Collaborative Projects
Environmental Impact of Potential Accidental Releases from Nuclear Energy Systems (ENV-PE)
RATIONALE
For a comprehensive view of the risk associated with the operation of any nuclear installation, two sources of risk have to be considered:
1. The risk of health effects due to the release of controlled amounts of radioactive effluents to the environment, which is usually referred to as normal operation discharges, and
2. The risk of health effects due to potential releases during nuclear accidents.
As a follow-up project to the completed INPRO Collaborative Project on Environmental Impact Benchmarking Applicable for Nuclear Energy System under Normal Operation (ENV), a new INPRO Collaborative Project will focus on “Environmental Impact of Potential Accidental Releases from Nuclear Energy Systems” (ENV-PE).
This new activity aims at providing a framework to assess radiation doses and related risks to human health caused by potential radioactive releases during an accident in a nuclear power plant.
A potential accident scenario will be defined as “source term” including the level of probability and representative environmental data. Early and late health effects will be determined by applying environmental dispersion models dedicated to accidental releases and dose/effects functions.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the ENV-EP project are to:
- provide a framework for a common understanding of potential radiation doses released in accident scenarios and the assessment of related risks to humans, based on technical discussions, exchange of experience and specific work; and
- reach an agreement on the environmental impacts based on the assessment of doses and risks of potential exposure in accident scenarios.
DELIVERABLES
The results of this Collaborative Project will be documented in a guidance publication on assessing prospectively the potential doses and risk of radioactive releases during hypothetical accidents defined with safety analysis techniques; it can be used when comparing different innovative nuclear technologies.
The target audience is technical experts working in the area of planning and development of a nuclear power programme as well as decision makers in regulatory bodies and different governmental organization who need the result of this type of studies to make informed decisions.
ACTIVITIES
Scientific Secretary of the ENV-PE Collaborative Project: Jon Phillips