Summary of Deficiencies Risk Screening Assessment
Mixed Waste Landfill Sandia National Laboratories
compiled by Citizen Action

• Assesses risk to adult males only using outdated conversion factors that do not consider risk to women, children, infants, etc.

• Calculates risk associated with tritium only, and neglects to consider types and amounts of various other radioactive contaminants and their decay products.

• Subtracts chemical inhalation factors from assessment instead of adding chemical and radionuclide cancer risks to determine combined risk.

• Sampling methods for radiological and non radiological contaminants questionable.

• Does not consider exposures to future populations or future pathways for contaminant migration.

• Does not consider failure of physical and institutional controls for times greater than 100 years.

• Gamma readings of high levels of radiation in certain pits do not match the inventory of waste recorded buried in them.

• Information is missing with regard to curie levels, type, and amounts of waste.

• Waste (contaminant source) buried at MWL has not been fully identified and landfill has not been adequately characterized.

• Potential risks have not been fully evaluated.