Environmental Radiation Monitoring at NBS/NIST From 1960 Through 2000

The program for monitoring the environment in and about the site of the National Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, at its Gaithersburg, Maryland location began in 1960. The program includes measurements of radiation fields at the fence line of the site and of radionuclides in samples of soil, water, and biota taken within and around the site. A variety of instruments and equipment, processes and procedures, and measurement devices has been employed. To date, no measurement from the routine program has exhibited any result that could be attributed to any effluent or other effect of the radiological work conducted at the site; that includes the NIST Research Reactor, the now defunct Linear Electron Accelerator (LINAC) and other accelerators, radiochemistry, and sealed source operations.