Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Site-Representative Biota Concentration Guides at Los Alamos

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1059407· OSTI ID:1059407
 [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Biota dose assessment at Los Alamos National Laboratory, LANL, follows the guidance of the DOE Standard, DOE-STD-1153-2002. As described in Section 2, general screening is performed using Biota Concentration Guides, BCGs, which are defined as "the limiting concentration of a radionuclide in soil, water, or sediment that would not lead to exceeding dose limits for the protection of biota in the environment." For the general screening, the maximum concentrations in water, sediment, and soil are compared with each radionuclide-specific BCG (DOE-STD-1153-2002 Table 2.1) and the sum of the fractions is calculated (DOE-STD-1153-2002 page M1-25.) The DOE Standard encourages each site to establish site-specific or site-representative BCGs (DOE-STD-1153-2002 Module 1 pages 10, 24-26, 43, 45-47, 50, 59, 61-64, 79, 81-86; Module 2 pages 31, 41, 49, 50, 53; and Module 3 page 29). The purpose of this paper is to establish site-representative BCGs for cesium-137 and strontium-90 in water, sediment, and soil. Sections 4.1 and 7.1.3.2 of DOE-STD-1153-2002 recommend the use of site-specific "lumped parameter values." The important lumped parameter is the bioaccumulation factor referred to in the DOE Standard as Biv. It is also commonly called the wet-weight concentration ratio Cr; see Module 3 Section 3.1 (page M3-19) of DOE-STD-1153-2002.
Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1059407
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--13-20095; LA-UR--08-2783
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Bioaccumulation Factor for Radium in Rio Grande Biota
Technical Report · Fri Sep 26 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · OSTI ID:2997624

Derivation of a screening methodology for evaluating radiation dose to aquatic and terrestrial biota
Journal Article · Tue Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2002 · Journal of Environmental Radioactivity · OSTI ID:15004351

User's guide, version 1 RESRAD-BIOTA : a tool for implementing a graded approach to biota dose evaluation.
Technical Report · Tue Jan 13 23:00:00 EST 2004 · OSTI ID:821073