Prediction of the radiation effect resulting from the contamination of water in marine fisheries

Abstract

The planning and implementation of various projects involving possible radioactive contamination of seawater require a prediction of the effect of radiation on the public. The main pathway for a radiation effect is the consumption of seafood from contaminated fisheries. A method is proposed for assessing the radiation effect due to the consumption of seafood. A special feature of the method proposed is that it uses dose coefficients to convert the volume activity of seawater in the area of a fishery into the effective irradiation dose to an individual from the general public. The computed dose coefficients for 57 radionuclides and seven types of seafood are presented.As a result of the redistribution of contamination between objects in a marine environment, technogenic radionuclides which have entered seawater can affect humans by various pathways. The pathway for the irradiation of the public as a result of the contamination of the marine environment is peroral entry of radionuclides with the consumption of seafood [1]. Consequently, when developing methods for predicting the irradiation of the public as a result of the contamination of the marine environment, the contamination of fisheries should be examined.An important criterion for assessing the ecological consequences of the radioactive contamination of fisheries is the volume activity of biologically significant radionuclides in water and bottom deposits and, in consequence of such contamination, the accumulation of the indicated radionuclides in the organs, tissues, and food base of commericially valuable marine organisms, desalinated seawater, and edible salt obtained from seawater.The method of normalization of the radioactive contamination of seawater in marine fisheries [2] and the reference concentration of radionuclides calculated on its basis [1] can be used to determine the boundaries of the zone of dangerous contamination of a water area as a result of radioactive discharges into the sea. However, this method does not permit assessment of the effect of radioactivity on the public as a result of the consumption of seafood obtained at the boundaries of the indicated zone.It is proposed that the dose coefficients which convert the volume activity of seawater in a fishery into an effective dose due to the consumption of seafood obtained in this region be used to estimate the possible effect of radiation on the public. The dose coefficients e ij are the expected effective dose from the consumption of 1 kg of the jth seafood product obtained in seawater with volume activity of the ith radionuclide 1 Bq/m 3 . In this case, the expression for calculating the expected effective irradiation dose to one person from the general public due to the ith radionuclide accompanying the consumption of the jth seafood product can be written as

Radioactive selenium: origin and environmental dispersion scenarios

“…Examples of simulations calculating the radiation effect of 79 Se in humans from contaminated seafood suggest non-negligible dose coefficients, particularly from fish (1.7 × 10 −7 Sv m 3 kg −1 Bq −1 ), crustaceans (1.4 × 10 −7 Sv m 3 kg −1 Bq −1 ), molluscs (1.7 × 10 −7 Sv m 3 kg −1 Bq −1 ) and algae (2.8 × 10 −8 Sv m 3 kg −1 Bq −1 ). These dose coefficients are comparable to estimations for 60 Co, 119m Sn, 121m Sn, 129 I, 131 I, 226 Ra, 227 Ac, 232 Th, 242 Pu and 242m Am (Ganul et al, 2006). These values are higher than the recommended values for ingestion pathways from the International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP) using human internal dose conversion factors for 79 Se of 2.0 × 10 −9 -2.3 × 10 −9 Sv Bq −1 (Palattao et al, 1997).…”