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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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No impact from Savannah River radioactive wasps
The news is abuzz with recent news stories about four radioactive wasp nests found at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The site has been undergoing cleanup operations since the 1990s related to the production of plutonium and tritium for defense purposes during the Cold War. Cleanup activities are expected to continue into the 2060s.
Peter Jacob, Herwig G. Paretzke
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 93 | Number 3 | July 1986 | Pages 248-261
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE86-A17754
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Exposure at 1 m above the ground from isotropic gamma-ray point sources in the soil has been studied by the Monte Carlo method for source energies from 40 keV to 5 MeV. Source depths from 0.1 down to 30 cm and horizontal distances out to 5 mfp have been considered. Considerable deviations were found in the results of different buildup factor methods since such methods do not account for geometric effects at the interface. Moreover, exposures from infinite and finite plane sources have been calculated. It is shown that, for source energies <662 keV, the buildup factor methods underestimate the kerma considerably. It is shown how surface roughness conditions can be accounted for by the introduction of an effective source depth in the soil. The validity of approximations used to describe the exposure from finite or inhomogeneous plane sources with values for infinite homogeneous plane sources was examined.