Environmental radiological impact of Cernavoda NPP operation

The release of any potential radioactive pollutant to the environment during routine operation of a Nuclear Power Plant should be the subject of appropriate controls and assessments. It is impossible to monitor directly the dose contribution of normal releases because the environmental radioactivity levels are very small but source monitoring provides a means of assessing the radiation exposure of population groups, critical groups and individual members of the public. Derived emissions limits ( DELs ) are used to quantify the relationship between releases of radioactivity and doses to public - critical groups. CNE-PROD DELs are based on a pathway analysis conducted for Cernavoda site specific conditions and they were computed using a compartment transfer model. Annual air and water emissions for the most significant radionuclides between 1996 and 2000 are presented in terms of %DELs and can be observed that population doses are far below the authorized limit and negligible in comparison with average annual population dose from natural sources. (authors)