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ABSTRACT
Firstly the main French nuclear sites, the facilities located on these sites and the main radionuclides that they are authorized to release in the environment by atmospheric and liquid ways are presented. The relationships between the released activities, the radiological activities measured in the various components of the environment (air, water, soils, foodstuffs, etc.) and the resulting doses which can be received by the surrounding populations are then developed. Tritium and carbon 14, which are the radionuclides predominantly present in the radioactive effluents of most of these sites, are also those whose radiological activities measured in the environment are the most important (of the arder of a few Becquerels per cube meter in the air and some Becquerels per kilograms in foodstuffs), and are also the main contributors to the estimated doses received by the populations, mainly through the ingestion of locally produced foodstuffs. Some sites, however, have specificities (inhalation of uranium dust for sites of upstream fuel cycle, external exposure to krypton 85 or incorporation of iodine 129 in the case of La Hague site dedicated to fuel reprocessing). Even for people living near the nuclear sites the doses assessed are very small, most often below 1 microsievert per year.
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Philippe Renaud: Special advisor to the Director of Environment, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
INTRODUCTION
The intake of radionuclides through the ingestion of locally produced foodstuffs is by far the main potential route of exposure for the population living near nuclear facilities
Following the dispersion of radioactive substances in air or water, several phenomena govern the spread of radioactive contamination in food chains. In order to explain each of these phenomena, the factors influencing them and their interactions, the following article first deals with the case of the spread of point contamination following a radioactive deposit over a time span ranging from a few hours to a few days, corresponding to an accidental deposit. The case of chronic inputs, resulting for example from normal discharges from a nuclear facility, is then presented. The equations and parameter values shown should give the reader an idea of the relative intensities of the various transfers, and enable calculations similar to those performed by computer codes to be carried out for a few radionuclides and types of foodstuff. These elements make it possible to estimate the mass activities (Bq.kg –1 of fresh food) in the various types of foodstuffs, based on the activities present in the air, soil or water.
It is important to note here that the application of the elements provided in this article, or the use of calculation codes, can only be used to estimate orders of magnitude. Given the natural variability of transfer intensities and the resulting...
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KEYWORDS
radionuclides | transfers | single contamination | chronic contamination
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