This work is funded by the European Commission DGXII, Contract no. F14PCT950015
 

1. To quantify the variation in plant uptake of radiocaesium from major European soil types.

2. To integrate dynamic models of transfer of deposited radiocaesium to food products with spatially varying input information in a GIS.

3. To produce time-dependent maps for contamination of major food products, taking into account spatial variation in soil to plant transfer and land cover, for countries where data is adequate to do so.

4. To produce critical load maps showing deposition levels at which intervention levels will be exceeded for selected food products, for countries where data is adequate to do so.

5. To describe variation in general dietary habits, with special reference to the intake of radiocaesium, both between and within European countries, appropriate for radiation protection purposes.

6. To provide data on the extent of home-production and the collection or production of food from semi-natural ecosystems.

7. To compare the usefulness of countermeasures with regard to spatially varying parameters.

8. To provide a user-friendly system for decision makers which will allow them
            1) to identify the areas which are most vulnerable to radiocaesium deposition
            2) to identify priority areas for the application of countermeasures.

The proposal fulfils two specific objectives  (i) to collate appropriate data on transfer of radiocaesium
to food products to enable predictions of activity levels in foodstuffs, and (ii) to provide geographically based models in GIS to identify areas of Europe which are vulnerable to radiocaesium contamination, identifying operative parameters and supporting environmental restoration strategies.

There is a requirement to provide methods by which the transfer and consumption of radiocaesium to food products can be quantitatively modified to take into account spatial variation in operative parameters which significantly affect overall transfer, such as soil type, land usage and dietary habits. The intention is to consider fluxes of radiocaesium through ecosystems to man, thereby allowing the total movement of radiocaesium through systems to be estimated, by taking into account factors such as the rates of production of foodstuffs and consumption. This will require the integration of spatially varying information on agricultural production, usage of foodstuffs and dietary habits with classical radioecological models. Spatial and temporal analyses of this information will be implemented  by combining dynamic models of radiocaesium behaviour with spatial databases of the input parameters to the models within Geographical Information Systems (GIS) . This will enable the identification of vulnerable areas where intervention limits are likely to be exceeded in the event of a nuclear accident. Vulnerable areas could be highly diverse and vulnerability can be defined using many criteria such as where:

- high deposition is likely (due to variation in environmental factors such as rainfall or altitude)

- radiocaesium  may have especially high transfer rates to a wide range of foodstuffs (e.g. in semi-natural ecosystems with highly organic soils)

-  the dominant  agricultural production systems produce foodstuffs which readily become contaminated by radiocaesium (such as dairy farming)
- there is high local production of a particular foodstuff with an especially high radiocaesium transfer (e.g. goat's milk)

- deposition at a certain time of year can result in high levels of contamination of important foodstuffs (e.g. pre-harvest contamination of green vegetables; contamination of pastures and hence milk during outdoor grazing periods)

- a specific food processing system may give rise to foodstuffs with high levels of contamination (e.g. manufacturing of  whey cheese which concentrates radiocaesium or extensive farming practices)

- dietary preferences of  some population groups may lead to them receiving especially high internal radiation doses (e.g. consumers of wild mushrooms or game)

- countermeasures would be less effective than expected.

SPATIAL MODELLING

In order to allow spatial predictions of 137Cs transfer to food products,  a novel, semi-mechanistic point model has been developed which estimates the 137Cs concentration of a range of agricultural crops from soil characteristics (exchangeable K and clay) through time. Transfer of radiocesium further up the food chain is described by a range of approaches, some novel, some taken from the existing literature. This point model is applied spatially using databases which contain the necessary model input values (eg. clay and exchangeable K). The link between the dynamic point model and the spatial databases is made via dedicated, user-friendly Windows based software. This allows the user to readily control a range of  features, such as  post-deposition management (countermeasures), to quickly generate a complex  contamination scenario. Results are presented as on-screen maps which can be interrogated in a variety of ways, in order to investigate particular aspects of radioactive contamination of the food-chain. For a more detailed description of SAVE-IT, click here

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

Katholik University of Leuven (KUL), Leuven, Belgium
Principal collaborator : Dr E. Smolders

Diputacion General de Aragon (DGA), Barcelona, Spain
Principal collaborator : Dr J.M.Gil

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

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

University of Nottingham (NU), Nottingham, UK
Principal collaborator : Dr N.M.J. Crout
 
 Any problems with this site or use of the software please email  save-it@nottingham.ac.uk