[ RadSafe ] Question on total river water activity ( RadSafe Digest, Vol 564, Issue 1)

Derek Putley derek.putley at serco.com
Fri Mar 11 02:20:39 CST 2011


Hi Jaro / Dan / All
 
The link below gives a list of reports published by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.
 
http://www.sepa.org.uk/radioactive_substances/publications/rife_reports.aspx 
 
The RIFE-1 report dates back to 1995 and presents data on activity around UK nuclear sites, including effects on river water activity levels.
 
I've not looked at the other reports on that site.
 
Along the lines of Dan's posted remarks, radionuclide activity migration has been extensively studied around the Sellafield site. For example see:
 
http://www.sellafieldsites.com/land/documents/ContaminationConceptualmodel.pdf 
 
 
and a quick search using key words like "Sellafield river contamination" should bring up further examples of this work.
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu 
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Jaro Franta
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 19:05
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu 
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Question on total river water activity

Dear Radsafers,

Taking the example of a large river like the St. Lawrence, what would be the
total river water activity discharge rate ?

Eisenbud's Environmental Radioactivity says that typical "surface water"
Radium activity (only!) ranges from 4 - 19 Bq/m^3 It doesn't differentiate
between rivers or lakes as "surface water".

The St.Lawrence has a flow rate of 9,850 m^3/sec = 851E6 m^3/day or 0.3E12
m^3/y -- yielding about 3 GBq/y of Radium.

How much activity would the other uranium decay chain nuclides add to this
rough estimate ?

Also, would there be significant seasonal changes due to fertiliser runoff
from agricultural areas ? (phosphate fertiliser contains elevated
concentrations of uranium & daughters).

Finally, are there any published surveys that provide detailed statistics ?

Thanks in advance.

Jaro
 
 
Best Regards

Derek Putley

Technical Area Lead (Criticality) 
 
Serco (Technical Services)
Thomson House, Risley, Warrington, Cheshire, WA3 6GA, UK



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