Results from the AMS Hanford Aerial Radiological Survey (DOE/NV/03624--0832)

Abstract:

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration Aerial Measuring System (AMS), based at the Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSL), performed an aerial survey of the 200 West and 200 East Areas of the DOE Hanford Site in Washington State during September 2015. The survey was performed using the RSL Bell 412 helicopter equipped with twelve 2"x4"x16" thallium-activated sodium iodide (NaI) logs with their spectra summed to form a single detector and a mechanically-cooled high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector. Both detectors collected gamma ray spectra from naturally-occurring radioactive materials and from anthropogenic radioactive materials present due to activities at the site. Data was collected over the site during the 30 hours of survey flight time, resulting in approximately 100,000 one-second spectra collected by both the NaI array and the HPGe detector. These data have been analyzed to map the distribution of natural and anthropogenic radioactivity.

This work was done by Mission Support and Test Services, LLC, under Contract No. DE-NA0003624 with the U.S. Department of Energy. DOE/NV/03624--0832.