Radioecology Projects

RESTORE - Restoration strategies for radioactive contaminated ecosystems

This work is funded by the European Commission DGXII, Contract no. F14PCT950021c

OBJECTIVES
This project is focused on the research project 'Mastering Events of the Past' of the CEC's Nuclear Fission Safety Programme and will address four research tasks. Its overall aim is to produce an environmental management package integrating over areas contaminated by radioactive fallout based on an understanding of the nature of contamination, the processes and routes by which radioactivity is transferred in a variety of ecosystems, and the importance and potential of appropriate countermeasures to reduce radiation doses to humans and to minimize adverse socio-economic effects.

Existing models for determination of the transfers of radionuclides through foodchains to man and dose assessments pay little attention to factors such as flooding processes and their consequences, and spatial variation in radioecological operative parameters which influence transfer to foodstuffs and man. They are mainly based on information of collective systems and do inadequately consider private farming, different consumption behaviours or socio-economic factors of special groups within the population. The effect of countermeasures, however, will depend very much on these factors. There is a urgent need to improve these models and to provide a model which is suitably constructed so that different sources and subsets of population are appropriately considered. This work programme is designed to contribute to this aspect.

This project will make maximum use of data and information available from studies already carried out in the CIS countries in recent years. The intention is to use this information, in combination with targetted and appropriate additional studies where considered necessary, to provide detailed, scientifically based recommendations for restoration techniques based on spatial analysis of selected regions.

Improvements on current knowledge will be gained by the following objectives of the programme:

1. Identification of major pathways affecting radionuclide fluxes in contaminated areas in respect to a variety of contamination scenarios and ecosystems.

2. Assessment of the potential importance of rivers and floods for deposition, transport and remobilization of radionuclides into food production systems.

3. Application of data on local geophysical characteristics, production and consumption habits to derive an overview and identify vulnerable areas. This information will be incorporated into a Geographical Information System (GIS).

4. Application of this knowledge to develop an environmental management package and a decision support system providing a strategy for cost-effective countermeasures to reclaim contaminated land and restore traditional farming.

5. Testing novel countermeasures, which are particularily appropriate for privately owned cows belonging to residents of contaminated areas, who receive a large proportion of radionuclides intake via milk.

6. Independent assessment of the contamination in the Semipalatinsk area on the basis of a scientific assessment of the radioecological impacts.

BACKGROUND
Following deposition of fallout from a nuclear incident or accident certain food products and geographical areas will be more vulnerable to radioactive contamination than others. For instance, following the Chernobyl accident semi-natural and forest ecosystems with highly organic soils were identified as producing food products with especially high levels of radiocaesium contamination. Vulnerability will vary with the radioisotopes deposited; in this programme two major important radionuclides (radiocaesium and radiostrontium) contaminating food are being considered. Soil characteristics, land use, agricultural practices and dietary variations will have a large influence on the importance of areas as sources of contaminated foodstuffs. Different countermeasures therefore will also have different effectiveness depending on these factors. Once the importance of these factors is known it is possible to devise appropriate, optimal countermeasure stategies to reduce the transfer of radionuclides to man. There are good existing data sets of the environmental behaviour of radiocaesium and radiostrontium in the CIS and information about effective countermeasures. This information has to be verified and used in the most appropriate manner for decision makers.

The regions of Rovno, Ukraine, and of Bryansk, Russia and Belarus have been extensively investigated in a site-specific study in the ECP 9 programme. It was shown that these areas have high uptake rates depending on ecological characteristics and resulting in radiocaesium activities in foodstuff above intervention limits, additionally major changes in traditional farming practices have been undertaken in these sites. It is necessary to extend this approach to cover a large geographical area to more completely assess the relative importance of different components of the ecosystem such as forest, waters/rivers, semi-natural ecosystems and private farming systems. The population under review will be extended to cover different subgroups such as town dwellers, or people living in rural and urban environments. At Semipalatinsk, comparatively little independent information is available.

PARTNERS

Forschunszentrum Fur Umwelt und Gesundheit (GSF), Munich, Germany
Principal collaborator : Dr G.M.Voigt

Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE), Cumbria, UK
Principal collaborator : Dr B.J. Howard

University of Barcelona (BU), Barcelona,Spain
Principal collaborator : Dr G. Rauret

Agenzia Nazionale per la Protenzione dell'Ambiente (ANPA), Rome, Italy
Principal collaborator : Dr U.Sansone, Dr M. Belli.

Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA), Oslo, Norway.
Principal collaborator : Dr P. Strand

University of Utrecht, Utrecht (UU), Holland
Principal collaborator : Prof. P. Burrough

University of Nottingham (NU), Nottingham, UK
Principal collaborator : Dr N.M.J. Crout