title: Land use and food intake of future inhabitants: outlining a representative individual of the most exposed group for dose assessment.
abstract: The radiation doses to humans resulting from a potential release of radionuclides from a geological repository for long-lived waste are assessed over tens or even hundreds of thousands of years. Ingestion is expected to be the major exposure pathway, and the group with the highest exposures will be those that consume the most contaminated food. In this paper, we characterize the group of individuals with the highest exposures by considering the physical and biological characteristics of the contaminated area and human requirements for energy and nutrients. We then calculate intake rates based on land-use scenarios drawn from self-sustained communities spanning prehistoric times to an industrial-age agrarian culture. The approach is illustrated by simulating groundwater release of four radionuclides to an expected discharge area. We argue that the derived intake rates may serve as credible bounding cases when projected doses are evaluated for compliance with regulatory criteria.
authors.affiliation: Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co. (SKB), Box 250, 101 24, Stockholm, Sweden. peter.saetre@skb.se
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Saetre
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Valentin
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lagerås
authors.forename: Rodolfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Avila
authors.forename: Ulrik
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kautsky
mesh_terms: D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005502:Food; D011829:Radiation Dosage