|
|
|
|
Lesson 1 |
|
|
What is "environmental monitoring"? "Environmental monitoring" is just a big name for the process of gathering data on air, water, soils and other "environmental" substances from one or more specific locations in a given area so that the member of the community can obtain information concerning the environmental conditions of their surroundings. Many community environmental monitoring programs exist throughout the United States, but the Idaho Environmental Monitoring Program is unique because it focuses on the special types of monitoring performed on and around the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory; for short, the INEEL. Why does the INEEL area need monitoring? |
|
| One reason scientists keep tabs on the INEEL environment has to do with the nuclear events and projects that took place there over fifty years ago. During World War II, the site served as an artillery testing ground for the latest in artillery weapons. In 1949, the INEEL was initially established by the federal government as the National Reactor Testing Station, in part because the desert location offered scientists a very isolated place to conduct experiments on the exciting new materials and to test nuclear theories springing from the birth of the "atomic age." Later, the lab's technical focus turned toward developing peaceful uses for atomic energy, such as electrical power generation and nuclear medicine, especially after the INEEL was selected as the laboratory where prototype nuclear reactors could be designed, built, and tested by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). |
|
|
On December 20, 1951, the world's first nuclear power plant, Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I), became fully operational at the INEEL, gaining a name in scientific history as the first reactor ever to generate useable electricity from atomic power. In addition to its numerous innovative contributions to the field of nuclear science and technology, EBR-I proved that reactors designed to operate in the high-energy neutron range could create more energy than they consumed, and that this excess energy could in turn produce cheap energy. Over the years, the federal government, led by the DOE, the Department of Defense, and other contractors, would construct a total of 52 nuclear reactors at the INEEL, which has been a leader in the field of nuclear energy ever since. Achievements in nuclear technology, however, had a price. War and peacetime operations at the site had left environmental contamination that needed to be cleaned up and stored safely. In recent years, the INEEL's primary mission has focused strongly on the issues of environmental cleanup and restoration. But environmental restoration takes time, and throughout the long process, environmental experts must continually test the cleanup methods and procedures used to improve conditions. By monitoring the levels of contamination over long periods of time, scientists from many organizations and agencies build a database of information on site conditions, and this database in turn becomes a valuable tool for evaluating the effectiveness of restoration methods. |
|
Next Page  Home  |
|
