RISK ASSESSMENT DURING TRANSPORT OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS THROUGH THESUEZ CANAL

In this paper a study for risk assessment of the impact of transportin g radioactive materials, during the period 1986-1992, through the Suez Canal of Egypt is given. The code RADTRAN-IV was used for this study. The results of the code, for a normal case, show that the transportat ion of low activity materials such as uranium (U3O8) represent the mai n items that contribute significantly to the collective dose within th e Suez Canal area (Port-Said, Ismailia and Suez). The values of the an nual collective dose due to transportation of all radionuclide materia ls was found to be at a maximum in Suez town and is equal to 5.04 x 10 (-8) Man-Sv for the whole populations. If we only consider the worker at the harbour (estimated to be 50 persons), the value of the annual c ollective dose is about 3.33 x 10(-4) Man-Sv. These values are less th an the exemption value of 1 Man-Sv recommended by the IAEA. For the ac cident case, the following pathways are considered by the code: ground -shine, direct inhalation, inhalation of resuspended material and clou d-shine. The total values of the estimated risks for each radionuclide material are presented in table form and, in addition, health effects (genetic effects, GE, and latent cancer fatality, LCF) are discussed. The calculated values of the radiological risks are very low for the three towns, showing that no radiation-induced early deaths are to be expected. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.