Does the use of reference organisms in radiological impact assessments provide adequate protection of all the species within an environment?

Autor: Charrasse B; CEA, DEN, DTN, Cadarache, Saint-Paul-lès-Durance Cedex, France. Electronic address: benoit.charrasse@cea.fr., Anderson A; Office of Environmental Management, US Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave., SW Washington, DC 20585, USA., Mora JC; Environment Department, CIEMAT, Avda. Complutense, 40, 28040 Madrid, Spain., Smith J; Radiation Assessments Department, Public Health England - Centre for Radiation, Chemical & Environmental Hazards, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0RQ, United Kingdom., Cohenny E; CEA, DEN, DTN, Cadarache, Saint-Paul-lès-Durance Cedex, France., Ikonen ATK; EnviroCase Oy/Ltd., Hallituskatu 1 D 4, 28100 Pori, Finland., Kangasniemi V; EnviroCase Oy/Ltd., Hallituskatu 1 D 4, 28100 Pori, Finland., Zorko B; Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, Ljubljana, Slovenia., Bonchuk Y; Ukrainian Radiation Protection Institute, 53, Melnykova str., Kyiv 04050, Ukraine., Beaumelle L; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany., Gunawardena N; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah, 1495 East 100 South (1550 MEK), Salt Lake City, UT 84112, United States of America., Amado V; Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Av. del Libertador 8250, C1429BNP Buenos Aires, Argentina., Liptak L; ABmerit s.r.o., Hornopotocna 1, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia., Leclerc E; Andra 1-7, Rue Jean-Monnet, 92298 Châtenay-Malabry Cédex, France., Telleria D; IAEA Assessment and Management of Environmental Releases Unit, Wagramer Str. 5, PO Box 100, 1400 Vienna, Austria.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2019 Mar 25; Vol. 658, pp. 189-198. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 Dec 11.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.163
Abstrakt: Non-human biota in radiological risk assessment is typically evaluated using Reference Organisms (ROs) or Reference Animals and Plants (RAPs), for all exposure situations. However, it still remains open whether the use of an increased number of species would improve the ability to demonstrate protectiveness of the environment. In this paper, the representativeness of a broader list of fauna is tested in terms of the geometrical characteristics and habits for radiological risk assessments in the case of routine discharges from a nuclear installation: the Cadarache centre. A list of terrestrial animal species, compiled from ecological inventories carried out around it was evaluated. A first survey around the centre inventoried >400 terrestrial fauna species, which were then filtered to reduce the number to 28 species for which dose assessments were carried out. Despite the differences between geometries for those site-specific species and the ROs (including RAPs), the absorbed dose rates calculated for both were very close (within a factor of two). Regardless of the studied organism, the absorbed dose rates calculated for the discharge scenario were mainly related to internal exposure, particularly for tritium ( 3 H) and carbon 14 ( 14 C), showing that there would be an acceptable dose rates difference between species from the same organism group. Additionally, sensitivity analyses were conducted to determine if the use of generic, predefined ROs was enough to assure an adequate protection of endangered species. It was observed that for every radionuclide the difference between assessments for site-specific species and ROs are unlikely to exceed a factor of 3. Hence, the result of this evaluation indicates that the use of generic ROs for non-human biota radiological risk assessment covers sufficiently other species, including endangered ones.
(Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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