ABSTRACT
Why write an entire book on the subject of decommissioning and, in particular, decommissioning surveys? It’s certainly not because decommissioning is a very glamorous subject. Maybe it’s the fact that vast sums of money are being allocated to hundreds of clean-up projects across the US and abroad. Undoubtedly, decommissioning has become more technically challenging since the move to dose-based release criteria and the commensurate use of the MARSSIM manual. But in reality, it has always been a rigorous exercise to demonstrate to the public and regulators that contaminated sites have been sufficiently cleaned to achieve agreed-upon release criteria. It’s time to consolidate the many technical issues related to decommissioning surveys in a single text. Technical issues that often arise during decommissioning projects include the application of statistics for survey design and data reduction, selection of survey instrumentation and detection sensitivity, final status survey procedures and pathway modeling to translate release criteria to measurable quantities.
