Collective doses to radioactive emissions from nuclear plants

An outline discussion is presented of the difficulties of evaluation of the collective dose equivalent commitment in relation to the I.C.R.P. publication No. 26 (1) recommendations of the use of cost-benefit analysis for the optimization of the retention of radioactive materials in nuclear facilities. Airborne effluents are discussed in relation to the Gaussian Plume model, an example being taken of the calculation of total collective effective dose equivalent commitment Ssub(T) by an emission of ICi via a stack in north east Federal Republic of Germany. The greatest contribution to Ssub(T) from 14C and 129I results from times longer than 500 years. For the cost-benefit analysis, the integration time should be 104 to 105 years, taking into account a world population of 1010 people. Using economical methods, the cost of detriment should be discounted. The dangers of making general evaluations for very different geographical sites are pointed out, both for air borne effluents as well as water pathways, where the collective dose is highly dependent on the river under consideration. (U.K.)