Radioecological risk assessment in tropical climate countries

¹ Coordenação de Instalações Nucleares/CNEN, R. Passagem 123, 9° andar, 22290-030 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
² Instituto de Radioproteção e Dosimetria/CNEN, Av. Salvador Allende s/ No., 22780-160 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil

e-mail: erochedo@cnen.gov.br

Abstract

Since the 90’s the relevance of considering environmental aspects in development industrial activities has been steadily growing. The anthropocentric philosophy of radiological protection has been questioned and research and development on ecological risk assessment has now an import role in overall risk assessment procedures. However, most development up to now has focused temperate climate country biota and cannot be directly applied to tropical climate countries, due to the very different environmental characteristics and biodiversity. A preliminary survey focusing the area surrounding the Brazilian nuclear power plant site has shown that very few of the ICRP’s reference animals and plants can be used to characterize environmental protection in tropical climate areas. The development of such lists and all the research needed on parameter values to fulfill a risk assessment procedure would be extremely expensive, and more pragmatic approaches are needed to turn the process reliable in a more global way.