01 Oct How can the soil environment be protected when releasing areas contaminated with radioactive substances from regulatory control?
Today, Karin Norrfors from Kemakta is presenting the results of our work, “Guideline values for the protection of biota when releasing land from regulatory control”, at the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority’s 14th Decommissioning Seminar.
Previous work on the release of land from regulatory control has, among other things, focused on human exposure and radiation doses. In the current assignment, carried out for the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, we have instead investigated how biota and the soil environment can be taken into account when releasing land from regulatory control.
Using the ERICA model, doses to terrestrial reference organisms have been calculated for a number of radionuclides and decay chains. Based on the ICRP’s reference levels for biological effects, we have developed proposed guideline values for two levels of protection of the soil environment: sensitive land use (KM) and less sensitive land use (MKM).
The work also highlights issues such as how the benefits of a remediation measure need to be weighed against the potential impact that the measure itself may have on the soil ecosystem.
Thank you to the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority for an interesting assignment and for the opportunity to present and discuss the results at this year’s Decommissioning Seminar.
