The Transuranic Aerosol Measurement System and Its Field Results

Sturdy, reliable, sensitive, and strategically placed monitoring instruments play a critical role in evaluating and minimizing the release of long-lived alpha-emitting substances to the environment from nuclear laboratories, fabrication plants, processing facilities, and waste repositories. This paper discusses field results of the Transuranic Aerosol Measurement System (TAMS). TAMS is a very sensitive measurement system with pseudo real-time response for determining the concentration of transuranics and other long-lived alpha emitters in corrosive stack-effluent streams and ambient air. Field testing of the TAMS prototype at the plutonium finishing facilities of the Rockwell Hanford Operation began in June 1978 and successfully ended in September 1978. The device proved to be at least 100 times more sensitive than presently available monitors.