Establishing a dataset for a ‘reference site’

The ICRP published their framework for radiation protection of the environment in Publication 108 (ICRP 2008). This describes the use of Reference Animals and Plants (RAPs) as the basis for the framework. Publication 108 presented dose coefficient values for the selected RAPs and also reviewed data on the effects of ionising radiation to suggest Derived Consideration Reference Levels (defined as a band of dose rate within which there is likely to be some chance of deleterious effects of ionising radiation occurring to individuals of that type of RAP) for each RAP. In summer 2010 the ICRP released a further report on their protection framework for consultation. This report presented transfer parameter values (organism-media concentration ratios) for adult life-stages of the Reference Animals and Plants (http://www.icrp.org/page.asp?id=65). However, there were many radionuclide-RAP combinations for which there were no data. The report also raised the possibility of identifying a series of sites where samples of each Reference Animal and Plant, and their different life-stages, could be collected and analysed. It was suggested that the resultant data would constitute a set of ‘reference values’ analogous to approaches used by the ICRP for human radiological protection. Here we describe the sampling of Reference Animals and Plants from a single terrestrial site and summarise analytical results available to date.