Dose Rates to Aquatic Life Near a U Waste Site

Abstract

-Radiation dose rates to aquatic organisms have been estimated from radionuclide levels in fish, in water and in the sediments near an abandoned U waste site. The dose rates in the sediments were high (0.5 Gy y−1). Whitefish received dose rates of 10 mGy y−1 from internal 226Ra and could have received comparable external dose rates from the sediments when they forage near the lake bottom, as they usually do. The calculated dose rates to fish were comparable to those reported near an adjacent U mine (Sw83).