Best practices for predictions of radionuclide activity concentrations and total absorbed dose rates to freshwater organisms exposed to uranium mining/milling

Goulet, Richard R.; Newsome, Laura; Vandenhove, Hildegarde; Keum, Dong-Kwon; Horyna, Jan; Kamboj, Sunita; Brown, Justin; Johansen, Mathew P.; Twining, John; Wood, Michael D.; Černe, Marko; Beaugelin-Seiller, Karine; Beresford, Nicholas A.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2022.106826

Title: Best practices for predictions of radionuclide activity concentrations and total absorbed dose rates to freshwater organisms exposed to uranium mining/milling

Journal Article · 04 February 2022 · Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2022.106826 · OSTI ID:1869211

Goulet, Richard R. ^[1];

^[2];

^[3]; Keum, Dong-Kwon ^[4]; Horyna, Jan ^[5]; Kamboj, Sunita ^[6];

^[7]; Johansen, Mathew P. ^[8]; Twining, John ^[8];

^[9]; Černe, Marko ^[10]; Beaugelin-Seiller, Karine ^[11]; Beresford, Nicholas A. ^[12]

Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa (Canada); Univ. of Ottawa, ON (Canada)
Univ. of Exeter, Devon (United Kingdom)
Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, Mol (Belgium)
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)
State Office for Nuclear Safety, Prague (Czech Republic)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, Osteras (Norway)
Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organization, Lucas Heights (Australia)
Univ. of Salford (United Kingdom)
Institute of Agriculture and Tourism, Poreč (Croatia); Jozef Stefan Inst. (IJS), Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, Fontenay-aux-Roses (France)
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Bailrigg (United Kingdom)

Predictions of radionuclide dose rates to freshwater organisms can be used to evaluate the radiological environmental impacts of releases from uranium mining and milling projects. These predictions help inform decisions on the implementation of mitigation measures. The objective of this study was to identify how dose rate modelling could be improved to reduce uncertainty in predictions to non-human biota. For this purpose, we modelled the activity concentrations of ²¹⁰Pb, ²¹⁰Po, ²²⁶Ra, ²³⁰Th, and ²³⁸U downstream of uranium mines and mills in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, together with associated weighted absorbed dose rates for a freshwater food chain using measured activity concentrations in water and sediments. Differences in predictions of radionuclide activity concentrations occurred mainly from the different default partition coefficient and concentration ratio values from one model to another and including all or only some ²³⁸U decay daughters in the dose rate assessments. Consequently, we recommend a standardized best-practice approach to calculate weighted absorbed dose rates to freshwater biota whether a facility is at the planning, operating or decommissioned stage. At the initial planning stage, the best-practice approach recommend using conservative site-specific baseline activity concentrations in water, sediments and organisms and predict conservative incremental activity concentrations in these media by selecting concentration ratios based on species similarity and similar water quality conditions to reduce the uncertainty in dose rate calculations. At the operating and decommissioned stages, the best-practice approach recommends relying on measured activity concentrations in water, sediment, fish tissue and wholebody of small organisms to further reduce uncertainty in dose rate estimates. This approach would allow for more realistic but still conservative dose assessments when evaluating impacts from uranium mining projects and making decision on adequate controls of releases.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security (AU)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1869211

Journal Information:: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Journal Name: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity Vol. 244-245; ISSN 0265-931X

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
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Title: Best practices for predictions of radionuclide activity concentrations and total absorbed dose rates to freshwater organisms exposed to uranium mining/milling

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