The Savannah River Site’s (SRS) Environmental Monitoring Program detects and identifies the effects of Site operations on the local environment; it has become the framework for a new nationally applied nuclear industry standard. Teresa Eddy, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) Manager of the Environmental Monitoring Program at SRS, leads a diverse group of industry professionals on the American Nuclear Society’s (ANS) Environmental and Siting Consensus Committee.

This group is developing a standard based on ANS-2.22, Environmental Radiological Monitoring at Nuclear Facilities. The ANS-2.22 committee is using the success of the SRS Environmental Monitoring Program as the basis for the development of the new ANS standard. ANS-2.22 criteria uses performance-based requirements to develop and implement an integrated radiological environmental monitoring program that focuses on ambient air, surface water, groundwater, soil and animal and plant life. It defines a basis for rational decision-making regarding the design of a radiological environmental monitoring programs in communities, states and national regions.

The standards will apply to nuclear power plants, nuclear medicine hospitals, fuel fabrication facilities, fuel reprocessing facilities, radioactive waste disposal facilities, industrial and research facilities handling nuclear waste, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy, state regulatory agencies and consultants in the nuclear industry. As the chairperson, Eddy ensures the committee represents and engages with nuclear facilities across the United States. Her main role is to manage the development of the standard by forming the working group committee; developing a project plan; and establishing the project purpose, objectives, success criteria, needed interface and completion schedule.

Eddy, who has served on the committee for four years, is working with two colleagues from SRS – Brittany Owensby (SRNS) and Brooke Stagich (Savannah River National Laboratory) – along with industry leaders representing ANS, the U.S. Department of Energy-Headquarters, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Nuclear Energy Institute, Duke Energy, the University of Kansas, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Southern Company, and others. Eddy recently nominated Stagich to co-chair the committee, and ANS subsequently appointed her.

“Working with other organizations that are using nuclear materials ensures a safe collective impact on the environment and community. Radiological environmental monitoring programs and the ANS standard will secure continued success towards meeting and exceeding our goals here and potentially throughout the nation,” Eddy said. “We, at SRNS, place a strong emphasis and high priority on efficient and effective environmental monitoring programs for both radiological and chemical constituents. SRNS also believes it’s important to share the proven methods and technology we use and continually strive to perfect.” Since its start, ANS has written and approved nearly 150 different standards and multiple versions of these standards.

At present, ANS has more than 80 standards that are current American National Standards and many others that are considered historical standards.