Models for the prediction of doses from the ingestion of terrestrial foods

The development of models to calculate population doses from consumption of terrestrial foods following a radioactive release to atmosphere is described. Results of a study are presented, using a model describing the time-dependent transfer of radioactivity through the soil-plant ecosystem to analyse U.K. fallout data for 90Sr and 137Cs in milk. Calculations of population dose from ingestion also utilize data describing the spatial distribution of production of a broad range of food products. Examples of such data are given and results of typical population dose calculations presented. Field investigations into the uptake of a range of radionuclides from characteristic British soils into major food crops are described and provide data to test the validity of parts of the model. (author)