This report has been prepared as part of the Initial Review Phase of SKB’s SR-Site performance assessment of the long-term safety of the KBS-3 geological disposal facility (GDF) proposed for construction at Forsmark. The review addresses the methodology employed in the dose assessment calculations of SR-Site. In this respect the review has a natural focus upon biosphere modelling aspects of the SR-Site documentation.
Within SR-Site the biosphere dose assessment is treated as an external element, distinct from those aspects of the overall assessment that scrutinise containment and safety functions of the GDF. In this way biosphere modelling is essentially independent of any of the representation of the engineered barriers and bedrock. The scope of this review is therefore the treatment and reporting of the fate of radionuclides entering the regolith, surface water and other ecosystem components of the future landscape at the Forsmark site and how the health effects on potential inhabitants of the future biosphere (both human and non-human) are assessed following exposure to environmental concentrations of radionuclides. The Landscape Dose Factor (LDF) concept is used to scale releases from the bedrock to give a measure of the radiological impact of the disposal.