A team from the U.S. Department of Energy Remote Sensing Laboratory conducted an aerial radiological survey of the area surrounding the Sandia National Laboratories/ New Mexico and Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, during the months of April and May 2000. The survey team measured the terrestrial gamma radiation at the site to determine the levels of natural and man-made radiation. The current survey includes the areas covered by a previous survey that was performed in 1993. The results of the aerial survey show a background exposure rate that varies between 5 and 18 microRoentgens per hour plus an appropriate 6 microRoenthens contribution from cosmic rays. The major radioactive isotopes found in this survey were potassium-40, thallium-208, bismuth-214, and actinium-228, which are all naturally occurring isotopes, and cobalt-60, cesium-137, and excess amounts of thallium-208 and actinium-228, which are due to human activity in the survey area. In regions away from the man-made activity, the exposure rates inferred from this survey agree well with the exposure rates inferred from the 1993 survey. In addition to the aerial measurements, a series of ground-based pressurized ion chamber (PIC)measurements were acquired at four sites within the survey area. These ground-based PIC measurements ranged from 5.4 to 9.5 microRoentgens and were 13 to 21 percent lower than the inferred aerial exposure-rate results.
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