Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG), Utrechtseweg 310, NL-6800, ES Arnhem, the Netherlands.
Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, Boeretang 200, BE-2400, Mol, Belgium.
J Environ Radioact. 2023 Dec;270:107271. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2023.107271. Epub 2023 Aug 14.
Accurate assessment of the radiological impact of liquid discharges on the marine environment is challenging despite all developments in recent years. The lack of consensus on this type of assessment manifests itself even stronger when transborder issues are expected, such as in the Low Countries. Belgium and the Netherlands operate nuclear power plants with discharges in the shared estuary of the Western Scheldt, therefore if there are safety concerns, information on both sides of the border must be coherent. This work provides a comparison of two computational methods used for assessment of aquatic releases in the Western Scheldt estuary and the adjacent North Sea.The work demonstrates a fair degree of consistency in modelling the uptake and fate of key anthropogenic radionuclides. Nevertheless, there are also considerable differences found in sediment and sea species with concentrations ranging by over two orders of magnitude in some cases. These explainable differences are methodological in nature, occurring in codes that underwent extensive validation during development. Therefore, the outcomes of this work clearly demonstrate the need to produce explicit guidance that is specifically tailored to the (inter)national water system of concern. This should not be limited to releases from nuclear power plants, but also include other nuclear applications. For all these reasons, more intensive collaboration and model harmonisation across borders is essential, signalling the direction for future investigations.
尽管近年来有了所有的发展，准确评估液体排放对海洋环境的放射性影响仍然具有挑战性。当涉及跨境问题时，例如在低地国家（比利时和荷兰），这种评估缺乏共识表现得更为明显。比利时和荷兰在西部 Scheldt 河口的共享河口运营着核电站，因此如果存在安全问题，那么边境两侧的信息必须一致。
这项工作比较了两种用于评估西部 Scheldt 河口和相邻北海水放流的计算方法。该工作表明，在模拟关键人为放射性核素的吸收和归宿方面具有相当程度的一致性。然而，在沉积物和海洋物种中也发现了相当大的差异，在某些情况下浓度范围相差两个数量级以上。这些可解释的差异本质上是方法上的差异，出现在开发过程中经过广泛验证的代码中。因此，这项工作的结果清楚地表明需要制定专门针对（国际）关注的水系的明确指导方针。这不应仅限于核电站的排放，还应包括其他核应用。出于所有这些原因，加强跨境合作和模型协调至关重要，这为未来的研究指明了方向。
