THE DISPOSAL OF RADIOACTIVE LIQUID WASTES INTO COASTAL WATERS

Technical Report · Sat Oct 31 04:00:00 EST 1959

OSTI ID:4264290

Dunster, H J

BS>The data obtained during five years of experimental discharges of dilute liquid waste from Windscale Works, Sellafield, Cumberland, into the Irish Sea are reviewed. The results include measurements of the resulting radionctivity of fish, seaweed, sea bed, and shore sand, and where these are significantly different from natural levels of radioactivity, they are rebated to the amounts of radioactivity discharge. Maximum permissible levels of metoactivity in the relevant materials have been derived from the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, and these have been used in conjunction with the monitoring results to estimate the maximum permissible rates of discharge from Windscale works. The discharge rates to date have ranged up to about 50,000 curies per year and the results reponted show that this figure could safely be increased to several hundred thousand curies per year. Specific limitations are needed on the discharge rates of ruthenium 106, which is strongly adsorbed into surfaces, and of strontium 90 and alpha emitters, which tend to concentrate in human bone. The problems of relating these results from Windscale to discharges from other sites are discussed, and results are included for some small scale experimenial discharges of radioactivity from Dounreay, Caithness, Scotland. (auth)

• Research Organization: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, Sellafield, Cumb., Eng.
• NSA Number: NSA-13-007060
• OSTI ID: 4264290
• Report Number(s): A/CONF.15/P/297
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ADSORPTION
ALPHA PARTICLES
ALPHA SOURCES
FISH
LEVELS
MEASURED VALUES
PARTICLE SOURCES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE
RADIOACTIVITY
RUTHENIUM 106
SEA
STRONTIUM 90
SURFACES
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE SOLUTIONS