assurance (5.17–5.18). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Ensuring compliance with requirements (5.19–5.26). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 6. POST-REMEDIATION MANAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Release of areas (6.1–6.9) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Monitoring and surveillance plan (6.10–6.12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Records (6.13–6.15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 CONTRIBUTORS TO DRAFTING AND REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 BODIES FOR THE ENDORSEMENT OF IAEA SAFETY STANDARDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 1. INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND 1.1. A large number of areas that have been contaminated by residual radioactive material as a result of past activities or accidents require intervention1. These areas may be very large and of specific interest and may call for major commitments of resources in terms of funding and personnel. Some past activities and accidents have led to significant radioactive contamination of areas in many Member States. This contamination may represent a hazard to the general public and the environment. Other areas that were contaminated as a result of past or current practices2 are small and can be remediated as part of a larger decommissioning project, if such a project is being prepared, or as a standalone project. Member States have expressed a need for guidance on remediating areas contaminated by past activities and accidents. 1.2. The IAEA Safety Requirements publication on Remediation of Areas Contaminated by Past Activities and Accidents [1] establishes safety requirements for the remediation of areas that require intervention. Guidance on the remediation of smaller areas as part of the decommissioning process for practices is provided in Ref. [2]. OBJECTIVE 1.3. The objective of this Safety Guide is to provide guidance on implementing the requirements for the remediation of areas contaminated by past activities and accidents [1]. It is intended to be used by regulatory bodies, operators and others responsible for remediating sites and, in the case of an accident, contributing to the recovery process. 1 An intervention is defined as any action intended to reduce or avert exposure or the likelihood of exposure to sources which are not a part of a controlled practice or which are out of control as a consequence of an accident [3]. 2 A practice is defined as any human activity that introduces additional sources of exposure or exposure pathways or extends exposure to additional people or modifies the network of exposure pathways from existing sources, so as to increase the exposure or the likelihood of exposure of people or the number of people exposed [3]. 1 SCOPE 1.4. The situations dealt with in this Safety Guide are interventions for areas that have been contaminated as a result of human activities and that could cause prolonged radiation exposure. In this context, the term ‘areas’ is used in its broadest sense and can include land, water bodies and industrial sites. These areas may have been contaminated as a result of inadequate practices for radioactive waste management and disposal, accidental radioactive discharges to the environment that did not meet regulatory requirements, nuclear accidents, atomic weapon tests, incidents involving releases of radionuclides by users of radioactive material or past practices that were not adequately controlled. This Safety Guide also applies to radioactive discharges from facilities that were managed in accordance with less stringent requirements than those that are applied today. It could also be relevant in the event of malicious action involving radioactive material. This Safety Guide does not apply to facilities that are currently under regulatory control and that may have had emergencies that have contaminated small areas within the facility. 1.5. This publication provides recommendations for protective and remedial actions that are intended to reduce existing prolonged exposures due to contamination and to avert potential prolonged exposure or the likelihood of such exposure from related contamination. This includes remedial actions such as the removal of the source of exposure, as well as other long term protective actions such as restrictions on consumption of foodstuffs produced in the area and restriction of access to land areas or of land use. It covers other important measures linked to remediation activities, such as the need for monitoring programmes, although these do not contribute directly to the reduction of exposure. 1.6. In certain situations, non-radiological hazards may be present together with the radioactive contamination. Although the non-radiological hazards should be assessed in conjunction with radiological hazards to find an optimal remediation strategy, the scope of this publication does not include the manner in which this can be accomplished. 1.7. In the context of intervention situations, the term ‘remediation’ has a meaning that is similar to rehabilitation, reclamation and cleanup. It does not include decommissioning, as decommissioning refers to the full range of activities leading to the termination of an authorized activity. 2