Surface waters surveillance monitoring

Surveillance monitoring has to be performed in a sufficient number of surface water bodies to provide an assessment of the overall surface water status within each... 

The main objectives of the surveillance monitoring are the assessment of the overall surface water status and the assessment of trends due to human activity and in natural conditions. 

The guidance document for the design of monitoring networks also indicates where the sampling points must be located inside the water bodies in the surveillance monitoring. The objective of the surveillance monitoring is the assessment of the surface water status in general, so stations must be located in zones which are representative of the status of the water body. 

A great effort of monitoring programs is focused in the surveillance of pesticide levels in surface waters. During 1997 a total number of 1419 sites were monitored for pesticides by the Environment Agency in England and Wales. Considering the 163 individual pesticides analysed in surface water, 58% were detected above 0.1 pg/1 on at least one occasion in 1997, while 22% were detected below the 0.1 pg/1 level and 20% were never detected. Isopromron, mecoprop, diuron and MCPA exceeded the MAC level most frequendy (Table 4). 

A widely used instmment for air monitoring is a type of ionization chamber called a Kaimn chamber. Surface contamination is normally detected by means of smears, which are simply disks of filter paper wiped over the suspected surface and counted in a windowless proportional-flow counter. Uptake of tritium by personnel is most effectively monitored by urinalyses normally made by Hquid scintillation counting on a routine or special basis. Environmental monitoring includes surveillance for tritium content of samples of air, rainwater, river water, and milk. 

In Japan, the Japan Electric Association Code, JEAC 4201, Method of Surveillance Tests for Structural Materials of Nuclear Reactors (JEAC 4201, 2007), specifies the design for a surveillance program to monitor radiation-induced changes in mechanical properties of beltline materials in light-water moderated nuclear power reactor vessels testing and evaluation of the test results. The JEAC 4201 was developed based on the ASTM E 185 for nuclear power RPVs for which the predicted maximum neutron fluence at the end of the operating period (usually 32 EFPY unless otherwise identified) exceeds 1 x 10 n/cm" E > IMeV) at the inside surface of the reactor vessels. 

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