Dispersion Modeling of Beryllium Airborne Particulate Released During the Demolition of Contaminated Building

During the demolition of contaminated building, the Beryllium on the surface of the building can be released to the atmosphere. Workers on the site and also off site public can be exposed to the Beryllium airborne particulate that can cause health problems. The objective of this study is to assess the impacts of beryllium airborne particulate released during the demolition of building on workers and off site public. For the source inventory, data from building 333 at DOE Hanford site are used as an example to estimate the total amount of Beryllium on the surface of this building. Samples from the interior surfaces were collected in previous. The surface contaminations were measured and the contamination levels ranging from 1 to 11 μg/100 cm² were found in this building. The fraction of Beryllium released to the atmosphere during the demolition process was estimated. The amount of Beryllium released from the demolition process are transported and dispersed in the air. The short term Industrial Source Complex (ISC3) model was used to predict the ambient Beryllium concentrations. The receptors are located at downwind distances between 52 m and 2000 m from the center of emission source for every 10-degree flow vector around the emission source (thirty six receptors for each downwind distance). The results presented in this paper show the total 24-hours averaged total airborne air concentration and the 8-hours averages Beryllium air concentration at each of the receptor location. A comparison between the maximum predicted concentration of Beryllium and the compliance benchmark for the site workers (0.2 μg/m³ over 8-hours time averaged) and off site public (0.01 μg/m³) was performed. The risk assessment analysis will help the decision makers to assess the risks from exposure to Beryllium during the demolition of buildings.