Discharges of radioactive materials to the environment in Argentina

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is creating a database of information on radioactive discharges to atmospheric and aquatic environments from nuclear and radioactive installations, and from facilities using radionuclides in medicine, industry and research. The database is expected to facilitate the analysis of worldwide trends in discharge levels and provide a basis for assessing the impact of the discharges on humans and on the environment. In November 2002 took place the first meeting of national contact points and the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN in Spanish) was present as the counterpart for the provision of discharge data from Argentina. This paper, presented in the above mentioned meeting, is a general overview of the radioactive discharges control in Argentina including the legal infrastructure, the population dose assessment methodology and the main characteristics of the facilities in the country with radioactive discharges to the environment. It is mentioned their location, release mode, surface water body type, main radionuclides and typical annual release activities.