Methodology for determining action levels for clean-up contaminated urban and agricultural environments.
A methodology for determining justified action levels for clean-up of contaminated environments has been elaborated based upon dose reductions and monetary costs associated with the clean-up or remedial measures. Action levels can be expressed as dose or contamination levels above which clean-up is justified and below which it is not. This paper discusses the factors needed to determine such action levels. The most important of these factors are the efficiency of the clean-up and the monetary costs of the clean-up operation. Examples of justified action levels for clean-up of urban and agricultural environments have been determined from uncertainty analyses. With selected parameter distributions for clean-up of urban and semi-urban environments, justified action levels for clean-up are found to be in the range of about 1-10 mSv y(-1). With selected parameter distributions for agricultural countermeasures, action levels for reduction of activity content in milk have been determined to be from less than 100 Bq L(-1) up to a few thousand Bq L(-1), corresponding to residual individual ingestion doses of about 0.1-0.5 mSv y(-1). The presented methodology, which can be extended to include more complex environments, can in a simple way give the decision maker an indication of when it is justified to clean a contaminated environment.
Riso National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark.
P
P
Hedemann-Jensen
B I
BI
Yatsalo
D000383:Agriculture; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003666:Decontamination / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D006283:Health Physics / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D011848:Radioactive Pollutants; D014504:Urban Health
D011848:Radioactive Pollutants