ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS, MONITORING, AND STUDY DESIGN 49 



Fig. 2 Simplified pathways between radioactive materials released to groundwater or 

 surface water (including oceans) and man. [From International Commission on 

 Radiological Protection (1965),] 



sudden releases, such as may occur from accidents, are identified after an occurrence. 

 Although facilities incorporate engineered protection against such releases, environmental 

 surveillance programs must be prepared to trace the movement of transuranics released to 

 the environment after the initial assessments of the emission or effluent monitoring 

 results. Existing areas of transuranics in the environment also present a challenge to the 

 design of an adequate monitoring system. Once the transuranics are deposited in the 

 environment, however, the pathway considerations for routine and accidental sources are 

 much the same at a given site. To predict the radiological impact from areas of potential 

 future contamination requires a knowledge of the parameters used to estimate the dose 

 from transuranic pathways. 



The methods for calculating dose use ICRP models that predict the metaboUc fate of 

 radionuchdes on the basis of the chemical and physical characteristics of the mode of 

 intake. The parameters needed for dose calculations should be considered during the 

 analysis of pathways for the design of monitoring systems so that the number of 

 assumptions needed for the dose estimations can be minimized. Details of the 

 dose-estimation methods and consequences are discussed in many other pubhcations. At 

 the risk of being redundant, some of the methods are discussed below in relation to 

 pathway information. 



