scope:

General 

Environmental risk assessment (ERA) of nuclear facilities is a systematic process used to identify, quantify, and characterize the risk posed by contaminants and physical stressors in the environment on biological receptors, including the magnitude and extent of the potential effects associated with a facility. Receptors should include humans as well as non-human biota (see Clause 0.5.3). Human receptors are addressed through a human health risk assessment (HHRA) and non-human biota are addressed through an ecological risk assessment (EcoRA).

An ERA should

(a) identify and prioritize the contaminants and physical stressors of concern;

(b) identify and prioritize the sources or points of release of the contaminants and physical stressors of concern;

(c) identify and prioritize the potential receptors (human and non-human biota) of concern;

(d) include a conceptual model of the environment representing the relationship between sources and receptors;

(e) provide an assessment of the exposure to the contaminants and physical stressors of concern (to be used with the benchmark value [BV] to assess the risk);

(f) identify the BVs used to assess the potential effects of the contaminants and physical stressors of concern on the receptors;

(g) provide an assessment of the environmental risk to receptors posed by the facility; and

(h) identify and, if possible, quantify the uncertainties in the assessment of the environmental risk.

The ERA approach takes into consideration the fact that many contaminants can be present simultaneously in several media such as food, air, water, soil, dust, or consumer products and that they can reach the receptors through multiple exposure pathways. An ERA can have both predictive and retrospective elements (as defined in Clause 3.1).