Since 1952, low activity radioactive waste has been discharged by pipeline from Windscale Works to the Irish Sea off Sellafield. Environmental monitoring studies have been carried out throughout this period in order to assess the resultant radiation dose to man, and hence to estimate the discharge rate which would correspond to the maximum permissible radiation doses recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. These studies have been concerned principally with those materials most likely to contribute substantially to the dose to man, and they have been supplemented by more widespread marine surveys and by laboratory studies aimed at gaining information about the movement and behaviour of radioactive nuclides in the marine environment.
The consequences have been assessed, in relation to human consumers of agricultural products, of a release of fission products from criticality excursions of magnitude 3 x 10l8 to lozo fissions in metal and liquid systems. It is concluded that exposure of children through ingestion of contaminated milk is unlikely to be a serious problem with excursions of magnitude less than 1020 fissions unless a substantial fraction of the fission product inventory is released to the environment. Hence, other agricultural products are likely to be of little significance. For an excursion of lozo fissions in a metal system, assuming vaporization and complete release of fission products, it might prove necessary to ban the consumption of milk within a radius of 10 km of the release if the emergency action reference level currently accepted in the U.K. of 25 rad to the thyroid gland is not to be exceeded.
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