Environmental Assessment for Bruce Restart: Calculating Doses to Non-Human Biota

Abstract

An environmental assessment of returning Units 1 and 2 of Bruce A nuclear generating station to service from their temporary lay-up was carried out in 2005 and should be completed by mid-2006. It included an assessment of effects of environmental concentrations of radionuclides on aquatic and terrestrial biota. A method of assessing doses to individual species of biota using data available for reference organisms was applied to conduct this assessment. This method is consistent with the draft proposals published by ICRP in November 2005. Even though the regulatory bodies and scientific community have not achieved a full consensus on the regulatory limits on, or methodology for assessing doses to, biota, this paper demonstrates that a practical approach based on most recent research can be used successfully for the purposes of environmental assessments.