It is now generally accepted that there is a need to explicitly demonstrate that the environment is protected from authorised discharges of radioactive substances. In response a number of assessment tools (models) have been developed. As the need for environmental assessment increases there is a requirement to ensure that regulators, industry and their representatives are: conversant with assessment objectives; know how to use available tool; can interpret the results; understand the implications of how the tools are used.The Natural Environment Research Council has provide funding, under the Knowledge Exchange programme, to develop training packages (including on-line training materials) on radiological environmental assessment aimed specifically aimed at regulators and industry and those who may conduct assessment on their behalf. The project is lead by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology with collaborators from the University of Stirling, England & Wales Environment Agency, Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) and the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK.CEN).
The training programme is focussed towards the use of the ERICA Tool however, we also consider other approaches. To date we have run training courses in United Kingdom (most), Australia and Monaco; see Training courses - schedule & details for further information and feedback from participants.
Please see what's on the website for details of what information can be found on this site; for instance, all of the outputs from the EC EURATOM projects PROTECT, ERICA, FASSET and EPIC are now housed on this site, and you can see the questions people have asked on environmental assessment together with our answers (Questions & Answers).
A few tips for using the wiki
Please see www.radioecology-exchange.org for more up to date radioecology related news
Posted by: Cath Barnett 1/7/16
A spreadsheet model to estimate radon dose rates for wildlife has been made available on this site.
Posted by: Nick Beresford/Jordi Vives i Batlle 5/7/2013
The STAR consortium includes a number of the organisations who developed the ERICA Tool. It is intended that the ERICA Tool will form a component of the screening tier tool for conducting combined human and non-human assessments to be developed by STAR. Consequently, the STAR consortium will collaborate in the forthcoming update of the ERICA Tool anticipated to be released in autumn 2013. This update will take into account: lessons learnt during model inter-comparison exercises (e.g. the IAEA EMRAS programmes and the EURATOM PROTECT project), user feedback, and recent evaluations. See here for details and feedback form.
Posted by: Cath Barnett 9/1/2013
Argonne National Laboratory will conduct a series of training courses on the use of RESRAD family of risk assessment codes from March 12-22, 2013. See http://web.ead.anl.gov/resrad/training/.
Posted by: Cath Barnett 19/12/2012
Guidelines for Remediation Strategies to Reduce the Radiological Consequences of Environmental Contamination. Technical Reports Series 475.
Posted by: Catherine Barnett 13/12/2012
STAR (see info below) invites comments on its Strategic Research Agenda which proposes 15 major research topics in radioecology with the goals of improving research efficiency and more rapidly advancing the science.
Consultation closed.
Updated by: Catherine Barnett 12/10/2012
STAR is an EC EURATOM funded project with objectives to integrate radioecology programmes in key European organisations, develop joint training programmes, manage and disseminate knowledge and conduct a focused research programme.
Please see the STAR Radioecology Network of Excellence website
for more information.
Updated by: Catherine Barnett 12/06/2012
New paper available on-line evaluating the approaches used to provide missing values in the ERICA Tool.
Posted by: Catherine Barnett 12/06/12