Draft Safety Guide: Radiological Environmental Impact ... Documents/Meetings… · IAEA Environmental Impact Assessment •Espoo Convention •Environmental impact assessment means

IAEA IAEA

International Atomic Energy Agency

Draft Safety Guide:

Radiological Environmental Impact Analysis

for Facilities and Activities

Gerhard Proehl

Waste and Environmental Safety Section

International Forum for Regulatory Supervision of Legacy Sites

Vienna, 23 October 2013

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The System of Radiation Protection

in the IAEA Safety Standards

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IAEA Safety Standards

Safety Guides

Safety Requirements

Safety Fundamentals

Global Reference Point • Safety for protecting

people and the environment

• from harmful effects of

ionizing radiation.

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• Basic objectives

• Concepts

• Principles

…for protection and safety

The Safety Fundamentals

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• Integration of Recommendations in ICRP 103 (2007)

• Approval by the IAEA Board of Governors (Sept. 2011)

• Replaces BSS (1996)

The new IAEA Basic Safety Standards

http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/p1531interim_web.pdf

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Protection against radiation risks

• Basic requirements on radiation protection and safety

• Reflects a broad international consensus

• Co-sponsored by FAO, ILO, OECD/NEA, PAHO, WHO

• Establish basic requirements for

• General public

• Workers

• Patients

• Basis for legislation in many countries

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Key issues for remediation in the BSS

• Guidance on site to be remediated • Post-accident situations • Past inappropriate practices and insufficient regulation • Nuclear legacies (Nuclear test sites, inappropriate waste disposal,

experimental sites

• Defines responsibilities • Government • Regulatory body • Planning/implementing institutions

• Recommends radiological criteria • Reference level for the representative person: 1-20 mSv/a

• Requires the application of radiation protection criteria • Justification, optimization, limitation

• Requests • Involvement of interested parties • Establishment of a strategy for management of radioactive waste

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Three exposure situations for Public exposure

Exposure situations

Planned ExistingEmergency

Operation of facilities

Accidents, Malicious acts

Post-accidentResidues from past,

uncontrolled practices

Dose limit: 1 mSv/a

Reference level:

20-100 mSv

Reference level:

1-20 mSv/a

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Draft Safety Guide:

Radiological Environmental Impact Assessment for Facilities and

Activities

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Objectives

• Application in planned exposure situations

• Prospective nature

• Assess impacts on the public and on the environment.

• Consideration of potential exposures (potential consequences of accidents)

• Radiological Environmental Impact Assessment

• Safety Assessment in the authorization process for facilities and activities identified in the BSS

• Environmental Impacts Assessment related to the evaluation of proposals prior to major decisions being taken

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Environmental Impact Assessment

• Espoo Convention

• Environmental impact assessment means a national procedure for evaluating the likely impact of a proposed activity on the environment”

• Impact

• Any effect caused by an activity on the environment including

• Human health and safety,

• Flora, fauna, soil, air, water, climate,

• Landscape and historical monuments or other physical structures

• Interaction among these factors;

• Effects on cultural heritage or socio-economic conditions

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Components

• Radiological impacts

• Exposures to humans

• Exposures to flora and fauna

• Non-radiological impacts

• Chemical pollutants

• Heavy metals, organics

• Dust

• Heat

• Noise

• Hydrology

• Impacts on cultural heritage

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MAIN FACTORS AFFECTING TYPE OF ASSESSMENT

Factor Element

Inventory

Form (chemical/physical make up)

Radionuclides

Quantity (both activity and mass/volume)

Source term Potential for release source term varies between normal operation and potential exposure assessments

Level of expected dose Previous similar facility or previous assessments

Location of facility

Presence of receptor

Characteristics of environment around the facility

Exposure pathways

Safety characteristics of the activity or facility

Number of safety barriers and engineering features present in the design

Interested parties involvement Degree of interest

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Monitoring (Radiological Characterization)

Assessment of exposures

Land useLiving habits

CriteriaTechnologies

Dose to workers Acceptance

CostsDecision for remediation

Remediation

Criteria ok ?

Exit Yes No

Yes

No

Remediation process

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Safety Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment

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Components of an Assessment

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Environmental transport processes

• Atmospheric dispersion

• Deposition of radioactivity to the ground

• Dispersion of radionuclides

• Surface water

• Ground water

• Exposure assessment

• Transfer of radioactivity to plants and animals in the food chain

• External exposure

• Inhalation

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Comprehensive exposure analysis

• Internal exposure

• Inhalation of radioactivity in a plume

• Ingestion of crops, animal food products (milk, meat)

• Ingestion of drinking water

• Ingestion of aquatic food

• Fish, crustaceans, molluscs

• External exposure

• From radioactivity in a plume

• From radionuclide deposited on the ground or in building materials

• From radionuclides in water and sediments

• e.g. from swimming, staying on cont. sediments

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Site characterization

• Monitoring

• Air

• Water

• Terrestrial and aquatic food

• Building material

• Weather/climatic conditions

• Hydrological conditions • Rivers

• Lakes

• Population

• Population density and distribution

• Land use

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International Atomic Energy Agency

Limitation of exposures to the public and the environment

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Limitation of public exposure – dose criteria in the BSS

• Existing exposures

• Residual radioactive material from past activities, NORM, legacies

• Late phase of an emergency

• Reference level: 1 - 20 mSv/a

• Planned exposures

• E.g. Licensing of a new nuclear installation

• Dose limit: 1 mSv/a

• Emergency exposures

• Accident, malicious acts

• Reference level: 20 - 100 mSv

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Reference levels

Reference levels are given in terms of dose

• They are not limits,

• … but doses that should not be exceeded

Dose to be assessed for a representative person

• …. a more highly exposed individual in the population

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Consideration of exposures to flora and fauna

• ICRP

• Definition of a set of Reference and Animals and Plants

• Definitions of a set of bands of dose rates for these that indicate no or minor effects to flora and fauna

• Recommended in DS 427 for planned exposure situations

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Reference Animals and Plants (ICRP)

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ICRP: Derived Consideration Reference Levels (DCRL)

1 mGy/d = 42 µGy/h= 0.36 y/a

D O S E

R A T E

mGy/d

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Radiological impact to flora and fauna in existing exposure situation

• Exposures to flora and fauna can hardly be controlled • Remediation measures may have drastic effects on populations,

e.g: soil removal

• Optimization • Exposure to flora and fauna one factor for optimization of protective

actions for people

• Consideration should be given to reduce exposures • Technical feasibility

• Cost and benefits are such that further efforts are warranted.

• May imply reduction of exposures to people as well

• DCRL levels to be used as the criteria for mitigating environmental exposures.

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Components of an Assessment

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Conclusions

• DS 427 provides guidance • Implementing radiological environmental impact assessment as

recommended in the BSS

• Applies in particular for planned exposure situations

• Some elements can be applied for existing exposure situations • Comprehensive pathway analysis

• Site characterization

• Assessment of exposures

• Control of exposures in existing exposure situations • Public: Reference levels in the range of 1-20 mSv/a

• Flora and fauna: Exposures cannot be controlled

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Thank you