Assessment of environmental impact from radioactive effluents discharged by the Hanbit nuclear power plants in Korea: analyzing annual reports from nuclear power plants and radioactivity data from environmental monitoring organizations.

This article focuses on the assessment of public radiation exposure from radioactive effluents discharged by the Hanbit nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Korea over a ten-year period (2014–2023). Despite tritium (^3H) constituting the majority (97.03%) of total radioactive discharges, carbon-14 (^14C), which accounts for only 1.90% of effluents, contributes disproportionately (88.53%) to the annual effective dose to the public. The average annual effective dose to the public was 9.47 × 10^−3 mSv, representing less than 1% of the regulatory dose limit, with gaseous effluents responsible for nearly all of this exposure. The study recommends improvements to the environmental radiation monitoring system, including increased sampling frequency and points—especially for seawater and seabed sediments—and the inclusion of ^14C analysis in air and ingestion-related environmental samples to better evaluate radiological impacts.