Assessment of potential doses at the Maralinga and Emu test sites

An assessment has been undertaken of potential doses to future aboriginal inhabitants of the Maralinga and Emu areas of South Australia, where nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and 1960s have resulted in residual radioactive contamination. Radioactive material due to this program of tests and other experiments is still detectable several tens of kilometers from some of the test sites. Continued occupancy by individuals following an Aboriginal lifestyle could give rise to annual effective dose equivalents of several mSv within contours enclosing areas of several hundred square kilometers. The most significant dose pathways are calculated to be the inhalation of resuspended activity and ingestion of soil by infants. An analysis of the effects of uncertainties in the dose calculation has indicated the uncertainty distribution on predicted doses from the inhalation pathway.