Jeffrey Daniels

• D.Env. (UCLA)
• Consultant at Jeffrey Daniels Consulting Services for Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences

The Project Rulison underground nuclear test was a proof-of-concept experiment that was conducted under the Plowshare Program in 1969 in the Williams Fork Formation of the Piceance Basin in west-central Colorado. Today, commercial production of natural gas is possible from low permeability, natural gas bearing formations like that of the Williams F...

Many ecological and hydrological processes cannot be fully assessed without full closure of the water balance. The weighing lysimeter facility in Boulder City, NV provides an excellent opportunity to study water infiltration, redistribution, storage and evaporation of bare soils at the intermediate (meter) scale under well-defined boundary conditio...

Recent terrorist events underscore the urgent need to develop a comprehensive set of health-protective cleanup standards and effective decontamination technologies for use in the restoration of civilian facilities. Accurate scientific information remains limited in the area of biological warfare agents. However, new guidelines and calculated cleanu...

The objectives of this report are to develop, summarize, and interpret a series of detailed unclassified simulations that forecast the nature and extent of radionuclide release and near-field migration in groundwater away from the CHESHIRE underground nuclear test at Pahute Mesa at the NTS over 1000 yrs. Collectively, these results are called the C...

Quantitative assessments of potential human-health consequences from contaminants in environmental media routinely involve conservative deterministic, screening-level calculations of exposure and risk. Because these calculations generally are based on multiple upper-bound point estimates of input parameters, particularly for exposure attributes, th...

The environmental behavior of dimethoxy methane (DMM), a candidate oxygenate, was evaluated. A series of chemical-kinetic simulations that track the formation of their intermediate or incomplete combustion products was carried out to compare the relative yields of selected air toxics produced from the combustion of DMM and other oxygenates, i.e., e...

Alkaline hydrolysis byproducts of the high explosives hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) and octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX), consisting of acetate, formate, formaldehyde, and nitrite, were treated in a denitrifying (anoxic) packed-bed upflow reactor. Additional nitrite or nitrate was added to match the carbon oxid...

Industrial societies have altered the earth's environment in ways that could have important, longterm ecological, economic, and health implications. In this paper, we examine the extent to which uncertainty about global climate change could impact the precision of predictions of secondary outcomes such as health impacts of pollution. Using a model...

The future use of land contaminated with radionuclides depends upon scientifically defensible bases for setting limits for radionuclides in soil. The purpose of this work is to develop such bases for establishing "posting criteria" to protect nonradiological workers at the Nevada Test Site and to provide a rationale for cost-effective measurements...

The removal of high explosives (HIE) from ordnance is being accomplished via washout steamout procedures. Because large volumes of waste water are generated by these processes, safe and efficient methods must be developed for their treatment. Activated carbon can be used to efficiently remove HE from aqueous waste streams, but carbon that is laden...

Objective and realistic human health risk assessments were performed for environmental problems at the Savannah River Site (SRS), the Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP), and the Nevada Test Site (NTS). At the SRS, cancer mortality risks were analyzed for projected public exposures to 3H and 137Cs released into the Savannah River. For a...

The travel time transport approach for radioactive elements undergoing sorption and decay is employed in assessing the potential health risk at possible locations of human receptors. The principal entity in approach presented is a travel time probability density function conditioned on the set of parameters used to describe different transport proc...

Activated carbon has been used as a substrate for efficiently removing high explosives (HEs) from aqueous and gaseous waste streams. Carbon that is saturated with HEs, however, constitutes a solid waste and is currently being stored because appropriate technologies for its treatment are not available. Because conventional treatment strategies (i.e....

This study focuses on the probabilistic travel time approach for predicting transport of radionuclides by groundwater velocity considering parameter uncertainty. The principal entity in the presented model is a travel time probability density function (pdf) conditioned on the set of parameters used to describe different transport processes like adv...

Although the most economical method for disposing of unwanted energetic high explosives [HEs; e.g., 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-triazine (RDX, also known as Cyclonite), and octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX, also known as Octogen)] involves open burning and open or underground detonation [OB/O(U)D]; federal, state, and ev...

This report provides a summary definition of the intermedia-transfer factors (ITFs). Methods are discussed for estimating these parameters in the absence of measured values, and the estimation errors inherent in these estimation methods are considered. A detailed summary is provided of measured and estimated ITF values for fifteen air contaminants....

Realistic health risk assessments were performed in a pilot study of three U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) sites. These assessments, covering a broad spectrum of data and methods, were used to identify needs for improving future health risk assessments at USDOE sites. Topics receiving specific recommendations for additional research include: choi...

The Nevada Test Site (NTS) is located in the southwestern part of Nevada, about 105 km (65 mi) northwest of the city of Las Vegas. Underground tests of nuclear weapons devices have been conducted at the NTS since late 1962 and ground water beneath the NTS has been contaminated with radionuclides produced by these tests. This concern prompted this e...

The Nevada Test Site (NTS) is located in southwestern Nevada, about 105 km (65 mi) northwest of the city of Las Vegas. A series of tests was conducted in the late 1950s and early 1960s at or near the NTS to study issues involving plutonium-bearing devices. These tests resulted in the dispersal of about 5 TBq of [sup 239,24O]Pu on the surficial soil...

Historically, military personnel deployed in the field, particularly in hot regions or humid environments, have suffered disabling microbial infections of the skin severe enough to contribute to significant reductions in combat-troop strength. Currently, the U.S. Army makes facilities available to field personnel for showering on a weekly basis to...

This paper describes a set of multipathway, multimedia models for estimating potential human exposure to environmental contaminants. The models link concentrations of an environmental contaminant in air, water, and soil to human exposure through inhalation, ingestion, and dermal-contact routes. The relationship between concentration of a contaminan...

In 1987, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Livermore site to the National Priorities List (NPL) due to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found by LLNL in ground water onsite and offsite. One key component of the site cleanup effort at a NPL or Superfund site is the Remedial Investig...

For contaminants of concern at hazardous-waste sites, the State of California develops exposure criteria referred to as Applied Action Levels (AALs). An AAL is the concentration of a contaminant in a source medium that, when exceeded, is expected to pose an unacceptable risk to human health. Typically, AALs are calculated separately for individual...

This article reviews the American Water Works Association Statement of Policy on Drinking Water Quality and the US Environmental Protection Agency standard for total dissolved solids (TDS) in drinking water. Data from the California Mineral Taste Study (CMTS), which established a functional relationship between TDS and taste quality assessed by con...

Organophosphorus (OP) nerve agents may be used on an integrated battlefield and US Army preventive medicine and quartermaster personnel are required to ensure the safety of drinking water supplies in such combat situations. We developed improved drinking water standards for OP nerve agents, recommending interim drinking water standards for OP nerve...

The purpose of this report is to develop drinking water standards for field water constituents and properties of military concern that are naturally occuring or anthropogenically introduced under peacetime conditions. The recommended standards are applicable only to military personnel deployed in the field and they are meant to protect against perf...

In this report we identify those inorganic chemical constituents and physical properties of field-water supplies that can be present at levels that could degrade the performance of exposed military personnel. To identify these inorganic constituents and physical properties of most concern, we employed a screening methodology for comparing measured...

The term opportunity poison refers to any substance that in military situations might be intentionally added to field water to deny its use; it implies that such contamination will be introduced as a spontaneous action, rather than as part of a preconceived plan. Thus, there are many different substances in military inventories and the civilian mar...

Organoleptic properties of drinking water (i.e., characteristics perceptible to the senses) can affect the acceptance of water by the public. In this paper we present a risk-analysis methodology, along with supporting data, that can be used for assessing the relationship between the level of either (1) turbidity, color, and odor; or (2) total disso...

We assess several of the important health and environmental risks associated with a reference geothermal industry that produces 21,000 MWe for 30 y (equivalent to 20 x 10{sup 18} J). The analyses of health effects focus on the risks associated with exposure to hydrogen sulfide, particulate sulfate, benzene, mercury, and radon in air and arsenic in...

Total sulfur, hydrogen sulfide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen in the off-gases from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's 6-tonne/day Rubble In Situ Extraction Simulation facility were measured with a series of on-line, gas-monitoring instruments and gas indicator tubes. In addition by using instrumental neutron activation analysis after collec...

Most heavy oil produced in the United States comes from reservoirs located in Kern County, California, which covers nearly 21,000 km/sup 2/ (>8000 mi/sup 2/) of land in the southcentral part of the State. Extraction of this heavy oil is accomplished primarily by steam-soak and steam-drive thermal recovery methods. Historically, a portion of the rec...

Tar-sand petroleum-extraction procedures undergoing field testing for possible commercial application in the US include both surface (above-ground) and in situ (underground) procedures. The surface tar-sand systems currently being field tested in the US are thermal decomposition processes (retorting), and suspension methods (solvent extraction). Un...

The tar-sand resources of the US have the potential to yield as much as 36 billion barrels (bbls) of oil. The tar-sand petroleum-extraction technologies now being considered for commercialization in the United States include both surface (above ground) systems and in situ (underground) procedures. The surface systems currently receiving the most at...

A series of studies were undertaken to assess the safety hazards in proposed solar thermal power systems (STPS). Among the risks identified are distributed heliostat defocussing, interruption of working fluid flow, receiver meltdown, and leakage of hazardous fluids. It is concluded that unique hazards are presented by sensible heat, latent heat, an...

A data base and methodology useful for the quantitative estimation of worker hazards in hypothetical technologies is proposed. The hazard to workers is partitioned into categories of accident sources and injury-types. The probability of experiencing a specified rate in each category is estimated from data on a selected group of industries. Direct c...

The effects of the use of thermal energy storage (TES) subsystems in solar thermal power systems (STPS) on operating failures and on worker health and safety are examined. Revelant near- and medium-term designs for TES subsystems are reviewed. Generic failure events are considered by an event tree methodology. Three generic categories of initiating...

Human populations are in continuous contact with varying amounts of environmental pollutants in food, water, and air. Managing the health and environmental risks related to environmental pollutants requires an integrated model for estimating environmental transport and human exposure. We developed methods and supporting data for deriving pathway-ex...

Conservative deterministic, screening-level calculations of exposure and risk commonly are used in quantitative assessments of potential human-health consequences from contaminants in environmental media. However, these calculations generally are based on multiple upper-bound point estimates of input parameters, particularly for exposure attributes...

The Piceance Basin of northwestern Colorado contains the greatest domestic concentration of oil shale deposits favorably located for economical recovery. These deposits are defined geologically to be at least 30-ft thick with at least 30 gal of oil per ton of shale; by conservative estimate, they contain nearly 300-billion barrels (bbl) of recovera...

During the period April to June 2008, at the behest of the Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration, Nevada Site Office (NNSA/NSO); the Desert Research Institute (DRI) constructed and deployed two portable environmental monitoring stations at the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) as part of the Environmental Restoration Project S...

Industrial societies have altered the earth`s environment in ways that could have important, long-term ecological, economic, and health implications. In this paper the authors define, characterize, and evaluate parameter and outcome uncertainties using a model that links global climate change with predictions of chemical exposure and human health r...

The most important attribute of a chemical contaminant at a hazardous-wastes site for decision makers to consider with regard to its cleanup is the potential risk associated with human exposure. For this reason we have developed a strategy for establishing a risk-based cleanup criterion for chemicals in soil. We describe this strategy by presenting...

The risk of occurrence of significant unfavorable environmental, health, and safety impacts associated with tar-sand technologies have been estimated. These estimates were made from information related to typical emerging surface (above ground) and in situ (underground) tar-sand oil-recovery processes. Both types of processes are being developed fo...

An assessment of the health risks was made for releases of tritium and ¹³⁷Cs from the Savannah River Site (SRS) at water-receptor locations downriver. Although reactor operations were shut down at the SRS in 1989, liquid wastes continue to be released to the Savannah River either by direct discharges into onsite surface waters or by groundwater...

Environmental scientists recognize that the environment functions as a complex, interconnected system. A realistic risk-management strategy for many contaminants requires a comprehensive and integrated assessment of local and regional transport and transformation processes. In response to this need, we have developed multimedia models that simulate...

Understanding and then modeling the complex relationships between environmental, climatological, and biological systems can present great opportunities for developing effective strategies to prevent outbreaks of environmentally linked infectious disease. For example, a report from the American Academy of Microbiology (Rose et al., 2001) points out...

Under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE), researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have recently implemented a series of initiatives to address long-term radiological surveillance needs at former nuclear test sites in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The aim of this radiological surveillance m...

As the United States plays a greater role in the 21st Century as global peacekeeper and international defender of human rights and democratic principles, there is an increasing likelihood that it will become the focus of acts of terrorism. Such acts of terrorism--sometimes described as ''asymmetric''--could involve the threat or use of weapons of m...

The assessment of potential human exposures to contaminants released to multiple environmental media is a critical element in the process of characterizing the potential human health risk associated with a hazardous-waste site. Therefore, the thorough characterization of potential human-health risk involves a comprehensive study of potential exposu...

In risk analysis, we use human-exposure assessments to translate contaminant sources into quantitative estimates of the amount of contaminant that comes in contact with human-environment boundaries, that is, the lungs, the gastrointestinal tract, and the skin surface of individuals within a specified population. An assessment of intake requires tha...

Hazardous-waste sites are contaminated typically with a number of different chemicals, each of which can produce specific adverse health effects. For any toxic substance that might be present at such sites, the term hazard refers to an adverse outcome and risk refers to the probability that the adverse outcome will occur. For carcinogens, the State...

Dermal disease can be a significant cause of morbidity among soldiers in a combat setting. For example, among American combat troops in Vietnam, disability from skin disease was one of the single most important medical causes of man-days lost from combat. Currently, the US Army makes shower or bath facilities available to soldiers in the field on a...

Thesis (M.S.)--California State University, Northridge, 1978. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1981. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-161). Photocopy.