Radiological Pollution Monitoring Using Composite Sampling

The atomic weapons establishment (AWE) has a goal to achieve world class performance in safety, quality, environmental and health management by setting industry wide standards. Within its remit as a nuclear licensed site regulated by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), AWE has a key responsibility to ensure that its activities cause no risk to the population or the environment. Radiological monitoring of all materials; solid, liquid or gas; is carried out extensively, with more than 3000 samples of air, soil, surface water, sediment, rainwater, fish, milk and vegetables taken in a typical year, in order to define the concentrations of radioactivity in the material and to sentence (classify) it appropriately. This paper presents composite sampling as a promising alternative to the sampling methods currently used by the UK nuclear industry for radiological pollution monitoring. Composite sampling involves compositing (mixing) several compositing objects together before analysis or measurement takes place; it is increasingly being adopted for use in environmental monitoring, where it is found to be a very cost efficient method due to the high costs of measuring the amount of contaminant in a given substance. This paper shows how composite sampling can be used in a sentencing context and also demonstrates the application of these methods through a soil sampling case study. This research has been put forward to the inter-industry clearance and exemptions working group under the nuclear industry´s safety director´s forum. Potentially this work may be expanded for inclusion in the Nuclear Industry code of practice on clearance and exemption and would thus be part of a methodology regarded as best practice by the environment agencies.