The ERMIN model is a new implement developed to enable estimation of the radiologicalconsequences in inhabited areas of accidents in nuclear installations. Similarly, AGRICPis a model developed to enable estimation of the radiological consequences ofcontamination of agricultural production areas. This paper provides a short overview ofthe background of the two models and describes the features enabled through theirimplementation in the ARGOS decision support system. The integration allows calculation ofboth dose rates and doses in particular areas, and can be used to evaluate theeffectiveness and costs of countermeasure strategies.

The present work encompasses some key aspects of a 3-year long research project (INTRANOR) where the main focus has been specifically on environmental assessments for radiation exposure through application of existing methodologies and their adaptation to quantify transfer, exposure and effects in Boreal/Arctic ecosystems. Non-parametric statistical methods have been applied in order to estimate the threshold dose rates above which radiation effects can be expected in vertebrate organisms. In addition, industrial areas contaminated by uranium mill tailings and radium production wastes, in the Komi Republic, Russia, were selected as suitable sites to study further the effects of exposure to radiation under boreal conditions. Dose–effect relationships have been established for a few natural populations inhabiting this area. Analyses of data have allowed benchmarks to be established below which no decrease in reproductive capacity could be observed. Other work performed within the project includes the collation of data in relation to naturally occurring radionuclides and application of existing methodologies to characterise background radiation exposures. These dose-rates may be a suitable means of contextualising the exposure attributable to enhanced dose-rates arising from human activities. Finally, combined action of ionizing radiation and low temperature has been analyzed and mathematically modelled.

During 2001–2002 we investigated current contamination of soils in several places in the Chornobyl zone. We have measured the content of alpha emitting isotopes Pu, 241Am, 154,155Eu, 90Sr, and 137Cs in layers of soil up to the depth of 30 cm. By including the two mechanisms of migration: convection and diffusion in our model, we were able to estimate the ecological and effective half-lives of self-purification processes for these layers of soil. Effective half-lives vary from 20 to 400 years dependent upon the type of soil and the isotopes.

Des quantités allant de 1 à 20 fois les LAI pour l'uranium (sous les formes chimiques UO2 et U3O8) ont été inhalées par des babouins suivis pendant 1 an par anthroporadiométrie puis sacrifiés pour analyse des différents organes où l'uranium peut migrer en quantité significative. Les résultats ont montré qu'un an après : 1) la rétention d'uranium dans le poumon est plus forte lorsqu'il est inhalé sous forme d'UO2 que sous forme d ' U3O8 ; 2) le rapport “concentration dans les ganglions/concentration dans les poumons” est plus élevé lorsque l'uranium est inhalé sous forme d'UO2 ; 3) pour les deux formes, le transfert vers les ganglions n'est pas influencé par la massé inhalée ; 4) les concentrations relatives d'uranium, quelles que soient les formes inhaléesévoluent dans l'ordre : ganglions thoraciques › poumons ›› crâne › fémurclavicule › vertèbres lombaires – cage thoracique › sternum › reins › foie ; 5) la mesure de certains enzymes présents dans les urines peut être utile poursurveiller les surexpositions d' U3O8, mais, à ce jour et dans la gamme de doses étudiée, l'anthroporadiométrie et l'excrétion urinaire restent des procédés de choix.

The cytogenetical effects of long-term irradiation in embryo tissue of gastropod snail (Lymnaea stagnalis L.) as chromosome aberration rate as well as change of structure, level of differentiation, death and cytogenetical stability of hemolymph cell population has been studied. Our researches were carried out during 1998–2007 in water bodies within the Chernobyl Exclusion. The absorbed dose rate for snails from research water bodies within the exclusion zone was registered in the range from 1.8 mGy/year to 3.4 Gy/year. The highest rate was found in snails from lakes, the lowest – from the river ecosystems. Molluscs from the control lakes were characterized by absorbed dose rate about 0.3 mGy/year. The lowest rate of chromosome aberration was determined in molluscs form the control lakes – 1.1–2.0%. The highest rate was found in snails from lake ecosystems – 21–23%. In hemoliph of snails from contaminated lakes of the exclusion zone the quantity of death cells averages 40%, the part of phagocytic cells averages 42% as well as decrease of the young amoebocytes quantity to 10–20.1%. In the control water bodies the part of death cells averages from 2.2 to 5.3% and the quantity of phagocytic was at level 3.0–4.2%. The quantity of young amoebocytes have useful increased here to 79.7–89.6%.

The LLW Repository Limited has recognised the potential importance of the processes being considered in the BIOPROTA 14C working group and funded the development a new 14C model that addresses the exchange of gas in a soil-plant-atmosphere system. This model considers two regions in the above-ground atmosphere and utilises concepts from the field of micrometeorology to describe the exchange of air between these regions and losses from the area of interest. The lower layer only experiences molecular diffusion processes in relation to the movement of molecules of CO2, whereas the upper layer experiences some degree of turbulent mixing as a result of winds which flow over the area of interest. The thicknesses of these layers depend upon the canopy density, which will affect the light intensity and thus the rate of photosynthetic uptake of carbon in the canopy profile. Model results demonstrate the impacts of 14C-labelled gas from the soil upon the calculated 14C concentration in plants for a variety of plant species (pasture and garden crops) and subsequent doses to human exposure groups. The technical modelling work described has been funded by the LLW Repository Ltd in support of its 2011 Environmental Safety Case.

In the context of protecting the environment from the effects of ionizing radiation associated with uranium mining, the alpha-emitting radium 226 is the uranium progeny of most interest as it is known to bioaccumulate and confers a high effective dose to biota. For the Ranger uranium mine in northern Australia, total radium 226 activity concentrations were determined in water samples from Magela Creek both upstream and downstream of the mine over two years. Those data were evaluated within three different frameworks and were found to comply with respective limits: human dose estimations, site-specific guideline `trigger' values for ecosystem health (derived from the distributional properties of values from a reference (upstream) dataset) and estimations of absorbed dose to freshwater mussels residing in Magela Creek (long-lived organisms with high rate of uptake and exposure). We propose that the currently-used, human-dose limit of 10 mBq.L-1 be applied to the difference of the wet season arithmetic means calculated for the upstream and downstream locations. In addition, the statistically derived trigger values (e.g. a moving 80$^{\scriptsize\textrm{th}}$ percentile of upstream data) could be used to assess if radium 226 measured downstream of the uranium mine has resulted in an additional dose to biota.

Radon-222 exhalation from different ceramic tiles depends upon the radium(226Ra) concentration and porosity. Raw zirconium sand is one of thesubstances widely used in the ceramic industry and it is naturally radioactive. This canproduce unjustified concern and subsequently perturb the market of these products. Theradon exhalation rates for all ceramic tile companies were in the ranges 28-44mBq.m-2.h-1 and 2.0 to 4.8 mBq.kg-1 .h-1.The porosity of ceramic tiles is in the range 0.19-0.28. The radium activity of ceramictiles was found to be in the range 16-38 Bq.kg-1 for the glazed surface and23-64 Bq.kg-1 for the clay surface, respectively. The average equivalent dosein contact with the ceramic surface was found to be 22 mSv.y-1. The exposure atworking level at the ceramic tile surface was in the range 2.4-3.8 WL. This gives a riskindication to people who spend a long time in closed ceramic tile stores, who should avoidstaying for a long time in such places.

Magnetophosphenes are described as flickering lights appearing in the visual field, dueto retinal exposure to time-varying magnetic fields (MF). Human magnetophospheneperception (MP) serves as a scientific basis for international guidelines intending tolimit exposure to electromagnetic fields in the extremely low frequency range. However,the flux density threshold at which MP occurs, as well as the dose and frequency responsesof the phenomenon, are not clearly experimentally established. The 50–60 Hz threshold isextrapolated from data in the lower frequency range. The objective of this paper is toprovide a descriptive anecdotal report of MP from 8 individuals exposed to 50 mT MF at 20,50 and 60 Hz. They describe variations of flickering light perceptions in the visualfield, matching the description by D’Arsonval (1896). This preliminary testing introduces a new experimental protocol, which willtest the threshold for MP and other associated neurophysiological responses in humans.

Le tritium est un radionucléide dont l’utilisation et la production vont croitre du fait du développement des nouveaux réacteurs à fusion et de la relance des programmes nucléaires dans le monde. La toxicité du tritium est bien connue mais ses effets sanitaires restent délicats à appréhender du fait d’une dosimétrie difficile et du faible nombre de cas de contamination survenus depuis son utilisation. L’estimation des risques liés à son utilisation repose sur les modèles de la CIPR qui permettent de calculer les doses délivrées dans les tissus grâce à un facteur de pondération WR qui tient compte de l’efficacité biologique relative des différents rayonnements. Quelques voix s’élèvent pour réclamer une révision du facteur de pondération utilisé pour les rayonnements bêta du tritium, arguant que celui-ci peut s’incorporer dans l’ADN et donc être plus toxique que les autres radionucléides émetteurs bêta. Une revue des différents travaux menés sur le sujet et publiés dans la littérature montre en réalité que l’efficacité biologique relative du tritium n’est pas très différente de celle des rayonnements gamma, pris comme rayonnements de référence. Ceci plaide pour un maintien du facteur de pondération unitaire actuel, initialement proposé puis réaffirmé récemment par la CIPR.

On the basis of previous survey results of indoor radon for schools, detailed radon survey was conducted in one hundred three selected schools in Korea during the second semester in 2010. According to the results of effective dose assessment due to inhaled radon of during occupancy time, fourteen schools for requiring urgent mitigation action were selected, and recommended to the government.

The results of the analyses of plant production and parasitic resistance of common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex. Steud) from water bodies within the Chernobyl accident exclusion zone are represented. The heavy damage of common reed by the ergot (Claviceps purpurea (Fr.) Tul.) (up to 50%) from water bodies of the left-bank flood lands of the Pripyat River, which is the most contaminated region of the Chernobyl NPP exclusion zone, has been investigated. Deviations in morphological indexes of reproductive organs of common reed from water bodies of right- and left-bank flood lands of the Pripyat River within 10-km exclusion zone are registered. There are: decrease of panicle width, length and flowers number at inflorescence; differences in seed shape and color. The direct correlation between the absorbed dose rate for higher aquatic plants and plant productivity indexes as well as damage events of common reed by the ergot is proved. The parasitic resistance of common reed from water bodies within Chernobyl accident exclusion zone are decreased according to the increase of absorbed dose rate as well.

One of the primary goals was to estimate the impact of the concentration of radioactive caesium on meio- and macrobenthic organisms in Barents and Kara Seas. It is determine that macrobenthos is more inert component, less subjected to the influence of this factor. Meiobenthos reacts to the radioactive pollution by the change of the taxonomic diversity and quantitative characteristics faster then.

The separate contributions of all source regions to organ doses from 131I and 123I administered to the bodywere calculated using voxelized reference phantoms. The photon and electron components oforgan doses were also evaluated for each source region. The MCNPX Monte Carlo particletransport code was utilized for dose calculations. All organs and tissues of male andfemale phantoms were taken into account as source regions with their correspondingcumulated activities. The results showed that cumulated activities assigned to sourceregions and inter-organ distances were two factors that strongly affected the contributionof each source to the organ dose. The major contribution of the dose to the main sourceregions arose from self-irradiation of electrons, while for nearby organs it was due tophotons emitted by the main source organs. In addition, self-irradiation plays animportant role in the dose delivered to most target organs for lower thyroid uptakes.

La surveillance de la radioactivité d'origine naturelle et artificielle du Tage est effectuée depuis 1975 ; en effet, bien qu'il n'y ait pas d'installations nucléaires dans le secteur portugais du fleuve, il faut tenir compte de celles qui existent en amont, en Espagne. Une étude radioécologique du fleuve a également été conduite (Contrat (CCE) n° BI6-B-198-P) entre la mi 1986 et 1989. Un bref exposé des principales caractéristiques de l'eau, des sédiments et du matériel biologique (hydrophytes et poissons) est présenté et les données sur la radioactivité artificielle concernant les années 1981 à 1989 sont analysées. Une hausse de la radioactivité artificielle a été détectée en 1987 et en 1989 dans l'eau ainsi que dans les sédiments, les hydrophytes et les poissons en 1988 ; les raisons de cette augmentation sont discutées. Les sédiments semblent constituer le compartiment préférentiel de rétention du 137Cs.

Accumulation of transuranic element 241Am by photoassimilating organs and its distribution in fractions of the biomass of aquatic plant Elodea canadensis have been investigated in laboratory batch experiments. Americium was taken up by apical shoots of Elodea from water. Of the activity accumulated by the shoots, up to 80% of 241Am was detected in the leaves and 20% in the stems. Americium concentration in apical leaves was several times higher than in distal leaves. Of the 241Am activity concentrated in the shoots, 95% was bound to cell walls, membranes and organelles and 5% of the radionuclide was dissolved in cytoplasm. Less than 1% of americium accumulated in the biomass was found in the lipid extract; up to 10% of americium was bound to proteins and carbohydrates; the major part of the radionuclide (about 90%) was registered in the cell wall fraction that mainly contained cellulose-like polysaccharides. Biomass treatment with hydrochloric acid resulted in desorption of about 70% of americium, mostly from the polysaccharides.

Genomic and proteomic techniques provide the opportunity to investigate plant response to ionising radiation in unprecedented detail. Understanding plant molecular responses to ionising radiation might be useful for radioprotection but also for understanding plant stress responses. This is because radioactivity was a primordial stressor to cells and many stress responses are highly conserved through evolution. DNA microarrays for Arabidopsis plants exposed to 40 µGy h-1 through a hydroponic solution revealed that, after 14 days, there are changes in gene expression primarily in roots. The genes that change are not associated with DNA repair, and correlations with responses to other stressors in public databases suggest that there are elements of plant stress response being activated. The number of genes and their fold changes are lower than those reported for many other stressors but have particular overlaps with oxidative stress responses. Proteomic analyses form similar experiments are ongoing but similarly show no change of abundance in proteins associated with DNA repair and more changes in roots than shoots at these exposures.

In 2003 IAEA launched the EMRAS Programme aiming at evaluating the predictive power of radiological models. The programme continued work of previous international radioecological modelling programmes and comprised several working groups focusing on different aspects of environmental modelling. The Iodine Working Group reassessed the impact of the release of 131I during the Chernobyl accident with the aim of comparing model predictions with environmental data and inter-comparing the model predictions. Measurement data and detailed geographic and demographic descriptions were available for three regions: Plavsk, Warsaw and Prague. As for the Prague Scenario, milk supply regions of three big dairies were chosen for the model validation. Apart from geographic, demographic and agricultural descriptions (e.g. gathering regions of the dairies, feeding regime), the modellers were provided with information on the weather conditions and measurement data of iodine contamination. The most important peculiarities of Prague Scenario were keeping milk cattle in sheds and a special feeding regime during May 1986. The modellers were asked to assess the 131I content in the thyroid of the local population and the resulting dose. The assessments were compared with measurement data. The results of these model calculations and their comparison with experimental data are presented.

To document the tritium uptake following chronic atmospheric exposure, potted lettuces (Lactuca sativa L.) were cultivated outdoors in the vicinity of a nuclear facility. During two sets of experiments performed in spring and autumn, the plants were continually exposed to low tritium levels throughout growth. These experiments factored in meteorological data, tritium monitoring in air (HT and HTO) and analysis of Tissue Free Water Tritium (TFWT) and Organically-Bound Tritium (OBT) in biological material. The global conversion rate of HTO to OBT in plants averaged 0.16% ⋅ h-1 over the growing period, but marked variations were observed during growth. In particular, a significant increase appeared at the exponential growth stage. Consequently, the usual predictive models (for cases of accidental or chronic exposure to tritium) should factor in the conversion rate according to the biological stage. Moreover, as plant growth is closely correlated to total energy received, meteorological parameters (temperature, light intensity) may be considered reliable indicators of growth.