An assessment of the natural radiation dose to wildlife in England and Wales was
made to determine the contribution it may make to the total radiation dose estimated during
environmental impact assessments. Significant use was made of systematic datasets for environmental
media (stream sediments, stream waters and soils), in particular those produced by the Geochemical
Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) project. This provided extensive, although variable,
coverage for different elements and sample types after normalisation of data to account for changes in
sampling and analysis over time. Almost complete coverage for K in stream sediments was achieved
by merging G-BASE and Wolfson Atlas data. This required normalisation of the Wolfson data to the
G-BASE results. Coverage was improved greatly for U and Th in sediments, and K, U and Th in
soils, by using the strong relationship between soils and sediments and geology (both solid and
superficial) to extrapolate the data. The total U, Th and K data were used to derive activity
concentrations of 238U and 232Th series radionuclides and 40K. External dose rates to wildlife were
then estimated from derived media concentrations; internal dose rates were estimated from measured
activities in biota or activities predicted using recommended concentration ratios
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