Risk assessment of atmospheric and liquid discharges of radionuclides on humans, marine biota and terrestrial wildlife

Monged, Mohamed H. E.; Hagagg, K.; Nassar, Nashaat N.; Tawfik, Mohamed Safwat; Zaki, A.; El-din, M. M. Emad; Shabasy, A. M. El; Ramadan, A.

doi:10.1007/s00477-020-01853-6

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…It is clear from the present analysis that the impact of size (mass and/or geometry) on DR is not linear, with size differences of several orders of magnitude causing DR variations of only a fraction. In numerous situations, risk assessments in case of routine atmospheric releases, considered identical CR values for site-specific species and their corresponding SOs [9,11,41,42]. If a similar CR value is used, even when the site-specific species are configured with very different physical characteristics, the estimated DR between the site-specific species and its corresponding SOs will be minimal (see figure 3).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Radon was not considered in this study as the dose estimation methodology, which is deserving of its own study [23], is very different. A total of 73 radionuclides were analyzed in this study including noble gases 85,85m,87,88 Kr, 131m,133,133m,135,135m,137,138 Xe, and 41 Ar and are presented in Table S3. The predicted absorbed dose rate (DR) for terrestrial organisms is the sum of three exposure components:…”

Section: Radionuclides Considered (Step 1-b)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bounding uncertainties around the conceptual representation of species in radiological assessment in the context of routine atmospheric release

Charrasse¹,

Mora²,

Anderson³

et al. 2022

J. Radiol. Prot.

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Wildlife protection has become of regulatory interest since the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) developed an approach to assess the level of radiological protection specifically for animals and plants. For the purpose of demonstrating compliance with regulation to protect the environment against routine authorised discharges from nuclear facilities, the wide variety of biota inhabiting an ecosystem needs to be condensed to a limited set of representative organisms, as proposed by the ICRP with a set of ‘reference animals and plants’ which can be considered representative of many other species. It is now recommended in the International Atomic Energy Agency Safety Standards, and internationally accepted, that the use of such a limited number of organisms to represent a pool of species is adequate for radiation protection purposes, particularly in planned exposure situations. Adding site-specific species to that set of surrogate species can respond to various interests, such as ensuring a site-specific context to the assessment that addresses stakeholder interests and can aid in stakeholder consultation and risk communication. Moreover, there is a need to question whether the use of the set of surrogate organisms is conservative enough to cover a wider range of biodiversity. Previous studies partially answered this question and this paper adds a range of test cases. A selection of hypothetical representations of possible site-specific species are assessed on the basis of possible variations in size (mass) and occupancy habits. Dose rates are evaluated to determine the greatest difference between hypothetical organisms and those for reference organisms (ROs), considering radionuclides (RNs) potentially discharged in atmospheric routine release from different nuclear facilities. Differences observed in the results between hypothetical organisms and ROs were less than one order of magnitude in all cases, the difference being dependent on the RNs considered. These findings do not preclude the inclusion of site-specific species in environmental radiological assessments if it is considered necessary, but they provide reassurance that using ROs for radiological impact assessments in the case of routine atmospheric discharges is sufficient.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Radionuclides Considered (Step 1-b)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bounding uncertainties around the conceptual representation of species in radiological assessment in the context of routine atmospheric release

Charrasse¹,

Mora²,

Anderson³

et al. 2022

J. Radiol. Prot.

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A revised range of variability approach considering the morphological alteration of hydrological indicators

Zheng

Yang

Cui

et al. 2020

Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess

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Assessment of background dose rate on non-human biota in a Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystem

Guillén,

Real,

Salas

et al. 2024

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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The assessment of radiological impact to the environment is usually carried out by the dose rate estimation to hypothetical entities named Reference Animals and Plants (RAPs). There are many codes to carry out this assessment, which requires the definition of a scenario and using site-specific transfer parameters when possible. Transfer parameters present a geographical bias, as they are mostly derived from temperate and arctic climate datasets, but there is a scarcity of data for Mediterranean climates. In this study, a terrestrial Mediterranean scenario was defined using the distribution of activity concentrations of anthropogenic (90Sr, 137Cs) and naturally occurring radionuclides (40 K, 210Pb, 210Po, 226,228Ra, 235,238U, 232Th) in Cáceres province (Spain). Site-specific transfer factors, CRwo-media, defined as the ratio between the concentration in the whole organism and the medium (soil in this case) were considered. Dose rate assessments for terrestrial RAPs were carried out using Tier 3 in ERICA Tool, ranging 0.23–3.73 µGy/h which is below the screening level of 10 µGy/h. Therefore, no harmful effects are expected to occur. Internal dose rate predominates over external one because the main contributors are naturally occurring radionuclides (in most cases 40 K, 226,228Ra, 210Pb, 210Po), which are mostly α-emitting radionuclides. These results can be used for the evaluation of other radiological and nuclear installations in Mediterranean climates, as they set the background dose rate.

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Risk assessment of atmospheric and liquid discharges of radionuclides on humans, marine biota and terrestrial wildlife

Cited by 5 publications

References 22 publications

Bounding uncertainties around the conceptual representation of species in radiological assessment in the context of routine atmospheric release

Bounding uncertainties around the conceptual representation of species in radiological assessment in the context of routine atmospheric release

A revised range of variability approach considering the morphological alteration of hydrological indicators

Assessment of background dose rate on non-human biota in a Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystem

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