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Integrating environment protection, a new challenge: strategy of the International Union of Radioecology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2008

F. Bréchignac ,
R. Alexakhin ,
J. M. Godoy ,
D. Oughton ,
S. Sheppard  and
P. Strand
F. Bréchignac
Affiliation:
Institut de radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire, IRSN, Direction scientifique, Centre de Cadarache, B.P. 1, 13115 Saint Paul-lez-Durance Cedex, France.
R. Alexakhin
Affiliation:
Russian Institute of Agricultural Radiology and Agroecology (RIARAE), Kievskoe str., 249032, Obninsk, Kaluga Region, Russia.
J. M. Godoy
Affiliation:
Instituto de Radioproteção, Comissão National de Energia Nuclear, P.O. Box 37750, Bama da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, RJ CER 22642-970, Brazil.
D. Oughton
Affiliation:
Norvegian University of Life Sciences, Department of Plant Environmental Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1432 Ås, Norway.
S. Sheppard
Affiliation:
ECO Matters Incorporation., Suite 105, W.B. Lewis Business Centre, 24 Aberdeen Ave., Pinawa, MB, 0E 1L0, Canada.
P. Strand
Affiliation:
Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, P.O. Box 55, 1332 Østeraas, Norway.
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Abstract

Born in the fifties together with the emergence of the nuclear technologies, radioecology is a scientific discipline that primarily addresses environmental issues relevant to radioprotection. With a current membership of nearly 600 worldwide, the International Union of Radioecology was founded in the seventies as a non-governmental knowing society dedicated to the development and the promotion of this discipline. The scientific directions taken in Radioecology have been drastically influenced in the past by the Chernobyl accident, which forced a focus on environmental transfers through the environment to feed human radioprotection needs. Currently, a profound evolution is underway towards more ecological effects research and studies, under the driving pressure of the raise of society’s concern on environmental issues and the concomitant re-boost of nuclear industry to face global warming and the future energetic demands. The IUR plays a central role within this evolution which is described here in more details along a description of its four major tools of action: dedicated task groups; workshops, seminars and conferences; training courses; web site tool for information and communication. Finally, together with the recent election of a new Board of Council to manage the Union, the main lines of the new strategic plan for the coming years are given.

Keywords

Radioecologyradiation protectionradioactivityenvironment
Type
Research Article
Information
Radioprotection , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , July 2008 , pp. 339 - 356
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2008

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