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On this page we try to provide answers to the questions you have asked (to ask a question select the Ask a question form). Also feel free to use the form to comment on the questions or answers provided.
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Other useful Q&A sources:
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Posted: Asked by course participant (21-23 March 2012 Melbourne, Australia)
Does high energy beta become low energy beta?
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Answered by Jordi Vives i Batlle (SCK•CEN, Belgium) 12/04/2012
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Posted: 05/03/2012
From:
Phil Crouch
Australia
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Question:
I have done a freshwater assessment with natural (U series) radionuclide concentrations of about 0.2 Bq/L. This is around half of our drinking water standard, but when I put it into ERICA I get a number of organisms with dose rates up to 200 - 300 microGy/h, and hence well over the ERICA default screening level. It seems very odd that there should be a result like that from water meeting drinking water standards, and I was wondering if you have any comments.
Answer:
We had noticed this for a few radionuclides although there has been no subsequent discussion.
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Answered by Nick Beresford (CEH) and David Copplestone (Stirling University) 2/03/2012
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Posted: 24/02/2012
From:
Chantal Medri
Canada
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Furthermore, are the DCCs for water and sediment the same? Sediment is denser than water, so I expected that different DCCs should be used.
Answer:
Your equation is the correct representation of the calculation of total EXTERNAL dose rate (for the total dose rate then obviously need to include internal exposure). This does not appear to be in documentation although equations for individual elements of dose (e.g. external from sediment at the sediment interface etc.), including internal dose rate estimation, are presented in the Help file and Brown et al. 2008 paper.
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Answered by Justin Brown (NRPA, Norway) and Nick Beresford (CEH) 24/02/2012
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Posted: 24/02/2012
From:
Chantal Medri
Canada
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Seeing as the DCCs that are calculated include progeny with half-lives less than 10 days, does that mean that if I included a radionuclide with a half-life of less than 10 days in my assessment, that its contribution will be double counted?
Answer:
Simple answer is yes if you did this you would double account (this is discussed a little in Vives i Batlle et al. 2007 and Beresford et al. 2010) But if you are using the ERICA Tool (and I think the same is true of RESRAD-BIOTA, which uses a longer cut-off time than 10 d) this should not occur with the default radionuclide list. It would if, for instance, you were considering U-235 and added Th-231 to the radionuclide list (using the ‘add isotope’ option in Tier 2 or 3) as Th-231 will already be included in the U-235 DCC.
Answered by Nick Beresford 24/02/2012
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Posted: Asked by course participant (12-13 October 2011 CEH Lancaster)
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Can marine CR values be applied to freshwater ecosystems?
Question:
How can we best use CR (transfer) values from the marine ecosystem for the freshwater ecosystem if we do not have freshwater data?
Answer:
This was an approach used to provide some default CR values within the original parametrisation of the ERICA Tool. However, it is not one we would recommend. There are perhaps more intelligent ways the available data could be used, e.g. are ratios between CR values for given elements or organisms in marine and freshwater similar? The Wildlife Transfertransfer Database contains data for estuarine/brackish water ecosystems in addition to freshwater and marine, these may provide a better surrogate CR value for other aquatic ecosystems. However, this needs to be investigated before we would recommend such an approach.
Answered by Nick Beresford (CEH) 1/05/2012
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Posted: 07/02/2011
DCC Database
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How can I upload my own database?
Probably I do something wrong, because when I create my database excel file, I can see it in the Parameters Database, but I cannot choose it.
To be more specific. If I create my own DCC database and I want to compare these values, how can I do it? The only way I have found is through “My ERICA Database” files, where I change each time the DCC.xls file (that has been created in the user file). Is this the only way? Can I do this process while the tool is running,so I don’t have to create each time the same simulation?
Answer:
You can see the DCC values by selecting Database and then Parameter Database from most screens within the ERICA Tool.
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Answered by Nick Beresford 10/02/2011
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Posted: 14/01/2011
Calculating Environmental Media Concentration Limits?
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Answered by Cath Barnett 31/01/2011 Amended 16/04/2012
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Posted: 17/12/2010
How can you differentiate between dose from sediment and that from water?
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Answered by Nick Beresford 17/12/2010
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Posted: 14/12/2010
CRs and occupancy factors for fish in the ERICA Tool
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Sediment will generally contribute the most to the total external dose rate of benthic organism assumed to spend 100% of their time at the sediment-water interface.
If you do not have sediment activity concentrations to input these will be estimated from kd and input water activity concentrations.
Answered by Nick Beresford 15/12/2010
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Posted: 13/12/2010
ERICA Tool create organism wizard - how are dimensions and mass used?
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Answered by Nick Beresford & Justin Brown (Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority) 13/12/2010
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Posted: 03/12/2010
What distribution should I use?
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Answered by Nick Beresford 08/12/2010
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Posted: Asked during training course 24-26th November 2011
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Galeriu D, Beresford, N.A., Melintescu, A., Avila, R. and Crout, N.M.J. 2003. Predicting tritium and radiocarbon in wild animals Contributed Papers Conf. on the Protection of the Environment from the Effects of Ionizing Radiation (Stockholm, 2003) (Vienna: IAEA) pp 186-9 (IAEA-CN-109).
Answered 29/11/2010
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Posted: Asked during training course 24-26th November 2011
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Answer:
Those we are aware of are the SADA package, RESRAD-ECORISK and RESRAD-Chem. All are freely available although we note the RESRAD website states that RESRAD-Chem and RESRAD-ECORISK are no-longer being updated.
Answered 29/11/2010
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Posted: Asked during training course 24-26th November 2011
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If you do not have CR or kd values specifically for estuarine ecosystems then we suggest selecting the value which will result in the most conservative assessment from either the marine or freshwater ecosystem.
Answered 29/11/2010
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Posted: 18/11/2010
Non-human biota, environment or wildlife?
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Answered by Nick Beresford 22/11/2010
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Posted: 20/10/2010
Wildlife transfer
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Answered by Nick Beresford 26/10/2010
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Posted: 12/10/2010
Predicting future biota and media concentrations
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Answered by Nick Beresford 26/10/2010
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Posted: 30/09/2010
Time series data
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Answered by Nick Beresford 30/09/2010
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Posted: 12/08/2010
Plant geometries
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Answered by Nick Beresford 26/09/2010
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Posted: 23/09/2010
Are dose conversion coefficient formula in ERICA consistent?
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Added by Nick Beresford 24/09/2010
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Posted: 09/08/2010
Question on aquatic ecosystem occupancies
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Answered by Nick Beresford 09/08/2010
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Posted: 05/08/2010
Question about dose rate to flying animals
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Answered by Nick Beresford 05/08/2010
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Posted: 05/08/2010
Question about terrestrial occupancies in ERICA
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Answered by Nick Beresford 05/08/2010
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Posted: 28/07/2010
Use of the 'IAEA SRS-19 estuarine dispersion model' within the ERICA Tool
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Answered by Nick Beresford with input from Justin Brown (Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority) 05/08/2010
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Posted: 28/07/2010
Choice of analogue radionuclides to represent radionuclides that are not included in the ERICA Tool
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Answer:
To represent radionuclides not included within the Tool as defaults you your are assuming Pu-239 for all alpha-emitters and Tc-99 for all other categories you have to assess, which is as suggested by the England and Wales Environment Agency (EA) . You could argue this approach on the grounds of consistency. However, it depends upon the purpose of your assessment - do you want to be conservative?. If yes then the analogues suggested by EA may not always be the most conservative choices. However, the ERICA Tool allows you to explore alternatives as it has more fuctionality than the EA approach:
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Answered by Nick Beresford 05/08/2010
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Posted: 07/06/2010
Modelling exposure to Acacia trees growing on a waste burial trench
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Answered by Nick Beresford 08/06/2010
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Posted: 25/05/2010
Effect of occupancy factors on estimated wholebody activity concentrations
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If you want to model an organism as spending only a proportion of time in a contaminated environment using the ERICA Tool then perhaps the simplest approach is to use an occupancy factor of 1.0 and multiply the resultant dose rate by the fraction of time spent in the assessment area.
Added 09/08/2010
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