PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 1 Experiences of applying R&D 128, the ERICA Tool and RESRAD-BIOTA: Use and ‘misuse’ Mike Wood University of Liverpool

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 2 Practical application of the approach(es) you are familiar with –R&D 128 (SP1a) –ERICA –RESRAD-BIOTA Specifically –What works? –What doesn’t work? –What extra may be required? –etc…. Scope

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 3 Drigg coastal sand dunes, UK North West of England (West Cumbria) 10km south of Sellafield Adjacent to the Low-Level Repository near Drigg

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 4

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 5 Why dunes? Protected site –NATURA 2000 –Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) –Lake District National Park –Local nature reserve Support a number of protected species Potential to be impacted by anthropogenic radionuclide contamination Includes a ‘non-standard’ contamination pathway (sea-to-land transfer) Includes organisms for which few or no radioecological data exist (e.g. transfer data for reptiles) –opportunity to test model assumptions and predictions

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 6 Sampling undertaken at Drigg dunes 2005 – present –Part-funded by EC 6 th Framework ERICA project, Environment Agency and English Nature (Natural England) Collected media and biota samples Sampling undertaken by UoL and analysis by CEH (with support from UoL and WSC) Data collection

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 7 Data available

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 8 Comparing the models Measured activity concentrations in media and biota for a range of radionuclides including Sr-90, Cs-137 and Am-241 Opportunity to compare models on the basis of –‘Model – Measured’ comparison for activity concentrations in a range of biota –‘Model – Model’ comparison for dose rate predictions Aim to use the three models that are readily available to third parties as a minimum –ERICA –R&D 128 –RESRAD-BIOTA

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 9 Comparing the models Measured activity concentrations in media and biota for a range of radionuclides including Sr-90, Cs-137 and Am-241 Opportunity to compare models on the basis of –‘Model – Measured’ comparison for activity concentrations in a range of biota –‘Model – Model’ comparison for dose rate predictions Aim to use the three models that are readily available to third parties as a minimum –ERICA –R&D 128 –RESRAD-BIOTA

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 10 R&D 128 (SP1a)

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 11 R&D 128 assessment The model needs to be parameterised to enable predictions to be made for specific organisms R&D 128 is an Excel-based spreadsheet tool so there are no wizards to help you do this Effectively need to create a new organism by modifying values in the spreadsheets

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 12 R&D 128 assessment Three important decisions –Geometry 17 geometries for terrestrial organisms. Which do I choose?

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 13 Geometry Geometries set up for particular reference organisms but…. –geometry is just a shape used to define the DPUC value To identify geometry to use for a new organism need to know the dimensions of the organism (x, y, z) Can often get average or maximum length from ecological references but rarely, if ever, get all 3 dimensions Calculate from images has become a fairly common solution How do you decide which of the 17 geometries (and hence DPUC values) to select? Comparing organism you wish to create with default reference organism geometries on the basis of ‘surface area:volume ratio’ is the best approach

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 14 Geometry

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 15 Geometry SP1a ranks default organisms on the basis of ‘surface area:volume ratio’ so can select the reference organism geometry to use for your new organism Problem –SP1a does not tell user how to calculate ‘surface area:volume ratio’ for an ellipsoid based on x,y,z Solution –Google it! BUT –An example of where guidance information could be improved

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 16 R&D 128 assessment Three important decisions –Geometry 17 geometries for terrestrial organisms. Which do I choose? –Concentration factors Appropriate concentration factors to use for the species under assessment Where possible, used defaults for the organism type e.g. for Mallard used bird Where not possible, followed SP1a guidance and used CFs for similar organism e.g. for Great Crested Newt used reptile –Occupancy factors –In soil? –On soil? –In air? Information from R&D 128 defaults, ecological references and knowledge of species

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 17 Parameters for R&D 128 model run

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 18 Parameters for R&D 128 model run

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 19 R&D 128 assessment Tool is a spreadsheet system with worksheets that cannot be modified For each run of the tool, can only use one set of CFs and OFs for a particular geometry All new organisms based on reptile or bird egg geometry Need to re-run tool a number of times –Time consuming –Lots of copying and pasting involved

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 20 ERICA Tool help file & D-ERICA Again need to parameterise but facilitated by ‘Add organism’ wizard Define geometry in tool based on x,y,z Enter mass Assign occupancy factors Define concentration ratios –used default values –NOTE: Drigg data used in derivation of CRs in latest version of tool so changed back to pre- Drigg CRs (avoid self- validation)

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 21 Parameters for ERICA model run

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 22 Parameters for ERICA model run

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 23 Sr-90 activity concentrations

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 24 Cs-137 Activity concentration

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 25 Am-241 activity concentrations

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 26 Cs-137 Total unweighted dose rate

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 27 Am-241 Total unweighted dose rate

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 28 Perch Lake, Canada EMRAS BWG scenario Canadian shield lake Received inputs of Sr-90, Co-60, Cs-137 and H-3 (amongst others) AECL have activity concentration data for a range of biota in the lake UoL and NRPA ran RESRAD-BIOTA as ‘informed users’ (experienced with other tools but not RESRAD-BIOTA)

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 29 Valuable exercise Applied by people involved with development of other tools but no previous experience of RESRAD-BIOTA For model intercomparisons – important distinction between applications by developers and applications by ‘informed users’ EMRAS has compared the ‘mathematics’ and started comparing applications (mainly by developers). There is a need to direct effort towards applications by users –Tool developers may access ‘inaccessible’ parts of tool –Tests tool user friendliness and accompanying documents –Realistic application –Begin to quantify a different aspect of tool uncertainty (the user)

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 30 Approach RESRAD-BIOTA 1.22 beta version Scenario required calculation of Whole-body activity concentrations for key receptor species (Bq/kg FW) Internal unweighted dose rates (µGy/h) External dose rates (µGy/h) –NOTE: RESRAD-BIOTA only gives total dose Application guided by –Tool + help –User guide (US DOE, 2004) –Some reference to technical reports (US DOE, 2002) –Web-based database (bioaccumulation factors and distribution coefficients)

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 31 The RESRAD-BIOTA Tool The tool can be used for either terrestrial or aquatic (freshwater) assessments Four generic organisms that have been parameterised: –Aquatic animal –Riparian animal –Terrestrial animal –Terrestrial plant Assessments can be run to predict doses to these organisms Level 3 includes ‘New organism’ wizard –possibility to create additional organisms based on one of the four generic organisms –allows calculations to be performed for specific species

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 32

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 33 Level 3 Assessment Sediment data entry – dry weight or fresh weight –Not clear from tool, help or user guide –UoL assumed dry weight, NRPA assume fresh weight –First major decision and already the ‘informed users’ are taking different approaches! –Another example of where assessor needs clearer guidance Predictions for specific biota so ‘New organism’ wizard used When setting up new organisms need to parameterise –UoL decided to run allometrically for all organisms that were identified as particular species in the scenario and use BiVs for the rest –NRPA used BiVs only –UoL decision to run allometrically for everything (including a snail!) was probably not the best! However, no clear guidance as to extent of allometric functionality when using the tool –NRPA decision to run all with default BiVs may result in overly conservative predictions

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 34 Co-60 Modelled-to- measured ratio

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 35 Co-60 Modelled-to- measured ratio

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 36 Summary: What works? All three tools do what they are designed to do Predictions of measured data ‘aren’t bad’ R&D 128 is generally conservative

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 37 Summary: What doesn’t work? Guidance (in tools and supporting documentation) –R&D 128 How do you calculate the ‘surface area:volume ratio’? –RESRAD-BIOTA Do you enter sediment as fresh weight or dry weight? When is it appropriate to run allometrically?

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 38 Summary: What extra may be required? To facilitate the creation of new organisms, it would help if the R&D 128 spreadsheets could be set up to allow the same geometry to be run for a number of CF and OF combinations at the same time To improve decision making it would be helpful to have the dose rate report from RESRAD-BIOTA showing internal and external dose rates as well as total dose rates

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 39 Summary: etc……! There are differences in predictions due to ‘mathematics’ and assumptions behind tools EMRAS BWG work helping to quantify and explain this –Effectively get handle on tool ‘error’ when compared to ‘real’ values BUT…..of potentially greater significance in terms of error is that associated with the user EMRAS BWG has focussed on intercomparison of tools by the tool developers The one scenario where two tool developers attempted to run another organisation’s model revealed major differences in the approach and results obtained

PROTECT Work Package 2 Meeting (June 2007) Institute for Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) 40 Summary: etc……! Valuable to investigate this aspect further –Take each tool in turn and have the developer and a number of ‘informed users’ run the tool for a particular scenario –Start to quantify the ‘error’ associated with the user –Help tool developers to identify areas of their tool and associated documentation that could be revised to provide clearer instruction to the assessor –Especially important for freely available tools that can be used by third parties –Hopefully this afternoon may start this process!!