523 



conducted in the vicinity of Novaya Zemlya for 35 years, resulting in the 

 deposition of fission products "on-site" and throughout the northern 

 hemisphere generally, including land and water areas. 



The release of these source terms in a riverine/marine system over long 

 periods of time implies a high degree of complexity in defining the scope of 

 characterization, assessment, and remedial measures planning. Given the 

 number and diversity of sources, the transport aspects alone will make the 

 linkage of environmental observations and source terms difficult. 



Principal Implications for Approach 



The long-term approach to this set of problems obviously involves source-term 

 characterization, assessment, and definition/assessment of remedial measures 

 of a large scale. The Pacific Northwest Laboratory, in addition to a decades- 

 long background of achievement in the radiological sciences, has directly 

 relevant experience in each of these areas from its work for the USDOE, USEPA, 

 and the international community. Perhaps as important, this experience 

 suggests that a problem of this complexity and scope cannot be addressed in a 

 simple progression through the above steps. Getting a first-order handle on 

 the relative contributions of sources and pathways will save many years of 

 effort, and considerable resources through early identification of the 

 important pathways and remedial possibilities. A complete program will 

 include field studies at release locations and in the environment and biota, 

 historical research on releases, and both large-scale modeling and local 

 transport modeling. Given the time required for historical research on the 

 source term, even the very first field characterization efforts should be 

 prioritized using available risk information. Thus a responsive program will 

 provide for an intensive and early assessment phase in parallel with program 

 formulation and planning. 



Both the time factor and the geographic extent of the problem argue for the 

 application of advanced remote sensing technology, the efficient fusion of 

 information across technologies, and the development of additional sensing 

 technology and measurement systems. PNL is familiar with this technology in 

 its current state, its hands-on application to national security and 

 environmental problems, and the prospects for technological evolution in the 

 near term. 



Finally, no large scale mitigation of this contamination will be accomplished 

 without the cost-effective application of current and new remediation 

 technologies. This require real world-experience in both the development and 

 application of technologies for confinement, retrieval, immobilization or in- 

 situ treatment of a wide range of wastes, often in combination. While no 

 organization has all of the required experience in this area for marine 

 environment, PNL, the University of Alaska and the Institute of Nuclear Safety 

 of the Russian Academy of Sciences have extensive recent involvement in both 

 oceanographic and environmental remediation/decontamination areas. 



