Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T12:44:02.859Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Screening Level Ecological Risk Assessment and ranking method for liquid radioactive and chemical mixtures released by nuclear facilities under normal operating conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2009

J. Barescut ,
J. Garnier-Laplace ,
K. Beaugelin-Seiller ,
R. Gilbin ,
C. Della-Vedova ,
O. Jolliet  and
J. Payet
J. Garnier-Laplace
Affiliation:
Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), Service d'Étude du Comportement des Radionucléides dans les Écosystèmes, DEI/SECRE, Bât. 159, Centre de Cadarache, BP. 3, 13115 St. Paul-les-Durance, France
K. Beaugelin-Seiller
Affiliation:
IRSN, DEI/SECRE, Laboratoire de Modélisation Environnementale, Bât. 159, Centre de Cadarache, BP. 3, 13115 St. Paul-les-Durance, France
R. Gilbin
Affiliation:
IRSN, DEI/SECRE, Laboratoire de Radioécologie et d'Écotoxicologie, Bât. 186, Centre de Cadarache, BP. 3, 13115 St. Paul-les-Durance, France
C. Della-Vedova
Affiliation:
Magelis, 6 rue Frédéric Mistral, 84160 Cadenet, France
O. Jolliet
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA
J. Payet
Affiliation:
École Polytechnique de Lausanne, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne EPFL, Switzerland
Get access

Abstract

Ecological Risk Assessment is used to evaluate the potential hazards to the environment that are attributable to emissions of pollutants from industries. There is guidance available regarding the general ecological risk assessment process including problem formulation, exposure and effect analyses, and risk characterization. In a first step, the Screening-Level Ecological Risk Assessment (SLERA) is used to evaluate whether the emissions can put the receptor ecosystems at risk or not. Concerning releases from nuclear facilities under authorization, any SLERA is a challenging task because of (1) the large number of substances, (2) the various quantities that may be emitted to the aquatic ecosystems and (3) the various environmental situations to be considered. This task must be performed for two categories of pollutants, radionuclides and chemicals, each exhibiting specificities in terms of concentration in media or dose-effect relationships. Since these relationships for radioactive substances are based on the tissue-absorbed dose in Gray, the first step is to express critical exposure values to radionuclides in a consistent way with the critical concentration used for chemicals. We describe here the screening and ranking method that was developed and an application to the electronuclear sites along the Rhône River.

Type
Research Article
Information
Radioprotection , Volume 44 , Issue 5: ECORAD 2008 - Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity , 2009 , pp. 903 - 908
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

European Commission (EC). Technical Guidance Document on Risk Assessment, Part II (Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 2003).
Beresford, N., J. Brown, D. Copplestone, J. Garnier-Laplace, B. Howard, C.M. Larsson, D. Oughton, G. Pröhl and I. Zinger. D-ERICA: An integrated approach to the assessment and management of environmental risks from ionising radiation (ERICA EC Project Contract FI6R-CT-2004-508847, 2007).
Pennington, D.W., Margni, M., Payet, J., Jolliet, O. Risk and regulatory hazard-based toxicological effect indicators in life-cycle assessment (LCA). Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 12 (2006) 450–475.
Pennington, D.W., Payet, J. and Hauschild, M. Aquatic ecotoxicological indicators in life-cycle assessment. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 23 (2004) 1796–1807.
Udo De Haes, H., Jolliet, O., Finnveden, G., Goedkoop, M., Hauschild, M., Hertwich, E., Hofstetter, P., Klopffer, W., Krewitt, W., Lindeijer, E., Mueller-Wenk, R., Olson, S., Pennington, D., Potting, J. and Steen, B. Striving for Best Available Practice in Life Cycle Impact Assessment (SETAC, Pensacola, FL, USA, 2002).
Van De Meent, D. and Huijbregts, M.A.J. Calculating life-cycle assessment effect factors from potentially affected fraction-based ecotoxicological response functions. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 24 (2005) 1573–1578.
Payet, J. and Jolliet, O. “Comparative Assessment of the Toxic Impact of Metals on Aquatic Ecosystems: The AMI Method”, Life Cycle Assessment of Metals – Issues and Research Directions; Dubreuil, A., Eds. (SETAC, Pensacola, PL, USA, 2003).
Garnier-Laplace, J., Della-Vedova, C., Gilbin, R., Copplestone, D., Hingston, J. and Ciffroy, P. First derivation of Predicted-No-Effect Values for freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems exposed to radioactive substances. Environ. Sci. & Techno. 40 (2006), 6498–6505.
Beaugelin, K., Jasserand, F., Garnier-Laplace, J. and Gariel, J.C. EDEN, Modeling radiological dose in non-human species: Principles, computerization, and application. Health Physics 90 (2006) 485–493.
Payet, J. Assessing toxic impacts on aquatic ecosystems in life cycle assessment (Thèse n°3112, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland).
Garnier-Laplace, J., Copplestone, D., Gilbin, R., Ciffroy, P., Gilek, M., Aguero, A., Bjork, M., Oughthon, D., Jaworska, A., Larsson, C.M. and Hingston, J. J. Environ. Radioactivity ERICA special Issue (2008), in press.
R DevelopmentCoreTeam. R: A language and Environment for Statistical Computing (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, 2006).
Electricité de France. Nucléaire et environnement 2005 (Public Report DPR, Saint Denis, France, 2006).