The Nordic Nuclear Safety Research (NKS) project LUCIA

Aim of the study

The impact of radioactive releases from nuclear accidents has revealed the importance of modelling the transfer of radionuclides in urban areas. In municipal sewage systems the waste water from households, industries and hospitals as well as the run-off water is transported to the sewage plants. Sewage sludge is a sensitive indicator of radionuclides and it constitutes an important indicator of human exposures. The overall aim of the present project was to develop and improve the modelling tools for assessment of the consequences of the releases in urban areas and to test the tools using the information on sewage systems and radionuclide releases from hospitals.

Implementation

The modelling tool used in the project was based on the dynamic model (LUCIA) developed to assess the consequences of releases of clinical radioactive wastes in Sweden. As the design of sewage plants as well as the treatment of waste water are rather similar it was possible to modify the LUCIA model for the emergency situations.

The modified LUCIA tool was tested by all participating countries. In Finland, samples from the Viikinmäki wastewater treatment plant in Helsinki were taken. The activity concentrations of ¹³¹I originating from therapeutic procedures in hospitals were determined in air, water and sludge samples. Also two Fucus vesiculosus samples were collected in the sea area near Helsinki for the gammaspectrometric measurements. The LUCIA model was modified also for the Viikinmäki wastewater treatment plant and it was used to estimate the potential doses to workers. The final meeting of the project was held in Oslo, Norway, in December 2007.

Dissemination and exploitation of the results

The results will be published in the NKS report series. The results can be used to estimate doses, not only in the emergency situations but also within the framework of normal environmental monitoring programs.

Collaborators

Vattenfall, Sweden; SSI, Sweden; SIS, Denmark; Risø, Denmark; NRPA, Norway; Facilia, Sweden and IRPI, Iceland.

Timetable

2006 – 2007

Responsible scientist

Marketta Puhakainen

Page updated 15/05/2009