Optimizing radiation protection in the management of uranium mill tailings

The Nuclear Energy Agency of OECD has organized a study of the applicability of the ICRP system of dose limitation to the management of uranium mill tailings. Reference sites in Australia, the USA and Canada have been defined, management options costed and the radiation doses from radionuclides dispersed from the tailings determined, either from existing data or by new modelling. The values of incremental cost-effectiveness between options have been estimated with reduction in collective effective dose equivalent commitment being the measure of effectiveness. Included in the options are erodible and non-erodible covers, vegetative covers, impermeable dams, removal of radium and thorium, and burial of waste rock. The effects on incremental cost-effectiveness of different integration times for estimating the collective dose commitment and of a dose rate cut-off for that calculation are noted. (author)