Age- and sex-specific cancer risk predictions for some important radionuclides in a Swedish population—use of the updated ORNL computation method for chronic exposure

Radiation dosimetry and cancer risk estimations are central to virtually all radiation safety applications, optimization, and research. These estimates relate to various exposure situations including planned, existing, and emergency situations. The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has developed a new methodology to handle the dosimetry of an acute/single intake of radionuclides. To expand this to a chronic exposure over a lifetime or during shorter periods, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) applies a methodology based on the ICRP primary data with additional lifetime population-based radiogenic cancer risk estimations involving age- and gender-specific intake rates and organ specific cancer risk models. The releases of unwanted artificial radionuclides in the environment could have a big impact on society, both locally and globally. Such an exposure may occur over an extended time period, and the derived cancer risk coefficients should reflect that possibility. In the present study, cancer risk coefficients are calculated for the Swedish population for 14C, 137Cs, 90Sr, 131I, and 60Co, for internal exposure through air, food, and water and external exposure from air, water, surface, and soil.