THE COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING PROGRAM:ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION AND EDUCATION THROUGHPARTICIPATION

摘要

The Community Environmental Monitoring Program (CEMP) is an outgrowth ofa program in started in 1981 to promote community involvement, awareness andunderstanding of radiological surveillance in communities surrounding the Nevada TestSite (NTS) when underground nuclear tests were still being conducted at the site.Modeled after successful public involvement efforts following the accident at Three MileIsland in 1979, the CEMP directly involves community members in the day-to-dayoperation, data collection, and dissemination of the information obtained from thenetwork of stations across a wide area of southern and central Nevada and western Utah.The stations have traditional radiological monitoring devices as well as a full suiteof meteorological equipment. Dataloggers feed real-time digital readings on displays onthe front the stations, provide up to 20 days of data storage, and allow instruments at moststations to be remotely programmed. Data is downloaded from the stations several timeseach day and posted on a publicly accessible web site. The web site allows viewers tosee current sensor readings as well as the means to produce graphical or tabular outputsof archived data in various formats.The Desert Research Institute (DRI), which administers the program, employslocal citizens, many of them high school science teachers, whose responsibilities includemaintaining the equipment, and collecting air filters and routing them to DRI forlaboratory analysis. In addition, these Community Environmental Monitors (CEMs) areavailable to discuss the monitoring results with the public, to speak to community andschool groups, and in general serve as a focal point to DRI and DOE for identifyenvironmental concerns in their communities.