Environmental Monitoring at Argonne National Laboratory

Updated April 25, 2008

To help protect its employees and neighbors and the environment from possible exposure to toxic or radioactive materials used in its research programs, and to help comply with regulatory requirements to maintain safe environmental conditions, Argonne National Laboratory routinely monitors the air, ground- and surface water on and around the laboratory's Illinois site.

Radiation levels

Argonne estimates the potential radiation exposure to members of the public from Argonne operations by combining estimated exposures from several sources on site. The closest private residence to Argonne is about 3/10ths of a mile north of the site perimeter. If people living there were to stay outside in their yard 24 hours a day for 365 days, they would receive a total estimated dose of no more than 0.06 millirems per year, based on 2007 data, the most recent to have been analyzed. This is less than 1/250th the 20 millirem dose received from a typical medical chest X-ray. Most of this exposure would come from airborne emissions, which have been greatly reduced by remediation activities in the last few years.

Air monitoring

Argonne operates four on-site stack monitors, 11 air-monitoring stations at the site perimeter and four off site to estimate and verify possible exposures to employees and the public from airborne radioactive materials emitted from Argonne. The largest source of public exposure from air emissions sources in 2007 came from activation of air from neutron production.

Surface water monitoring

Argonne monitors for radionuclides and chemical pollutants in Sawmill Creek below the point where waste water is discharged from Argonne 's water treatment plants. At various times, measurable levels have been detected of tritium, strontium-90, cesium-137, plutonium-239 and americium-241. These levels present no danger to the public. No one uses Sawmill Creek for drinking water, but if they did, the estimated dose to a person who drank nothing but Sawmill Creek water for a year is 0.02 millirem a year -- about 1/1000th the dose from a chest X-ray. None of these radionuclides has been detected in the Des Plaines River , into which Sawmill Creek empties.

Argonne must meet Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) permit limits for surface water discharges. The permit requires Argonne to monitor water quality at 28 points at which the laboratory discharges water to local streams. The IEPA determines all sampling locations, parameters and frequencies. The IEPA closely monitors Argonne 's compliance with limits for total dissolved solids, copper, and ammonia. Some 1,600 measurements were taken in 2007. Only 23 results exceeded the permit limits.

Groundwater monitoring

Argonne operates 54 monitoring wells in an area used in the past for temporary storage of hazardous and radioactive waste. Measurable levels of organic compounds have been detected. Measurable levels of tritium, strontium-90 and cesium-137 were also present in several wells. An ongoing environmental study continues to assess the contamination, which is limited to a small area at the south side of the Argonne site. Groundwater flows south-southeast from Argonne toward the Des Plaines River through land that contains no residential wells.

Twenty-five of the 54 monitoring wells screen groundwater at Argonne 's former landfill on the west side of the site. Levels above water quality standards have been found for chloride, iron, manganese and total dissolved solids. Levels above natural background have been found for tritium and for some industrial chemicals, which are confined to the Argonne site.

Argonne continues to monitor the on-site wells formerly used as a source of domestic drinking water. Analysis shows water from these wells to be well within State of Illinois standards for groundwater quality. Some local communities and individuals still draw drinking water from wells in this aquifer.