Assessment of risks to individuals from the transportation of radioactive materials

The radiological impacts to individuals from the transportation of radioactive materials must be assessed when evaluating alternatives for major federal actions as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. Public comments on past environmental impact statements indicate that the public is concerned about the risks of radiation exposure to individuals along a transport route from radioactive materials shipments. Individuals may be exposed during routine, incident-free, transport of radioactive materials or, potentially, as a result of transportation accidents. This paper discusses the computer model RISKIND, which was developed at Argonne National Laboratory to estimate the potential radiological risks to individuals and population subgroups from the transportation of radioactive materials. The code was designed to use site-specific data to provide a detailed analysis for each receptor location. This type of analysis complements the traditional collective population transportation risk analyses conducted for radiological transportation risk assessments