Radiological Impacts in Life Cycle Assessment – Part II: Comparison of Methodologies

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Radiological Impacts in Life Cycle Assessment – Part II: Comparison of Methodologies

Paulillo, A; Clift, R; Dodds, J; Milliken, A; Palethorpe, S; Lettieri, P; (2020) Radiological Impacts in Life Cycle Assessment – Part II: Comparison of Methodologies. Science of The Total Environment , 708 , Article 134712. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134712. Green open access

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Abstract

In a complementary article, an overarching framework was proposed to include radiological impacts in Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA). Two methodologies were derived embodying the framework: the Critical Group Methodology (CGM), adapted from the approach commonly used in Human and Environmental Risk Assessment (HERA), and UCrad, based on the compartment modelling approach commonly used in LCIA. In this paper, characterisation factors obtained by the two methodologies are compared in detail to investigate the consequences of the different approaches to fate modelling and the sensitivity of the characterisation factors to the radionuclides’ half-life. Characterisation factors from the CGM methodology are strongly affected by radioactive decay at low half-life and by dilution at large distances. Conversely, UCrad factors are not affected by dilution and are affected less than CGM by radioactive decay. It is concluded that UCrad is more appropriate than CGM for LCA because it is consistent with the general approach used in LCIA. However, CGM can be used alongside UCrad to make recommendations on the location and scale of specific processes emitting radionuclides.

Type:	Article
Title:	Radiological Impacts in Life Cycle Assessment – Part II: Comparison of Methodologies
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134712
Publisher version:	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134712
Language:	English
Additional information:	This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords:	Life Cycle Impact Assessment, Ionising radiations, Radiological impacts, Risk assessment, Radionuclides, Nuclear waste
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10086949