Chapter 4—Monitoring Accidental Radiation Releases ¢ 73
Figure 4-8—StandbyAlr Surveillance Network Stations
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86 standbyair surveillance stations are availabie and samples are collected and analyzed every 3 months to maintain a data base
SOURCE: Modified from Environmental Protection Agency.
level for drinking water) of krypton-85, chlorine-36,
therefore the most mobile of the radioactive maten-
Radioactive material from nuclear testing moves
through the groundwater at various rates and is
tritium (12.3 years) and
slow movement
of the
“
:
groundwaterpreventsit from reaching the Test Site
ruthenium-106, technetium-99 and iodine-129.
filtered by rock and sediment particles. Tritium,
however, is an isotope of hydrogen and becomes
incorporated in water molecules. Asa result, tritium
movesat the same rate as groundwater. Tritium is
als. Althoughtritium migrates, the short half-life of
boundary. No analysis of groundwater has ever
found tritium at a distance greater than a few
hundred meters from someoftheoldtest sites. None
of the water samples collected outside the bounda-