Radiation Exposures to the Public
From the Proposed Jabiluka/Ranger Operation

In Brief

Radiation exposure to the public from the proposed Jabiluka/Ranger uranium mine development is estimated to exceed radiation exposures arising from major nuclear facilities in the UK. Lowest dose estimates for Jabiluka/Ranger show exposures may equal the maximum recommended levels in the US. Highest dose estimates show that traditional owners living near the proposed Jabiluka/Ranger operation may exceed 1 milliSievert (mSv) per annum, the maximum exposure limit recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) (1).

Explanation

In its response to the Environmental Impact Statement from Energy Resources of Australia, Environment Australia (2) noted that radiation exposure from the combined operation of Jabiluka/Ranger to "occupants of Mudginberri is predicted to be approximately 0.25mSv, or 25% of the applicable dose limit". (Mudginberri is an Aboriginal Community area placed immediately adjacent to the Jabiluka lease and down stream & down wind from Ranger). The exposure limit in the US is 0.25mSv from all sources. However, the US Environment Protection Agency has also recommended an annual exposure limit of 0.1mSv, based on the notion of ‘maximum individual risk’ (mir)(3).

Environment Australia also raise the possibility that the dose limit of 0.25 mSv per annum from the Jabiluka/Ranger mine may be underestimated, and that doses of 0.49mSv may arise and that in some instances members of the public may even be exposed over the 1mSv limit. The ICRP limit of 1mSv is the total dose which should arise from all man-made sources of radiation exposure (excluding medical procedures). It is understood that Australia, as a signatory to the statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency, should not allow radiation exposures in excess of ICRP limits.

The estimate of radiation exposure from Jabiluka/Ranger is close to the 0.3 mSv per annum limit set by Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) for exposure from the radioactive discharges from the Lucas Heights reactor and radioisotope production facility. In its 1995-1996 report, ANSTO estimates the maximum dose received as a result of its discharges was 0.013mSv (4) almost 20 times less than the lowest dose estimated from the Jabiluka/Ranger proposal.

A further comparison between the expected dose from the Jabiluka/Ranger operation can be made with the radiation exposure arising from the discharges of the spent nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield in England (Sellafield is the largest routine discharger of radioactive waste in the world). In its 1995, report the UK Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) estimated that radiation doses arising from Sellafield (from consumption of fish and shellfish contaminated by the marine discharges) were between 0.04-0.14 mSv (5), both lower than the estimates given for the Jabiluka/Ranger operation. In the UK the constraint limit set by the National Radiological Protection Board from any single operating installation is 0.3mSv (6).

The estimated radiation exposures from Jabiluka /Ranger may, therefore, be:

greater than the MIR limit set by the US EPA of 0.1mSv

equal to the dose limit used in the US (0.25mSv)

in excess of the single site 0.3mSv dose limit used in the UK

in excess even of the ICRP’s own limit of 1mSv.

It is also important to note that the calculations may not include all pathways – that is some key aspects of potential exposure may not have been included (e.g. uptake from radioactive dust on leafy vegetables). If there are additional pathways, or underestimates of exposure in key pathways over time, then actual radiation exposure resulting from Jabiluka/Ranger might prove to be higher than EA’s estimates.

Prepared for the Gundjehmi Corporation by Jean McSorley MPS,

mcsorley@compassnet.com.au

Tel (h) + 61 2 9568 3265 or 041766 2720

19th June 1998

  1. ICRP. 1990 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, Publication 60. Annals of the ICRP, 21, Nos 1-3 (1991)
  2. Environment Australia Environmental Assessment Report on the Proposal to Extract, Process and export Uranium from Jabiluka Orebody No 2. The Jabiluka Proposal. Environmental Assessment Branch, August 1997. P. 95
  3. Title 40, United States Code of Federal Regulation, Part 61,.102 (Originally published in Federal Register 12/15/89. P.51697)
  4. Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Annual Report 1995-1996 p.83
  5. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Aquatic Environment Monitoring Report Number 45. Radioactivity in Surface and Coastal Waters of the British Isles, 1994. Lowestoft: UK
  6. National Radiological Protection Board, Press Release, 27th April 1993.
Many thanks to Jean McSorley for supplying this article to SEA-US Inc.
Page last updated October 31, 1998.
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