Recommendations to the Technical Steering Panel regarding approach for estimating individual radiation doses resulting from releases of radionuclides to the Columbia River

At the direction of the Technical Steering Panel (TSP) of the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction (HEDR) Project, Battelle staff have reviewed and analyzed available data regarding possible historical radiation doses to individuals resulting from radionuclide releases to the Columbia River. The objective of this review was to recommend to the TSP the spatial and temporal scope and level of effort on Columbia River work to most effectively extend work performed in Phase I of the project (PNL 1991a, PNL 1991b) to meet the project objectives. A number of options were analyzed. Four stretches of the Columbia River and adjacent Pacific coastal waters were defined and investigated for four time periods. Radiation doses arising from ten potentially major exposure pathways were evaluated for each of the time/location combinations, and several alternative methods were defined for estimating the doses from each pathway. Preliminary cost estimates were also developed for implementing dose estimation activities for each of the possible combinations