Absorbed dose: The energy imparted to matter by ionizing radiation per unit mass of irradiated material at the place of interest in that material. Expressed in units of radiation absorbed dose or grays, where 1 radiation absorbed dose equals 0.01 gray. Also, see "radiation absorbed dose."
Accident sequence: An initiating event followed by system failures or operator errors, which can result in significant core damage, confinement system failure, and/or radionuclide releases.
Accountable weapon: The number of weapons associated with each missile or aircraft type limited by treaty. This does not include non-strategic nuclear forces, Department of Defense spares or spares needed to replace weapons disassembled by DOE surveillance testing.
Acute exposure: The exposure incurred during and shortly after a radiological release. Generally, the period of acute exposure ends when long-term interdiction is established, as necessary. For convenience, the period of acute exposure is normally assumed to end 1 week after the inception of a radiological accident.
Air pollutant: Any substance in air which could, if in high enough concentration, harm man, other animals, vegetation, or material. Pollutants may include almost any natural or artificial composition of matter capable of being airborne.Air Quality Control Region (AQCR): Geographic subdivisions of the U.S., designed to deal with pollution on a regional or local level. Some regions span more than one state.
Air quality standards: The level of pollutants in the air prescribed by regulations that may not be exceeded during a specified time in a defined area.
Alpha activity: The emission of alpha particles by fissionable materials (uranium or plutonium).
Alpha particle: A positively charged particle, consisting of two protons and two neutrons, that is emitted during radioactive decay from the nucleus of certain nuclides. It is the least penetrating of the three common types of radiation (alpha, beta, and gamma).
Alpha wastes: Wastes containing radioactive isotopes which decay by producing alpha particles.
Ambient air: The surrounding atmosphere as it exists around people, plants, and structures. Air quality standards are used to provide a measure of the health-related and visual characteristics of the air.
American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978: This Act establishes national policy to protect and preserve for Native Americans their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise their traditional religions, including the rights of access to religious sites, use and possession of sacred objects, and the freedom to worship through traditional ceremonies and rites.
Anadromous Fish Conservation Act: This act seeks to enhance the conservation and development of the anadromous fishery resources of the United States that are subject to depletion from water resources development.
Aquatic biota: The sum total of living organisms within any designated aquatic area.
Aquifer: A saturated geologic unit through which significant quantities of water can migrate under natural hydraulic gradients.
Aquitard: A less-permeable geologic unit in a stratigraphic sequence. The unit is not permeable enough to transmit significant quantities of water. Aquitards separate aquifers.
Archaeological sites (resources): Any location where humans have altered the terrain or discarded artifacts during either prehistoric or historic times.
Artifact: An object produced or shaped by human workmanship of archaeological or historical interest.
As low as reasonably achievable: A concept applied to the quantity of radioactivity released in routine operation of a nuclear system or facility, including "anticipated operational occurrences." It takes into account the state of technology, economics of improvements in relation to benefits to public health and safety, and other societal and economic considerations in relation to the use of nuclear energy in the public interest.
Atmospheric dispersion: The process of air pollutants being dispersed in the atmosphere. This occurs by the wind that carries the pollutants away from their source and by turbulent air motion that results from solar heating of the Earth's surface and air movement over rough terrain and surfaces.
Atomic Energy Act of 1954: This Act was originally enacted in 1946 and amended in 1954. For the purpose of this Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement "...a program for Government control of the possession, use, and production of atomic energy and special nuclear material whether owned by the Government or others, so directed as to make the maximum contribution to the common defense and security and the national welfare, and to provide continued assurance of the Government's ability to enter into and enforce agreements with nations or groups of nations for the control of special nuclear materials and atomic weapons..." (Section 3(c)).
Atomic Energy Commission: A five-member commission, established by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, to supervise nuclear weapons design, development, manufacturing, maintenance, modification, and dismantlement. In 1974, the Atomic Energy Commission was abolished and all functions were transferred to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Administrator of the Energy Research and Development Administration. The Energy Research and Development Administration was later terminated and its functions vested by law in the Administrator were transferred to the Secretary of Energy.
B-25 Package: A container designed for the storage of low level waste.
Background radiation: Ionizing radiation present in the environment from cosmic rays and natural sources in the Earth; background radiation varies considerably with location. Also, see"natural radiation."
Badged worker: A worker equipped with an individual dosimeter who has the potential to be exposed to radiation.
Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act: This act states that it is unlawful to take, pursue, molest, or disturb the American bald and golden eagle, their nests, or their eggs, anywhere in the United States.
Baseline: A quantitative expression of conditions, costs, schedule, or technical progress to serve as a base or standard for measurement during the performance of an effort; the established plan against which the status of resources and the progress of a project can be measured. For this Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, the environmental baseline is the site environmental conditions as they are projected to occur in 2005.
Beamlets: Independent laser beams.
BEIR V: Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation; referring to the fifth in a series of committee reports from the National Research Council.
Beryllium: An extremely lightweight, strong metal used in weapons systems.
Benthic: Plants and animals dwelling at the bottom of oceans, lakes, rivers, and other surface waters.
Best Available Control Technology (BACT): A term used in the Federal Clean Air Act that means the most stringent level of air pollutant control considering economics for a specific type of source based on demonstrated technology.
Beta particle: A charged particle emitted from the nucleus of an atom during radioactive decay. A negatively charged beta particle is identical to an electron. A positively charged beta particle is called a positron.
Beyond Evaluation Basis Accident (BEBA): An accident, generally with more severe impacts to onsite personnel and the public than a EBA or DBA, initiated by operational or external causes with an estimated probability of occurrence less than 10-6 per year and used for estimating the impacts of a planned new or modified facility and/or process. For those cases where a DBA is defined, these accidents are often referred to as Beyond Design Basis Accidents or Severe Accidents.
Biota (biotic): The plant and animal life of a region.
Boost: The process by which fusion of deuterium-tritium gas inside the pit of a nuclear weapon produces neutrons that increase the fission output of the primary.
Bremsstrahlung: The electromagnetic radiation produced by an accelerated charged particle, usually an electron.
Burial ground: A place for burying unwanted (i.e., radioactive) materials in which the earth acts as a receptacle to prevent the dispersion of wastes in the environment and the escape of radiation.
Burn: Fusion of two light nuclei (usually deuterium and tritium) to form a heavier nucleus (helium) accompanied by the release of neutrons and energy.
Calcination: The process of converting high-level waste to unconsolidated granules or powder. Calcined solid wastes are primarily salts and oxides of metals (heavy metals) and components of high level waste (also called calcining).
Caldera: A large crater formed by the collapse of the central part of a volcano.
Cancer: The name given to a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled cellular growth with cells having invasive characteristics such that the disease can transfer from one organ to another.
Canned subassembly: The component of a nuclear weapon which contains the secondary uranium and lithium elements.
Capability-based deterrence: Deterrence based on the capability to respond to stockpile reliability and safety problems and to meet new requirements.
Capable fault: A fault that has exhibited one or more of the following characteristics (10 CFR 100, Appendix A):
Capacity factor: The ratio of the annual average power load of a power plant to its rated capacity.
Carbon adsorption: A unit physiochemical process in which organic and certain inorganic compounds in a liquid stream are absorbed on a bed of activated carbon; used in water or waste purification and chemical processing.
Carbon dioxide: A colorless, odorless, nonpoisonous gas that is a normal component of the ambient air; it is an expiration product of normal plant and animal life.
Carbon monoxide: A colorless, odorless gas that is toxic if breathed in high concentration over a period of time.
Carolina bay: Ovate, intermittently flooded depression of a type occurring on the Coastal Plain from New Jersey to Florida.
Cask (radioactive materials): A container that meets all applicable regulatory requirements for shipping spent nuclear fuel or high-level waste.
Cesium: A silver-white alkali metal. A radioactive isotope of cesium, cesium-137, is a common fission product.
Chemical oxygen demand: A measure of the quantity of chemically oxidizable components present in water.
Chronic exposure: Low-level radiation exposure incurred over a long period of time.
Claystone: A massive sedimentary rock made up largely of clay minerals having the composition of shale, but lacking its fine lamination.
Clean Air Act: This Act mandates and enforces air pollutant emissions standards for stationary sources and motor vehicles.
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990: Expands the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement powers and adds restrictions on air toxics, ozone depleting chemicals, stationary and mobile emissions sources, and emissions implicated in rain and global warming.
Clean Water Act of 1972, 1987: This Act regulates the discharge of pollutants from a point source into navigable waters of the United States in compliance with a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit as well as regulates discharges to or dredging of wetlands.
Climatology: The science that deals with climates and investigates their phenomena and causes.
Code of Federal Regulations: All Federal regulations in force are published in codified form in the Code of Federal Regulations.
Collective committed effective dose equivalent: The committed effective dose equivalent of radiation for a population.
Combined impact: Depending on the scope of the program concerned, a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement may address more than one "Purpose and Need," each with its own set of alternatives. These several actions, however, may have common environments. The sum of these impacts with respect to the site concerned are combined impacts, as opposed to cumulative impacts, which incorporate the site-specific impacts of activities not otherwise related to the actions and alternatives in question.
Command disable: A subsystem of command and control features that destroys a weapon's ability to produce a nuclear yield.
Committed dose equivalent: The predicted total dose equivalent to a tissue or organ over a 50-year period after an intake of radionuclide into the body. It does not include external dose contributions. Committed dose equivalent is expressed in units of rem or Sievert. The committed effective dose equivalent is the sum of the committed dose equivalents to various tissues of the body, each multiplied by the appropriate weighting factor.
Common mode failure: A failure or defect affecting an entire class of weapon or weapon component: a particular concern with the enduring stockpile since it contains about seven weapon systems, many of which use components with common design features, or components manufactured using identical or similar processes.
Community (biotic): All plants and animals occupying a specific area under relatively similar conditions.
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (or Superfund): This Act provides regulatory framework for remediation of past contamination from hazardous waste. If a site meets the Act's requirements for designation, it is ranked along with other "Superfund" sites and is listed on the National Priorities List. This ranking is the Environmental Protection Agency's way of determining which sites have the highest priority for cleanup.
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT): A proposed treaty prohibiting nuclear tests of all magnitudes.
Computational Modeling: The use of a computer to develop a mathematical model of a complex system or process and to provide conditions for testing it.
Conceptual design: Efforts to develop a project scope that will satisfy program needs; ensure project feasibility and attainable performance levels of the project for congressional consideration; develop project criteria and design parameters for all engineering disciplines; and identify applicable codes and standards, quality assurance requirements, environmental studies, construction materials, space allowances, energy conservation features, health, safety, safeguards, and security requirements and any other features or requirements necessary to describe the project.
Consumptive water use: The difference in the volume of water withdrawn from a body of water and the amount released back into the body of water.
Container: The metal envelope in the waste package that provides the primary containment function of the waste package and is designed to meet the containment requirements of 10 CFR 60.
Conventional weapon: A nonnuclear weapon.
Credible accident: An accident that has a probability of occurrence greater than or equal to one in a million years.
Cretaceous Period: Geologic time making up the end of the Mesozoic Era, dating from approximately 144 million to 66 million years ago.
Criteria pollutants: Six air pollutants for which national ambient air quality standards are established by the Environmental Protection Agency under title I of the Federal Clean Air Act : sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, ozone, particulate matter (smaller than 10 microns in diameter), and lead.
Critical habitat: Defined in the Endangered Species Act of 1973 as "specific areas within the geographical area occupied by [an endangered or threatened] species..., essential to the conservation of the species and which may require special management considerations or protection; and specific areas outside the geographical area occupied by the species... that are essential for the conservation of the species."
Cultural resources: Archaeological sites, architectural features, traditional use areas, and Native American sacred sites or special use areas.
Cumulative impacts: In an Environmental Impact Statement, the impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions regardless of what agency (Federal or non-Federal), private industry, or individuals undertakes such other actions. Cumulative impacts can result from individually minor but collectively significant actions taking place over a period of time (40 CFR 1508.7).
Curie: A unit of radioactivity equal to 37 billion disintegrations per second; also a quantity of any nuclide or mixture of nuclides having 1 curie of radioactivity.
Decay heat (radioactivity): The heat produced by the decay of certain radionuclides.
Decay (radioactive): The decrease in the amount of any radioactive material with the passage of time, due to the spontaneous transformation of an unstable nuclide into a different nuclide or into a different energy state of the same nuclide; the emission of nuclear radiation (alpha, beta, or gamma radiation) is part of the process.
Decontamination: The actions taken to reduce or remove substances that pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment, such as radioactive or chemical contamination from facilities, equipment, or soils by washing, heating, chemical or electrochemical action, mechanical cleaning, or other techniques.
Deflagration: Rapid and powerful self-sustained burning of a propellant or explosive.
Delivery system (carrier): The military "vehicle" (e.g. ballistic or cruise missile, artillery shell, airplane, submarine) by which a nuclear weapon would be delivered; most warheads have been designed for specific delivery systems.
Demilitarization: An irreversible modification or destruction of a weapons component or part of a component to the extent required to prevent use in its original weapon purpose.
Depleted uranium: Uranium whose content of the isotope uranium-235 is less than 0.7 percent, which is the uranium-235 content of naturally occurring uranium.
Deposition: In geology, the laying down of potential rock-forming materials; sedimentation. In atmospheric transport, the settling out on ground and building surfaces of atmospheric aerosols and particles ("dry deposition") or their removal from the air to the ground by precipitation ("wet deposition" or "rainout").
Design laboratory: Department of Energy facilities involved in the design of nuclear weapons.
Deuterium: A nonradioactive isotope of the element hydrogen with one neutron and one proton in the atomic nucleus.
Direct economic effects: The initial increases in output from different sectors of the economy resulting from some new activity within a predefined geographic region.
Direct Effect Multiplier: The total change in regional earnings and employment in all related industries as a result of a one-dollar change in earnings and a one-job change in a given industry.
Direct jobs: The number of workers required at a site to implement an alternative.
Disposition: The ultimate "fate" or end use of a surplus Department of Energy facility following the transfer of the facility to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Waste Management.
Dolomite: Calcium magnesium carbonate, a limestone-like mineral.
Dose: The energy imparted to matter by ionizing radiation. The unit of absorbed dose is the rad.
Dose commitment: The dose an organ or tissue would receive during a specified period of time (e.g., 50 to 100 years) as a result of intake (as by ingestion or inhalation) of one or more radionuclides from a defined release, frequently over a year's time.
Dose equivalent: The product of absorbed dose in rad (or gray) and the effect of this type of radiation in tissue and a quality factor. Dose equivalent is expressed in units of rem or Sievert, where 1 rem equals 0.01 Sievert. The dose equivalent to an organ, tissue, or the whole body will be that received from the direct exposure plus the 50-year committed dose equivalent received from the radionuclides taken into the body during the year.
Dosimeter: A small device (instrument) carried by a radiation worker that measures cumulative radiation dose (e.g., film badge or ionization chamber).
Downthrow: The rocks on the side of a fault that have moved downward relative to the rocks on the other side of the fault.
Drainage basin: An aboveground area that supplies the water to a particular stream.
Drawdown: The height difference between the natural water level in a formation and the reduced water level in the formation caused by the withdrawal of groundwater.
Drinking-water standards: The prescribed level of constituents or characteristics in a drinking water supply that cannot be exceeded legally.
Dual use/dual benefit: Projects that have uses in or benefits for the defense sector and the private industry or civilian sector.
Effective dose equivalent: The summation of the products of the dose equivalent received by specified tissues of the body and a tissue-specific weighting factor. This sum is a risk-equivalent value and can be used to estimate the health effects risk of the exposed individual. The tissue-specific weighting factor represents the fraction of the total health risk resulting from uniform whole-body irradiation that would be contributed by that particular tissue. The effective dose equivalent includes the committed effective dose equivalent from internal deposition of radionuclides, and the effective dose equivalent due to penetrating radiation from sources external to the body. Effective dose equivalent is expressed in units of rem (or Sievert).
Effluent: A gas or fluid discharged into the environment.
Emission standards: Legally enforceable limits on the quantities and/or kinds of air contaminants that can be emitted into the atmosphere.
Empirical: Something that is based on actual measurement, observation, or experience rather than on theory.
Endangered species: Defined in the Endangered Species Act of 1973 as "any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range."
Endangered Species Act of 1973: This Act requires Federal agencies, with the consultation and assistance of the Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce, to ensure that their actions will not likely jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered or threatened species or adversely affect the habitat of such species.
Enduring stockpile: Weapons types expected to be retained in the smaller stockpile for the foreseeable future.
Energetic material: Generic term for high explosives and propellants.
Enhanced experimental and computational capabilities: Include aboveground experimental capabilities to study technical issues regarding weapons primaries, specifically high-resolution, multiple-time, multiple-view hydrodynamic experiments using simulant material.
Enhanced weapons and materials surveillance technologies: Includes hydrodynamic testing on test units built, when possible, with aged stockpile components (with modified pits using simulant materials) to provide important data on the effects of aging on weapons safety and performance.
Entrainment: The involuntary capture and inclusion of organisms in streams of flowing water, a term often applied to the cooling water systems. The organisms involved may include phyto- and zoo-plankton, fish eggs and larvae (ichthyoplankton), shellfish larvae, and other forms of aquatic life.
Environment, safety, and health program: In the context of the Department of Energy, encompasses those Department of Energy requirements, activities, and functions in the conduct of all Department of Energy and Department of Energy-controlled operations that are concerned with: impacts to the biosphere; compliance with environmental laws, regulations, and standards controlling air, water, and soil pollution; limiting the risks to the well-being of both operating personnel and the general public to acceptably low levels; and protecting property adequately against accidental loss and damage. Typical activities and functions related to this program include, but are not limited to, environmental protection, occupational safety, fire protection, industrial hygiene, health physics, occupational medicine, and process and facilities safety, nuclear safety, emergency preparedness, quality assurance, and radioactive and hazardous waste management.
Environmental assessment: A written environmental analysis that is prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act to determine whether a Federal action would significantly affect the environment and thus require preparation of a more detailed environmental impact statement. If the action would not significantly affect the environment, then a finding of no significant impact is prepared.
Environmental impact statement: A document required of Federal agencies by the National Environmental Policy Act for major proposals significantly affecting the environment. A tool for decision-making, it describes the positive and negative effects of the undertaking and alternative actions.
Environmental justice: The fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, incomes, and educational levels with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair treatment implies that no population of people should be forced to shoulder a disproportionate share of the negative environmental impacts of pollution or environmental hazards due to a lack of political or economic strength.
Environmental survey: A documented, multidisciplined assessment (with sampling and analysis) of a facility to determine environmental conditions and to identify environmental problems requiring corrective action.
Eocene: A geologic epoch early in the Cenozoic Era, dating from approximately 54 to 38 million years ago.
Epicenter: The point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake.
Epidemiology: The science concerned with the study of events that determine and influence the frequency and distribution of disease, injury, and other health-related events and their causes in a defined human population.
Evaluation Basis Accident (EBA): An accident, generally with small impacts to the public, initiated by operational or external causes with an estimated probability of occurrence greater than 10-6 per year and used for estimating the impacts of a planned new or modified facility and/or process when a Safety Analysis Report, that would define a Design Basis Accident (DBA), has not been prepared. A DBA is used to establish the performance requirements of structures, systems, and components that are necessary to maintain them in a safe shutdown condition indefinitely or to prevent or mitigate the consequences of the DBA so that the public and onsite personnel are not exposed to radiation in excess of appropriate guideline values.
Explosion (conventional): A chemical reaction or change of state that occurs in an exceedingly short time with the generation of high temperatures and large quantities of gaseous reaction products.
Explosion (nuclear): An explosion for which the energy is produced by a nuclear transformation, either fission or fusion. The term typically implies the release of enormous amounts (kilotons) of energy.
Exposure limit: The level of exposure to a hazardous chemical (set by law or a standard) at which or below which adverse human health effects are not expected to occur:
Fault: A fracture or a zone of fractures within a rock formation along which vertical, horizontal, or transverse slippage has occurred. A normal fault occurs when the hanging wall has been depressed in relation to the footwall. A reverse fault occurs when the hanging wall has been raised in relation to the footwall.
Finding of No Significant Impact: A document by a Federal agency briefly presenting the reasons why an action, not otherwise excluded, will not have a significant effect on the human environment and will not require an environmental impact statement.
Fissile material: Plutonium-239, uranium-233, uranium-235, or any material containing any of the foregoing.
Fission: The splitting of a heavy atomic nucleus into two nuclei of lighter elements, accompanied by the release of energy and generally one or more neutrons. Fission can occur spontaneously or be induced by neutron bombardment.
Fission products: Nuclei formed by the fission of heavy elements (primary fission products); also, the nuclei formed by the decay of the primary fission products, many of which are radioactive.
Fissure: A long and narrow crack in the earth.
Floodplain: The lowlands adjoining inland and coastal waters and relatively flat areas including at a minimum that area inundated by a 1-percent or greater chance flood in any given year. The base floodplain is defined as the 100-year (1.0 percent) floodplain. The critical action floodplain is defined as the 500-year (0.2 percent) floodplain.
Flux: Rate of flow through a unit area. See "neutron flux."
Formation: In geology, the primary unit of formal stratigraphic mapping or description. Most formations possess certain distinctive features.
Fossil: Impression or trace of an animal or plant of past geological ages that has been preserved in the earth's crust.
Fossiliferous: Containing a relatively large number of fossils.
Fugitive emissions: Emissions to the atmosphere from pumps, valves, flanges, seals, and other process points not vented through a stack. Also includes emissions from area sources such as ponds, lagoons, landfills, and piles of stored material.
Fusion: Nuclear reaction in which light nuclei are fused together to form a heavier nucleus, accompanied by the release of immense amounts of energy and fast neutrons.
Fusion ignition: A thermonuclear burn condition created when laser beams ignite and fuse a target containing a mixture of hydrogen isotopes.
Galvin Report: A study conducted for the Department of Energy as a post-Cold War assessment of DOE's ten largest laboratories. The overall objective of the study was to examine options for change within these laboratories and to propose specific alternatives for redirecting the scientific and engineering resources of these instructions toward the economic, environmental, defense, scientific, and energy needs of the Nation.
Gamma rays: High-energy, short-wavelength, electromagnetic radiation accompanying fission and emitted from the nucleus of an atom. Gamma rays are very penetrating and can be stopped only by dense materials (such as lead) or a thick layer of shielding materials.
Gaussian plume: The distribution of material (a plume) in the atmosphere resulting from the release of pollutants from a stack or other source. The distribution of concentrations about the centerline of the plume, which is assumed to decrease as a function of its distance from the source and centerline (Gaussian distribution), depends on the mean wind speed and atmospheric stability.
Genetic effects: The outcome resulting from exposure to mutagenic chemicals or radiation which results in genetic changes in germ line or somatic cells.
Geologic repository (mined geologic repository): A facility for the disposal of nuclear waste; the waste is isolated by placement in a continuous, stable geologic formation at depths greater than 300 meters.
Geology: The science that deals with the Earth: the materials, processes, environments, and history of the planet, including the rocks and their formation and structure.
Getter: Organic compounds used along with desiccants to control internal environments in nuclear weapons.
Glove box: An airtight box used to work with hazardous material, vented to a closed filtering system, having gloves attached inside of the box to protect the worker.
Groundwater: The supply of water found beneath the Earth's surface, usually in aquifers, which may supply wells and springs.
Half-life (radiological): The time in which half the atoms of a radioactive substance disintegrate to another nuclear form; this varies for specific radioisotopes from millionths of a second to billions of years.
Hazard Index: A summation of the Hazard Quotients for all chemicals now being used at a site and those proposed to be added to yield cumulative levels for a site. A Hazard Index value of 1.0 or less means that no adverse human health effects (non-cancer) are expected to occur.
Hazard quotient: The value used as an assessment of non-cancer associated toxic effects of chemicals, e.g., kidney or liver dysfunction. It is independent of a cancer risk, which is calculated only for those chemicals identified as carcinogens.
Hazard chemical: Under 29 CFR 1910, Subpart Z, "hazardous chemicals" are defined as "any chemical which is a physical hazard or a health hazard." Physical hazards include combustible liquids, compressed gases, explosives, flammables, organic peroxides, oxidizers, pyrophorics, and reactives. A health hazard is any chemical for which there is good evidence that acute or chronic health effects occur in exposed employees. Hazardous chemicals include carcinogens, toxic or highly toxic agents, reproductive toxins, irritants, corrosives, sensitizers, hepatotoxins, nephrotoxins, agents that act on the hematopoietic systm, and agents that damage the lungs, skin, eyes or mucous membranes.
Hazardous material: A material, including a hazardous substance, as defined by 49 CFR 171.8 which poses a risk to health, safety, and property when transported or handled.
Hazardous/toxic waste: Any solid waste (can also be semisolid or liquid, or contain gaseous material) having the characteristics of ignitability, corrosivity, toxicity, or reactivity, defined by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and identified or listed in 40 CFR 261 or by the Toxic Substances Control Act .
Heavy metals: Metallic or semimetallic elements of high molecular weight, such as mercury, chromium, cadmium, lead, and arsenic, that are toxic to plants and animals at known concentrations.
High efficiency particulate air filter: A filter used to remove particulates from dry gaseous effluent streams.
High energy pulsed power: A technique used in compressing electrical energy and storing it at high levels and then releasing it to a target in a very short time.
High explosives fabrication: The ability to fabricate any chemical compound or mechanical mixture that, when subjected to heat, impact, fraction, friction, shock, or other suitable initiation stimulus, undergoes a very rapid chemical change with the evolution of large volumes of highly heated gases that exert pressures in the surrounding medium.
High-level waste: The highly radioactive waste material that results from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, including liquid waste produced directly in reprocessing and any solid waste derived from the liquid. High-level waste contains a combination of transuranic waste and fission products in concentrations requiring permanent isolation.
Highly enriched uranium: Uranium in which the abundance of the isotope uranium-235 is increased well above normal (naturally occurring) levels.
Historic resources: Archaeological sites, architectural structures, and objects produced after the advent of written history dating to the time of the first Euro-American contact in an area.
Holocene: The current epoch of geologic time, which began approximately 10,000 years ago.
HT: Tritiated hydrogen gas which emits a low-energy beta particle and has a half-life of 12.3 years.
Hydraulic gradient: The difference in hydraulic head at two points divided by the distance between two points.
Hydrodynamic test: High-explosive nonnuclear experiment to investigate hydrodynamic aspects of primary function up to mid to late stages of pit implosion.
Hydrodynamics: The study of the motion of a fluid and of the interactions of the fluid with its boundaries, especially in the case of an incompressible inviscid fluid.
Hydrology: The science dealing with the properties, distribution, and circulation of natural water systems.
Hydronuclear experiment: Very low-yield experiment (less than a few pounds of nuclear energy released) to assess primary performance and safety with normal detonation.
Ignition: Self-sustained fusion burn of light nuclei.
Impingement: The process by which aquatic organisms too large to pass through the screens of a water intake structure become caught on the screens and are unable to escape.
Implosion: The sudden inward compression and reduction in volume of fissionable material with ordinary explosives in a nuclear weapon.
Incident-free risk: The radiological or chemical impacts resulting from packages aboard vehicles in normal transport. This includes the radiation or hazardous chemical exposure of specific population groups such as crew, passengers, and bystanders.
Indirect economic effects: Indirect effects result from the need to supply industries experiencing direct economic effects with additional outputs to allow them to increase their production. The additional output from each directly affected industry requires inputs from other industries within a region (i.e., purchases of goods and services). This results in a multiplier effect to show the change in total economic activity resulting from a new activity in a region.
Induced economic effects: The spending of households resulting from direct and indirect economic effects. Increases in output from a new economic activity lead to an increase in household spending throughout the economy as firms increase their labor inputs.
Indirect jobs: Within a regional economic area, jobs generated or lost in related industries as a result of a change in direct employment.
Inertial confinement fusion (ICF): A laser initiated nuclear fusion using the inertial properties of the reactants as a confinement mechanism.
Injection wells: A well that takes water from the surface into the ground, either through gravity or by mechanical means.
Insensitive high explosive: A high explosive that is specifically formulated to be less sensitive to shock and other stimuli that might be encountered in an accident; usually based on the compound TATB (triaminotrinitrobenzene); insensitive high explosives have lower energy densities than conventional high explosives and thus more material is required to produce the same explosive energy.
Interbedded: Occurring between beds or lying in a bed parallel to other beds of a different material.
Interim (permit) status: Period during which treatment, storage, and disposal facilities coming under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1980 are temporarily permitted to operate while awaiting denial or issuance of a permanent permit.
Intrusive pit reuse: A process which involves opening of a pit, modifying internal surfaces and features, and reassembly.
Ion: An atom that has too many or too few electrons, causing it to be chemically active; an electron that is not associated (in orbit) with a nucleus.
Ion exchange: A unit physiochemical process that removes anions and cations, including radionuclides, from liquid streams (usually water) for the purpose of purification or decontamination.
Ionizing radiation: Alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays, x rays, neutrons, high speed electrons, high speed protons, and other particles or electromagnetic radiation that can displace electrons from atoms or molecules, thereby producing ions.
Isotope: An atom of a chemical element with a specific atomic number and atomic mass. Isotopes of the same element have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons and different atomic masses.
Joint test assembly: A nonnuclear test configuration, with diagnostic instrumentation, of a warhead or bomb.
Joule: A metric unit of energy, work, or heat, equivalent to 1 watt-second, 0.737 foot-pound, or 0.239 calories.
Klystron: An electron tube used for the generation of ultrahigh-frequency current.
Lacustrine wetland: Lakes, ponds, and other enclosed open waters at least 8 ha (20 acres) in extent and not dominated by trees, shrubs, and emergent vegetation.
Large release: A release of radioactive material that would result in doses greater than 25 rem to the whole body or 300 rem to the thyroid at 1.6 kilometer from the control perimeter (security fence) of a reactor facility.
Laser: A device that produces a beam of monochromatic (single-color) "light" in which the waves of light are all in phase. This condition creates a beam that has relatively little scattering and has a high concentration of energy per unit area.
Latent fatalities: Fatalities associated with acute and chronic environmental exposures to chemical or radiation.
Limited-lifetime component: A weapon component that decays with age and must be replaced periodically.
Lithic: Pertaining to stone or a stone tool.
Loam: A soil composed of a mixture of clay, silt, sand, and organic matter.
Long-lived radionuclides: Radioactive isotopes with half-lives greater than about 30 years.
Low-level waste: Waste that contains radioactivity but is not classified as high-level waste, transuranic waste, spent nuclear fuel, or "11e(2) by-product material" as defined by DOE Order 5820.2A, Radioactive Waste Management. Test specimens of fissionable material irradiated for research and development only, and not for the production of power or plutonium, may be classified as low-level waste, provided the concentration of transuranic waste is less than 100 nanocuries per gram. Some low-level waste is considered classified because of the nature of the generating process and/or constituents, because the waste would tell too much about the process.
Manufacturing: see "production".
Maximum contaminant level: The maximum permissible level of a contaminant in water delivered to any user of a public water system. Maximum contaminant levels are enforceable standards.
Maximally exposed individual: A hypothetical person who could potentially receive the maximum dose of radiation or hazardous chemicals.
Megajoule: A unit of heat, work, or energy equal to 1 million joules. See "Joule".
Megawatt: A unit of power equal to 1 million watts. Megawatt thermal is commonly used to define heat produced, while megawatt electric defines electricity produced.
Meteorology: The science dealing with the atmosphere and its phenomena, especially as relating to weather.
Microelectronics: Integrated circuits and electronic devices constructed of individual circuit elements with dimensions of micrometers (10-6 m) on a carrier with dimensions of a centimeter (10-2 m).
Migration: The natural movement of a material through the air, soil, or groundwater; also, seasonal movement of animals from one area to another.
Migratory Bird Treaty Act: This act states that it is unlawful to pursue, take, attempt to take, capture, possess, or kill any migratory bird, or any part, nest, or egg of any such bird other than permitted activities.
Miller Report: A report subsequently published by SNL as Stockpile Surveillance Past and Future (SAND 95-2751) that describes a number of weapons systems that have been in the Nation's stockpile. The report provides historical examples of some of the problems with systems and documents several examples of unanticipated problems that arose following deployment of a weapons system of the stockpile.
Miocene Epoch: Geologic time in the Cenozoic Era dating from 26 to 7 million years ago.
Mix: Mixing of materials, usually with different densities and velocities, that can adversely affect nuclear weapon performance.
Mixed waste: Waste that contains both "hazardous waste" and "radioactive waste" as defined in this glossary.
Mock nuclear material: Material that is nonradioactive and nonfissile but similar in density and other characteristics to nuclear material and is used in place of a weapon's nuclear parts in hydrodynamic experiments and flight tests.
Modified Mercalli intensity: A level on the modified Mercalli scale. A measure of the perceived intensity of earthquake ground shaking with 12 divisions, from I (not felt by people) to XII (damage nearly total).
National Ambient Air Quality Standards: Air quality standards established by the Clean Air Act, as amended. The primary National Ambient Air Quality Standards are intended to protect the public health with an adequate margin of safety, and the secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards are intended to protect the public welfare from any known or anticipated adverse effects of a pollutant.
National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: A set of national emission standards for listed hazardous pollutants emitted from specific classes or categories of new and existing sources. These were implemented in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977.
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969: This Act is the basic national charter for the protection of the environment. It requires the preparation of an environmental impact statement for every major Federal action that may significantly affect the quality of the human or natural environment. Its main purpose is to provide environmental information to decision makers and the public so that actions are based on an understanding of the potential environmental consequences of a proposed action and its reasonable alternatives.
National Environmental Research Park: An outdoor laboratory set aside for ecological research to study the environmental impacts of energy developments. National environmental research parks were established by the Department of Energy to provide protected land areas for research and education in the environmental sciences and to demonstrate the environmental compatibility of energy technology development and use.
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended: This Act provides that property resources with significant national historic value be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It does not require any permits but, pursuant to Federal code, if a proposed action might impact an historic property resource, it mandates consultation with the proper agencies.
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System: Federal permitting system required for hazardous effluents regulated through the Clean Water Act, as amended.
National Register of Historic Places: A list maintained by the Secretary of the Interior of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects of prehistoric or historic local, state, or national significance. The list is expanded as authorized by Section 2(b) of the Historic Sites Act of 1935 (16 U.S.C. 462) and Section 101(a)(1)(A) of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended.
Neutron: An uncharged elementary particle with a mass slightly greater than that of the proton, found in the nucleus of every atom heavier than hydrogen-1; a free neutron is unstable and decays with a half-life of about 13 minutes into an electron and a proton.
Neutron flux: The product of neutron number density and velocity (energy) giving an apparent number of neutrons flowing through a unit area per unit time.
Nitrogen oxides: Refers to the oxides of nitrogen, primarily NO (nitrogen oxide) and NO2 (nitrogen dioxide). These are produced in the combustion of fossil fuels and can constitute an air pollution problem. When nitrogen dioxide combines with volatile organic compounds, such as ammonia or carbon monoxide, ozone is produced.
Nonattainment area: An air quality control region (or portion thereof) in which the Environmental Protection Agency has determined that ambient air concentrations exceed national ambient air quality standards for one or more criteria pollutants.
Nondestructive evaluation: Test method that does not involve damage to or destruction of the test sample; includes the use of ultrasonics, radiography, magnetic flux, and other techniques.
Nonintrusive modification pit reuse: Process which includes modification to the external surfaces and features of the pit. The pit remains sealed with the possible exception of cutting the pit tube.
Noninvasive imaging: Imaging method that does not damage the test specimen; includes radiography, computed tomography, and other techniques.
Nonnuclear component: Any one of thousands of parts that do not contain radioactive or fissile material that are required in a nuclear weapon.
Nonnuclear fabrication: Ability to fabricate nonnuclear components and perform nonnuclear component surveillance.
Nonproliferation: Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon materials, and nuclear weapon technology.
Nonproliferation Treaty: A treaty with the aim of controlling the spread of nuclear weapons technologies, limiting the number of nuclear weapons states and pursuing, in good faith, effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race. They treaty does not invoke stockpile reductions by nuclear states, and it does not address actions of nuclear states in maintaining their stockpiles.
Nova: A 10- beam, 100-TW neodymium glass fusion laser facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that was completed in 1984 and used for inertial confinement fusion target irradiation experiments.
Nuclear assembly: Collective term for the primary, secondary, and radiation case.
Nuclear component: A part of a nuclear weapon that contains fissionable or fusionable material.
Nuclear facility: A facility whose operations involve radioactive materials in such form and quantity that a nuclear hazard potentially exists to the employees or the general public. Included are facilities that: produce, process, or store radioactive liquid or solid waste, fissionable materials, or tritium; conduct separations operations; conduct irradiated materials inspection, fuel fabrication, decontamination, or recovery operations. Incidental use of radioactive materials in a facility operation (e.g.,check sources, radioactive sources, and X-ray machines) does not necessarily require a facility to be included in this definition.
Nuclear grade: Material of a quality adequate for use in a nuclear application.
Nuclear material: Composite term applied to: (1) special nuclear material; (2) source material such as uranium or thorium or ores containing uranium or thorium; and (3) by-product material, which is any radioactive material that is made radioactive by exposure to the radiation incident to the process of producing or using special nuclear material.
Nuclear Posture Review: A report, led by the Department of Defense, which addressed possible changes in U.S. nuclear policy (e.g., deployment status, targeting, force structure) and which recommendations and decisions will likely dictate further changes in the U.S. nuclear weapons program. The nuclear posture review commits the U.S. to maintaining a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent.
Nuclear production: Production operations for components of nuclear weapons that are fabricated from nuclear materials, including plutonium and uranium.
Nuclear reaction: A reaction in which an atomic nucleus is transformed into another isotope of that respective nuclide, or into another element altogether; it is always accompanied by the liberation of either particles or energy.
Nuclear warhead: A warhead that contains fissionable and fusionable material, the nuclear assembly, and nonnuclear components packaged as a deliverable weapon.
Nuclear weapon: The general name given to any weapon in which the explosion results from the energy released by reactions involving atomic nuclei, either fission, fusion, or both.
Nuclear Weapons Complex: The sites supporting the research, development, design, manufacture, testing, assessment, certification and maintenance of the Nation's nuclear weapons and the subsequent dismantlement of retired weapons.
Nuclide: A species of atom characterized by the constitution of its nucleus and hence by the number of protons, the number of neutrons, and the energy content.
Numerical simulation: The use of mathematical algorithms and models of physical processes to calculationally simulate the behavior or performance of a device or complex system.
Obsidian: A black volcanic glass.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration: Oversees and regulates workplace health and safety, created by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
Offsite: As used in this PEIS, the term denotes a location, facility, or activity occurring outside of the boundary of the entire DOE Complex site (ORR, SRS, Pantex, KCP, SNL, LANL, LLNL, or NTS). At sites which have detached remote locations (e.g., LLNL and Pantex) the term includes these boundaries or a part of the main site.
Onsite: As used in this PEIS, the term denotes a location or activity occurring somewhere within the boundary of the DOE Complex site (ORR, SRS, Pantex, KCP, SNL, LANL, LLNL, or NTS).
Onsite population: Department of Energy and contractor employees who are on duty, and badged onsite visitors.
Operable unit: A discrete action that comprises an incremental step toward comprehensively addressing site problems. This discrete portion of a remedial response manages migration or eliminates or mitigates a release, threat of release, or pathway of exposure. The cleanup of a site can be divided into a number of operable units.
Outfall: The discharge point of a drain, sewer, or pipe as it empties into a body of water.
Ozone: The triatomic form of oxygen; in the stratosphere, ozone protects the Earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays, but in lower levels of the atmosphere ozone is considered an air pollutant.
Packaging: The assembly of components necessary to ensure compliance with Federal regulations. It may consist of one or more receptacles, absorbent materials, spacing structures, thermal insulation, radiation shielding, and devices for cooling or absorbing mechanical shocks. The vehicle tie-down system and auxiliary equipment may be designated as part of the packaging.
Paleontology: The study of fossils.
Paleozoic Era: Geologic time dating from 570 million to 245 million years ago when seed-bearing plants, amphibians, and reptiles first appeared.
Palustrine wetland: Nontidal wetlands dominated by trees, shrubs, and emergent vegetation.
Perched groundwater: A body of groundwater of small lateral dimensions lying above a more extensive aquifer.
Performance: The ability of a nuclear weapon or weapon system to operate in specified manner (e.g., yield, range, accuracy, radiation spectrum) under stated conditions. (Essentially equivalent to reliability.)
Permeability: geology, t he ability of rock or soil to transmit a fluid.
Person-rem: The unit of collective radiation dose commitment to a given population; the sum of the individual doses received by a population segment.
Physical setting: The land and water form, vegetation, and structures that compose the landscape.
Physics dealing with weapons primary: Issues related to the reliability and safety of the primary high explosive and plutonium core, which is involved in the reaction up to the point where nuclear criticality is achieved. Without proper primary-stage function, the weapon secondary will not work.
Physics dealing with weapons secondary: Issues related to the implosion of the secondary portion of uranium and lithium, a nuclear reaction that results in the thermonuclear explosion.
Pit: The central core of a nuclear weapon containing plutonium-239 and/or highly enriched uranium that undergoes fission when compressed by high explosives. The pit and the high explosive are known as the primary of a nuclear weapon.
Plasma: An electrically neutral, gaseous mixture of positive and negative ions, sometimes called a fourth state of matter since it behaves differently from solids, liquids, and gases. High-temperature, high-density plasmas are created in nuclear weapons and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments.
Playa: A basin or a closed depression found within a dry environment that may contain water on a seasonal basis.
Pleistocene Epoch: Geologic time that occurred approximately 11,000 to 2 million years ago.
Pliocene Epoch: Geologic time between the Miocene and the Pleistocene epochs approximately 2 to 7 million years ago.
Plume: The elongated pattern of contaminated air or water originating at a point source, such as a smokestack or a hazardous waste disposal site.
Plume immersion: Occurs when an individual is enveloped by a cloud of radioactive gaseous effluent and receives an external radiation dose.
Plutonium: A heavy, radioactive, metallic element with the atomic number 94. It is produced artificially in a reactor by bombardment of uranium with neutrons and is used in the production of nuclear weapons.
Potentiometric surface: An imaginary surface defined by the level that water will rise to in a tightly-cased well.
Pounds per square inch: A measure of pressure; atmospheric pressure is about 14.7 pounds per square inch.
Prehistoric: Predating written history. In North America, also predating contact with Europeans.
Prevention of Significant Deterioration: Regulations established by the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments to limit increases in criteria air pollutant concentrations above baseline.
Prime farmland: Land that has the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics for producing food, feed, fiber, forage, oilseed, and other agricultural crops with minimum inputs of fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, and labor without intolerable soil erosion, as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture (Farmland Protection Policy Act of 1981, 7 CFR 7, paragraph 658).
Probable maximum flood: Flood levels predicted for a scenario having hydrological conditions that maximize the flow of surface waters.
Product realization: The process that converts the nuclear assembly, nonnuclear components, subsystems, and system-level requirements into manufacturable designs and hardware.
Production: Encompasses the fabrication, processing, assembly, and acceptance testing of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon components, and is interchangeable with the term manufacturing.
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS): A legal document prepared in accordance with the requirements of 102(2)(C) of NEPA which evaluates the environmental impacts of proposed Federal Actions that involve multiple decisions potentially affecting the environment at one or more sites.
Project-specific EIS: A legal document prepared in accordance with the requirements of 102(2)(C) of NEPA which evaluates the environmental impacts of a single action at a single site.
Proliferation: The spread of nuclear weapons and the materials and technologies used to produce them.
Protected area: An area encompassed by physical barriers, subject to access controls, surrounding material access areas, and meeting the standards of DOE Order 5632.1C, Protection and Control of Safeguards and Security Interests .
Quality factor: The principal modifying factor that is employed to derive dose equivalent from absorbed dose.
Rad: See "radiation absorbed dose."
Radiation: The particles or electromagnetic energy emitted from the nuclei of radioactive atoms. Some elements are naturally radioactive; others are induced to become radioactive by bombardment in a reactor. Naturally occurring radiation is indistinguishable from induced radiation.
Radiation absorbed dose: The basic unit of absorbed dose equal to the absorption of 0.01 joule per kilogram of absorbing material.
Radioactive waste: Materials from nuclear operations that are radioactive or are contaminated with radioactive materials, and for which use, reuse, or recovery are impractical.
Radioactivity: The spontaneous decay or disintegration of unstable atomic nuclei, accompanied by the emission of radiation.
Radioisotopes: Radioactive nuclides of the same element (same number of protons in their nuclei) that differ in the number of neutrons.
Radionuclide: A radioactive element characterized according to its atomic mass and atomic number which can be man-made or naturally occurring. Radionuclides can have a long life as soil or water pollutants, and are believed to have potentially mutagenic or carcinogenic effects on the human body.
Radon: Gaseous, radioactive element with the atomic number 86 resulting from the radioactive decay of radium. Radon occurs naturally in the environment, and can collect in unventilated enclosed areas, such as basements. Large concentrations of radon can cause lung cancer in humans.
RADTRAN: A computer code combining user-determined meteorological, demographic, transportation, packaging, and material factors with health physics data to calculate the expected radiological consequences and accident risk of transporting radioactive material.
Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT): The lowest emissions limit that a particular source is capable of meeting by the application of control technology that is reasonably available as well as technologically and economically feasible.
Receiving waters: Rivers, lakes, oceans, or other bodies of water into which wastewaters are discharged.
Recharge: Replenishment of water to an aquifer.
Record of Decision: A document prepared in accordance with the requirements of 40 CFR 1505.2 that provides a concise public record of DOE's decision on a proposed action for which an EIS was prepared. A ROD identifies the alternatives considered in reaching the decision, the environmentally preferable alternative(s), factors balanced by DOE in making the decision, whether all practicable means to avoid or minimize environmental harm have been adopted, and if not, why they were not.
Regional economic area: A geographic area consisting of an economic node and the surrounding counties that are economically related and include the places of work and residences of the labor force. Each regional economic area is defined by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Region of influence (ROI): A site-specific geographic area that includes the counties where approximately 90 percent of the current DOE and/or contractor employees reside.
Reliability: The ability of a nuclear weapon, weapon system, or weapon component to perform its required function under stated conditions for a specified period of time. (Essentially equivalent to performance.)
Rem: See "roentgen equivalent man."
Remediation: The process, or a phase in the process, of rendering radioactive, hazardous, or mixed waste environmentally safe, whether through processing, entombment, or other methods.
Replacement Pit Fabrication: This function includes the fabrication, surveillance, and storage of the primary high explosive and plutonium core of a nuclear weapon.
Replacement Secondary Fabrication: This function includes the fabrication, surveillance, and storage of the secondary uranium and lithium portion of a nuclear weapon.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended: The Act that provides "cradle to grave" regulatory program for hazardous waste which established, among other things, a system for managing hazardous waste from its generation until its ultimate disposal.
Retrofit: To furnish (e.g., a weapon) with new parts, equipment, or features not available at the time of manufacture.
Rhyolite: A volcanic rock rich in silica; the volcanic equivalent of granite.
Rightsizing: Denotes the facility modification, rearrangement, and refurbishment necessary to size future weapon manufacturing facilities appropriately for the workload to be accomplished. In general, rightsizing involves reductions in the size of facilities, but not in their capabilities. Rightsizing is not driven by assumptions about future DOE budget levels, but rather is driven by the need to size facilities at the level necessary for long-term workload accomplishment.
Riparian wetlands: Wetlands on or around rivers and streams.
Risk: A quantitative or qualitative expression of possible loss that considers both the probability that a hazard will cause harm and the consequences of that event.
Risk assessment (chemical or radiological): The qualitative and quantitative evaluation performed in an effort to define the risk posed to human health and/or the environment by the presence or potential presence and/or use of specific chemical or radiological materials.
Roentgen: A unit of exposure to ionizing X- or gamma radiation equal to or producing 1 electrostatic unit of charge per cubic centimeter of air. It is approximately equal to 1 rad.
Roentgen equivalent man: The unit of radiation dose for biological absorption: equal to the product of the absorbed dose, in rads, a quality factor which accounts for the variation in biological effectiveness of different types of radiation. Also known as "rem".
Runoff: The portion of rainfall, melted snow, or irrigation water that flows across the ground surface and eventually enters streams.
Safe Drinking Water Act, as amended: This Act protects the quality of public water supplies, water supply and distribution systems, and all sources of drinking water.
Safe secure trailer: A specially designed semitrailer, pulled by an armored tractor, which is used for the safe, secure transportation of cargo containing nuclear weapons or special nuclear material.
Safety: Minimizing the possibility that a nuclear weapon will be exposed to accidents and preventing the possibility of nuclear yield or plutonium dispersal should there be an accident involving a nuclear weapon.
Safety Analysis Report: A safety document providing a concise but complete description and safety evaluation of a site, design, normal and emergency operation, potential accidents, predicted consequences of such accidents, and the means proposed to prevent such accidents or mitigate their consequences. A safety analysis report is designated as final when it is based on final design information. Otherwise, it is designated as preliminary.
Saltstone: Low radioactivity fraction of high-level waste from the in-tank precipitation process mixed with cement, flyash, and slag to form a concrete block.
Sandstone: A sedimentary rock predominantly containing individual mineral grains visible to the unaided eye.
Sanitary wastes: Wastes generated by normal housekeeping activities, liquid or solid (includes sludge), which are not hazardous or radioactive.
Sanitization: An irreversible modification or destruction of a component or part of a component to the extent required to prevent revealing classified or otherwise controlled information.
Scope: In a document prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the range of actions, alternatives, and impacts to be considered.
Scoping: Involves the solicitation of comments from interested persons, groups, and agencies at public meetings, public workshops, in writing, electronically, or via fax to assist DOE in defining the proposed action, identifying alternatives, and developing preliminary issues to be addressed in an EIS.
Scrubber: An air pollution control device that uses a spray of water or reactant or a dry process to trap pollutants in emissions.
Sealed pit: A nuclear weapon pit that is hermetically closed to protect nuclear materials from the environment. Note: This is the unclassified definition from the Weapons Program Classification Guide (CG-W-5). "Pit" is already defined in the glossary.
Secondary: See "weapon secondary."
Security: Minimizing the likelihood of unauthorized access to or loss of custody of a nuclear weapon or weapon system, and ensuring that the weapon can be recovered should unauthorized access or loss of custody occur.
Sedimentation: The settling out of soil and mineral solids from suspension in water.
Seismic: Pertaining to any earth vibration, especially an earthquake.
Seismic zone: An area defined by the Uniform Building Code (1991), designating the amount of damage to be expected as the result of earthquakes. The United States is divided into six zones: (1) Zone 0 - no damage; (2) Zone 1 - minor damage; corresponds to intensities V and VI of the modified Mercalli intensity scale; (3) Zone 2A - moderate damage; corresponds to intensity VII of the modified Mercalli intensity scale (eastern U.S.); (4) Zone 2B - slightly more damage than 2A (western U.S.); (5) Zone 3 - major damage; corresponds to intensity VII and higher of the modified Mercalli intensity scale; (6) Zone 4 - areas within Zone 3 determined by proximity to certain major fault systems.
Seismicity: The tendency for the occurrence of earthquakes.
Self-aware weapon: A stockpile weapon fitted with an integrated network of miniature "smart" sensors (sensing and measuring devices with built-in intelligence capabilities) and self-test features that monitor the weapon's environment (e.g., temperature, moisture, vibration), detect material decomposition products and corrosion, check cable continuity, determine the functionality of weapon subsystems, and alert a central location if any monitored parameters are outside the permitted range.
Severe accident: An accident with a frequency rate of less than 10-6 per year that would have more severe consequences than a design-basis accident, in terms of damage to the facility, offsite consequences, or both.
Sewage: The total of organic waste and wastewater generated by an industrial establishment or a community.
Shielding: Any material of obstruction (bulkheads, walls, or other constructions) that absorbs radiation in order to protect personnel or equipment.
Short-lived nuclides: Radioactive isotopes with half-lives no greater than about 30 years (e.g., cesium-137 and strontium-90).
Shrink-swell potential: Refers to the potential for soils to contract while drying and expand after wetting.
Silt: A sedimentary material consisting of fine mineral particles intermediate in size between sand and clay.
Siltstone: A sedimentary rock composed of fine textured minerals.
Simulant material: Materials used to modify a weapon pit to prevent the device from becoming critical.
Site-Wide EIS: A legal document prepared in accordance with the requirements of 102(2)(C) of NEPA which evaluates the environmental impacts of many actions at one large, multiple-facility DOE site. Site-wide EISs are used to support specific decisions.
Source term: The estimated quantities of radionuclides or chemical pollutants released to the environment.
Special nuclear materials: As defined in Section 11 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, special nuclear material means (1) plutonium, uranium enriched in the isotope 233 or in the isotope 235, and any other material which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determines to be special nuclear material or (2) any material artificially enriched by any of the foregoing.
Standardization (Epidemiology): Techniques used to control the effects of differences (e.g., age) between populations when comparing disease experience. The two main methods are:
START I and II: Terms which refer to negotiations between the U.S. and Russia (the former Soviet Union during START I negotiations) aimed at limiting and reducing nuclear arms. START I discussions began in 1982 and eventually led to a ratified treaty in 1988. The START II protocol, which has not been fully ratified, will attempt to further reduce the acceptable levels of nuclear weapons ratified in START I.
Steppe: A semi-arid, grass-covered, and generally treeless plain.
Stockpile assurance: The umbrella term for stockpile management and stockpile stewardship; all the tasks required to ensure that the U.S. has a credible nuclear deterrent.
Stockpile surveillance: Routine and periodic examination, evaluation, and testing of stockpile weapons and weapon components to ensure that they conform to performance specifications and to identify and evaluate the effect of unexpected or age-related requirements.
Strategic reserve: That quantity of plutonium and highly enriched uranium reserved for future weapons use. For the purposes of this PEIS, strategic reserves of plutonium will be in the form of pits, and strategic reserves of highly enriched uranium will be in the form of canned secondary assemblies. Strategic reserves also include limited quantities of plutonium and highly enriched uranium metal maintained as working inventory at DOE laboratories.
Stratigraphy: Division of geology dealing with the definition and description of rocks and soils, especially sedimentary rocks.
Strike: The direction or trend that a structural surface (e.g., a bedding or fault plane) takes as it intersects the horizontal.
Subcritical experiment: A dynamic experiment that involves the use of special nuclear material and does not achieve a condition of criticality (i.e., no self-sustaining nuclear reaction).
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986: Public Law 99-499 passed in 1986 which amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980. SARA more stringently defines hazardous waste cleanup standards and emphasizes remedies that permanently and significantly reduce the mobility, toxicity, or volume of wastes. Title III of SARA, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act , mandates establishment of community emergency planning programs, emergency notification, reporting of chemicals, and emission inventories.
Surface water: Water on the Earth's surface, as distinguished from water in the ground (groundwater).
System integration: The process by which individual components are engineered into a system that meets performance requirements.
Tertiary Period: The first geologic period of the Cenozoic Era, dating from 66 million to about 3 million years ago. During this time, mammals became the dominant life form.
Test readiness: Maintaining the critical technologies, staff skills, and infrastructure to be able to resume nuclear testing if and when mandated by the President.
Thermonuclear: The process by which very high temperatures are used to bring about the fusion of light nuclei, such as deuterium and tritium, with the accompanying release of energy.
Third Thirds waste: The Environmental Protection Agency proposed the Third Thirds Rule, as required by the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984, to establish treatment standards and effective dates for all wastes (including characteristic wastes) for which treatment standards had not yet been promulgated (40 CFR 268.12), including derived-from wastes (i.e., multi-source leachage), and for mixed radioactive/hazardous wastes.
Threatened species: Any species that is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.
Threshold limit values: The recommended concentrations of contaminants workers may be exposed to according to the American Council of Governmental Industrial Hygienists.
Tokamak: A toroidal (doughnut-shaped) chamber for electromagnetic confinement of plasmas, used in fusion-related experiments and research.
Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976: This Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to secure information on all new and existing chemical substances and to control any of these substances determined to cause an unreasonable risk to public health or the environment. This law requires that the health and environmental effects of all new chemicals be reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency before they are manufactured for commercial purposes.
Transuranic waste: Waste contaminated with alpha-emitting radionuclides with half-lives greater than 20 years and concentrations greater than 100 nanocuries/gram at time of assay.
Tritium: A radioactive isotope of the element hydrogen with two neutrons and one proton. Common symbols for the isotope are H-3 and T.
Unconfined aquifer: A permeable geological unit having the following properties: a water-filled pore space (saturated), the capability to transmit significant quantities of water under ordinary differences in pressure, and an upper water boundary that is at atmospheric pressure.
Unreviewed safety question: A proposed change, test, or experiment is considered to involve an unreviewed safety question if (1) the probability of occurrence or the consequences of an accident or malfunction of equipment important to safety evaluated previously by safety analyses will be significantly increased or (2) a possibility for an accident or malfunction of a different type than any evaluated previously by safety analyses will be created that will result in significant safety consequences.
Unsaturated zone (vadose): A region in a porous medium in which the pore space is not filled with water.
Unusual occurrence: Any unusual or unplanned event that adversely affects or potentially affects the performance, reliability, or safety of a facility.
Uranium: A naturally occuring heavy, silvery-white metallic element (atomic number 92) with many radioactive isotopes. Uranium-235 is most commonly used as a fuel for nuclear fission. Another isotope, uranium-238, can be transformed into fissionable plutonium-239 following its capture of a neutron in a nuclear reactor.
Vitrification: A waste treatment process that uses glass (e.g., borosilicate glass) to encapsulate or immobilize radioactive wastes to prevent them from reacting with the surroundings in disposal sites.
Volatile organic compounds: A broad range of organic compounds, often halogenated, that vaporize at ambient or relatively low temperatures, such as benzene, chloroform, and methyl alcohol.
War Reserve: Operational weapons and materials designated as essential for national security needs.
Warhead: Collective term for the package of nuclear assembly and nonnuclear components that can be mated with a delivery vehicle or carrier to produce a deliverable nuclear weapon.
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: A facility in southeastern New Mexico being developed as the disposal site for transuranic waste, not yet in operation.
Waste minimization and pollution prevention: An action that economically avoids or reduces the generation of waste and pollution by source reduction, reducing the toxicity of hazardous waste and pollution, improving energy use, or recycling. These actions will be consistent with the general goal of minimizing present and future threats to human health, safety, and the environment.
Water table: Water under the surface of the ground occurs in two zones, an upper unsaturated zone and the deeper saturated zone. The boundary between the two zones is the water table.
Weaponization: Converting the functional requirements for a weapon into integrated systems designs and prototype hardware.
Weapon primary: The crucial subsystem for weapon reliability and safety; the primary contains the main high explosive and the plutonium that comprise the principal safety concerns. Without proper primary-stage function, the secondary will not work.
Weapon secondary: Provides additional explosive energy release; composed of lithium deuteride and other materials. As the secondary implodes, the lithium in the isotopy form lithium-6. is converted to tritium by neutron interactions, and the tritium product in turn undergoes fusion with the deuterium to create the thermonuclear explosion.
Weapons-grade: Fissionable material in which the abundance of fissionable isotopes is high enough that the material is suitable for use in thermonuclear weapons.
Weapons assembly/disassembly: Assembly operations assembles piece parts into subassemblies using joining techniques such as welding, adhesive bonding, and mechanical joining. Disassembly takes retired weapons apart and recycles all materials of value.
Weapons effects: Deals with outputs of nuclear weapons and the associated effects on materials and the environment.
Weapons laboratories: Colloquial term for the three Department of Energy national laboratories--Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia--that are responsible for the design, development, and stewardship of U.S. nuclear weapons.
Weapon system: Collective term for the nuclear assembly and nonnuclear components, subsytems, and systems that comprise a nuclear weapon.
Weighting factor: Represents the fraction of the total health risk resulting from uniform whole-body irradiation that could be contributed to that particular tissue.
Wetland: Land or areas exhibiting hydric soil conditions, saturated or inundated soil during some portion of the year, and plant species tolerant of such conditions.
Whole-body dose: Dose resulting from the uniform exposure of all organs and tissues in a human body. (Also, see "effective dose equivalent.")
Wind rose: A depiction of wind speed and direction frequency for a given period of time.
Worker year: Measurement of labor requirement equal to 1 full time worker employed for 1 year.
X/Q (Chi/Q): The relative calculated air concentration due to a specific air release; units are (sec/m3 ). For example, (Ci/m3 )/(Ci/sec)=(sec/m3 ) or (g/m3 )/(g/sec)=(sec/m3 ).
Yield: The force in tons of TNT of a nuclear or thermonuclear explosion.
Zero-based stockpile: A nuclear weapons stockpile with zero nuclear weapons and therefore requiring no stockpile management effort.