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Plutonium-Powered Batteries (Plutonium-238)

Contact INL Oversight

Boise Office

1410 N. Hilton

Boise, ID 83706

ph: (208) 373-0498

fx: (208) 373-0429

Idaho Falls Office

900 N. Skyline Dr.

Idaho Falls, ID 83402

ph: (208) 528-2600

fx: (208) 528-2605

INL Oversight Staff List

Contamination at INL:

Plutonium Overview

Introduction

Exposure to Plutonium
Monitoring for Plutonium
Cleanup Activities
 
 Introduction

Plutonium is one of many contaminants released to the environment from INL operations and waste disposal. Although it may not be the most toxic, the most hazardous or the most radioactive, plutonium causes many people concern because of its mis-characterization as "the most dangerous substance known to man."

At times it seems there are more questions than answers. As is the case with many different types of environmental contamination, well-respected scientists have legitimate disagreements about how plutonium will behave in the environment and to what extent it affects human health. We can't always provide the definitive answers we would all like to have, but we'll do our best to explain a complex topic and continue to work with other government agencies to seek answers.

 
 Exposure to Plutonium

Because of aboveground nuclear weapons testing, radioactive fallout reached the earth's atmosphere and is widespread across the earth's surface. Some of that fallout was plutonium. As a result, most of us have small quantities of plutonium in our bodies and in the upper layer of soil in our yards.

Plutonium's radioactivity is largely in the form of alpha particles, the same type of radiation emitted by decay of naturally occurring uranium and thorium. Alpha particles cannot travel far in air, so our skin (or something as thin as a piece of paper) will prevent them from entering our bodies. However, if alpha-emitting radionuclides are ingested or inhaled they may become trapped in the lungs and emit alpha radiation, damaging the surrounding tissue and potentially increasing the risk of cancer.
 
 Monitoring for Plutonium

The Oversight Program is one of several organizations monitoring the environment on and around the INL to ensure contamination from the INL does not pose a public health threat. Since the Oversight Program began environmental monitoring in 1993, it has not detected contamination outside INL boundaries attributable to the INL at levels that would pose a health risk to the public. Contamination from the INL is mostly confined well within the site's borders.

Small quantities of plutonium have been detected in ground water beneath the INL. DOE acknowledges that injection wells at the INL disposed of 16 to 18 billion gallons of contaminated water directly into the aquifer. Some of this wastewater contained very small amounts of plutonium. INL stopped using all of its injection wells, but plutonium and other types of contamination remain in the water beneath the INL. There have also been releases of plutonium to soil and ground water from other INL facilities. Plutonium is also present in some buried waste on site.

Plutonium is routinely monitored for and is occasionally detected. Plutonium has not been detected on a consistent basis and some of the detections are questionable because plutonium was not detected in duplicate or archival samples or when samples were reanalyzed. Monitoring data have not shown trends or increasing concentrations of plutonium in the ground water. There is no evidence plutonium or other contamination from the INL poses a risk to human health, the environment, our agricultural products, or livestock.

The consensus among scientists associated with the Idaho National Laboratory is that the chemistry of the soils and ground water at the INL and the form in which plutonium exists at INL impedes its ability to move under natural conditions. Plutonium will not travel as a dissolved component of the ground water, but may travel as a particle either by its self or attached to something else such as clay particles. Plutonium traveling in this manner is likely to appear as an occasional, seemingly “random” detection at very low concentrations. Our best response to these occasional detections is to diligently continue monitoring.
 
 Cleanup Activities
Contamination, including plutonium, other radioactive materials and chemicals, from INL activities at the INL, is being addressed under the Cleanup Agreement and the Settlement Agreement. Although cleanup actions will take time - in some cases several years - to complete, they are designed to remove INL contamination or reduce it’s potential for migrating to ground water or the atmosphere.
 



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