The role of experts in postaccident recovery: lessons learnt from Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Following a nuclear accident, a major dilemma for affected people is whether to stay or leave the affected area, or, for those who have been evacuated, whether or not to return to the decontaminated zones. Populations who have to make such decisions have to consider many parameters, one of which is the radiological situation. Feedback from Chernobyl and Fukushima has demonstrated that involvement and empowerment of the affected population is a way to provide them with the necessary elements to make informed decisions and, if they decide to return to decontaminated areas, to minimise exposure by contributing to the development of a prudent attitude and vigilance towards exposure. However, involving stakeholders in postaccident management raises the question of the role of experts and public authorities in supporting the inhabitants who have to make decisions about their future. Based on experiences in Chernobyl and Fukushima, this paper will discuss various principles that have to be taken into account by experts and public authorities about their role and position when dealing with stakeholders in a postaccident recovery process.

An invitation to contribute to a strategic research agenda in radioecology.

With intentions of integrating a portion of their respective research efforts into a trans-national programme that will enhance radioecology, eight European organisations recently formed the European Radioecology ALLIANCE (www.er-alliance.org). The ALLIANCE is an Association open to other organisations throughout the world with similar interests in promoting radioecology. The ALLIANCE members recognised that their shared radioecological research could be enhanced by efficiently pooling resources among its partner organizations and prioritising group efforts along common themes of mutual interest. A major step in this prioritisation process was to develop a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA). An EC-funded Network of Excellence in Radioecology, called STAR (Strategy for Allied Radioecology), was formed, in part, to develop the SRA. This document is the first published draft of the SRA. The SRA outlines a suggested prioritisation of research topics in radioecology, with the goal of improving research efficiency and more rapidly advancing the science. It responds to the question: "What topics, if critically addressed over the next 20 years, would significantly advance radioecology?" The three Scientific Challenges presented within the SRA, with their 15 associated research lines, are a strategic vision of what radioecology can achieve in the future. Meeting these challenges will require a directed effort and collaboration with many organisations the world over. Addressing these challenges is important to the advancement of radioecology and in providing scientific knowledge to decision makers. Although the development of the draft SRA has largely been a European effort, the hope is that it will initiate an open dialogue within the international radioecology community and its stakeholders. This is an abbreviated document with the intention of introducing the SRA and inviting contributions from interested stakeholders. Critique and input for improving the SRA are welcomed via a link on the STAR website (www.star-radioecology.org).

Modeling radiological dose in non-human species: principles, computerization, and application.

Due to the increasing interest in environmental protection against ionizing radiation on the international scene, the need for operational tools for radiological environmental risk assessment is becoming critical. Within this framework, this paper puts forward a fast and user-friendly computerized method to allow the transformation from exposure (expressed in Bq per unit of mass or volume) to dose (i.e., the energy deposited in the organism, expressed in Gy) received from any radionuclide by any non-human species, for a unit of time and a unit of "concentration" of radionuclide in the radiation source. The calculation principles used to determine this dose coefficient, expressed in Gy/unit of time per Bq/unit of volume or mass, are described for gamma, beta, and alpha radiation. Both internal and external exposure situations are considered. The domain of validity of the proposed model is specified, as is the way in which it has been computerized. The paper concludes by verifying the numerical accuracy of the tool and making initial comparisons between results from the described method and those developed at the European level.