CBPP Kakanj is one of the most important Coal Burning Power Plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina (producing power of 450 MW, waste storage site of 5 000 000 tons). Mapping of the measured gamma-dose rate has been performed with the goal of identifying the hot spots in the area of 3×3 km surrounding CBPP Kakanj, with special emphasis on the waste storage site (1×1 km). Maximum measured of the gamma-dose rate surrounding CBPP Kakanj was 140 nGy h-1 and in the area of waste storage site 210 nGy h-1. Average levels of natural radionuclide in agricultural soil samples in vicinity of CBPP Kakanj are: for 238U is 41 ± 4 Bq kg-1, 232Th is 32 ± 1 Bq kg-1, 226Ra is 27 ± 2 Bq kg-1 and 40K is 486 ± 9 Bq kg-1. Obtained results in soil-plant-animal products chain does not show significantly increased levels of natural radionuclides due to the fact that mentioned radionuclides, in general, have a low transfer factors in soil-plant-animal products chain.

Ce rapport fait la synthèse des calculs de radioprotection effectués pour l'ensemble du bâtiment abritant le cyclotron biomédical de Nice et les salles de traitement en proton et neutron, n n'a pas, bien entendu, la prétention d'évoquer tous les aspects de la sécurité et de la radioprotection autour des cyclotrons. Nous justifierons les épaisseurs des protections autour de la machine et des salles de traitement en indiquant les formules utilisées parmi les différentes méthodes décrites dans la littérature. Nous donnerons les caractéristiques des labyrinthes d'accès aux salles de traitement qui remplacent les lourdes portes trop traumatisantes pour les malades et délicates d'utilisation en fonctionnement médical. Nous discuterons de l'activation de l'air due essentiellement aux réactions des neutrons avec les différents éléments qui le constituent et de la nécessité d'une ventilation dans les salles de traitement, la voie de faisceau et le hall du cyclotron.

The dry deposition to several leafy vegetables (endive, head lettuce, red oak leaf lettuce, spinach) was studied. Particles with attached 134Cs were used for testing the particulate deposition, gaseous elemental 131I was the tracer for gas deposition. The particle deposition was the highest for rough and structured leafs as red oak leaf lettuce has, but as well for spinach with many open stomata. The stomatal uptake seamed to be the most important process for gas deposition, the deposition to spinach was for Radioiodine the highest as compared to all other species. The lowest deposition was always found to the closed heads of head lettuce. The difference in deposition to the various species was up to a factor 9.

Soil contamination with Co and Cd at concentration 20–25 times exceeding the Maximum Permisible Level for sod-podzolic light loam soil produced not only negative effects on the spring barley productivity formation, but also decreasing of 137Cs root uptake. Effects of Co on the barley development and 137Cs accumulation in plants was more pronounced than Cd influence. The 137Cs activity decrease in barley biomass and harvest amounted to 2.5 and 1.6 times on Cd and Co contaminated soil, respectively. The mechanisms regulating root uptake of K by barley plants in dependence of the kind of soil contamination were discussed. Seed incrustation with Zircon and Epin did not produce significant influence on Co and Cd phytotoxicity, however the use of this plant growth regulators resulted in different in direction and value effects on Co, Cd and 137Cs accumulation in barley plants at various stages of its development. The experimental data do not make it possible to link directly the effect of biologically active substances on 137Cs uptake with their influence on heavy metals toxicity, which was estimated on the base of morphological and physiological parameters of plants.

L'Association internationale de protection radiologique (IRPA) a invité, en 1999, les sociétés nationales à participer au débat sur l'évolution du système de protection radiologique proposé par la CIPR. Répondant à cette invitation, le conseil d'administration de la Société française de radioprotection (SFRP) a créé un groupe de travail spécifique. Ce groupe s'est réuni d'avril 1999 à juillet 2000, et les résultats de ses travaux ont été présentés lors du congrès IRPA-10 en mai 2000. Pour continuer cette réflexion, le conseil d'administration de la SFRP a décidé de créer un deuxième GT qui a débuté ses travaux en septembre 2001. Ce GT est composé d'une trentaine de membres représentant les parties prenantes de la radioprotection en France : autorités, experts et professionnels des domaines nucléaire, médical et de la recherche, ainsi qu'une personne issue du mouvement associatif. L'objectif de ce GT est de formuler des propositions sur des questions clés qui pourraient être abordées, en particulier par la CIPR, dans le développement de nouvelles recommandations de radioprotection. Le choix des sujets prioritaires résulte de l'expérience des membres du GT ainsi que de l'analyse des propositions de la CIPR. Cet article présente les principales conclusions du GT dans une formulation cherchant à refléter les diverses opinions qui ont pu être exprimées lors des séances de travail.

Forsmark in Mideastern Sweden is chosen as site for the planned Swedish deep-rock repository for spent nuclear fuel. The construction, operation and decommissioning of the repository require assessments of various types of risks for health and environment on a wide range of temporal scales. This study is focused on the assessment of environmental impacts during the relatively short construction and operation phases, during which the repository will be kept drained by means of groundwater diversion. This diversion may influence hydrogeological and hydrological conditions and thereby cause ecological and other types of consequences in the surroundings of the repository. We here describe methodology and some main findings from the ecohydrological assessment of consequences for aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in Forsmark. The assessment combines the results of a number of steps, including ecological field inventories and predictive water-flow modelling. The results of the study show that subsurface disposal of radioactive waste is an important application of ecohydrological concepts in assessments of sites with nature values.

In France, the mining and milling of uranium ore and the disposal of uranium mill tailings involved nearly 200 sites of very different nature. Being in charge of both the review of some remediation reports and the routine monitoring of the environment provides IRSN with selective data on most sites. The data collected by IRSN as well as those available from other data sources often remain incomplete therefore preventing IRSN from presenting a global view or answering some specific questions. In order to overcome this difficulty, it was decided, under the aegis of the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development, that IRSN should develop a program of investigations organized in two parts: Part 1, called “State of knowledge" is aimed at assessing the amount of information available and at consolidating it into a user-friendly computerized database. The main goal is to identify the occurrence of significant enhanced radiological levels in the environment and to detect any lack of information concerning the various sites. This paper gives an overview of the information already collected. Part 2, called “specific studies" is aimed at fixing the gaps in the database by implementing new investigations on specific sites. It could lead to improvements in networks for the monitoring of radioactivity in the environment.

The present study is the second part of a program of characterization of the site surrounding the SoGIN Garigliano Nuclear Power Plant (Southern Italy), which is currently involved in decommissioning activities. In the first phase of the project the reference groups of the population were established on the basis of a socio-economical study of the site; the radiological doses due to the assumed radioactive releases during the decommissioning phase were calculated by using climatological, hydrological, geomorphological parameters of the studied area; transport and diffusion specific models of some radionuclides in the environment were implemented to calculate the dose using specific evaluation software. The second part of the study focuses on the project of an environmental network designed in order to ensure the continuous monitoring of the radioactive release concentrations. All the criteria for the choice of grid points, by considering specific paths of transfer in the environment, were established for all the environmental compartments. A field campaign was carried out aiming to assess the “zero level" due to the natural radioactivity and past anthropogenic activities.

Objectifs : évaluer l’état des connaissancesdes usagers et des professionnels de la santé sur les risques d’irradiationde la femme enceinte au cours des explorations radiologiques etl’observation de l’application des règles de radioprotection relativeà la femme enceinte par les utilisateurs de rayons X. Matériel etméthodes : notre étude prospective, réalisée au CHU de Yopougon,a duré 6 mois. Nous avons interrogé 60 femmes en grossesse ou susceptiblesde l’être, 30 médecins prescripteurs non-radiologues, 29 techniciensd’imagerie médicale et 21 aides soignants sur les risques d’irradiationet les mesures de protection de la femme enceinte avant et pendantla réalisation d’un examen radiologique utilisant les rayons X. Résultats :73,68 % des médecins prescripteurs n’ont pas de culture en radioprotectionchez une femme enceinte ou en âge de procréer. 93,10 % des patientesenceintes ou en âge de procréer ignoraient l’existence des rayonsX en radiodiagnostic et leur nocivité pour leur état. 80 % des manipulateursde radiologie ne respectaient pas les règles élémentaires de radioprotection.Conclusion : la sensibilisation des usagers des rayons X sur lesrisques d’irradiations chez une femme enceinte ou susceptible de l’êtreest nécessaire au CHU de Yopougon.

The general objective of the OSPAR radioactive substances strategy is to preventpollution of the maritime area from ionising radiation through progressive and substantialreductions of discharges, emissions and losses of radioactive substances, so thatconcentrations in the environment are close to background for naturally occurringradioactive substances and close to zero for artificial radioactive substances. The thirdperiodic evaluation of progress towards the objective of the OSPAR radioactive substancesstrategy concludes that, due to issues concerning the availability of reported data, it isnot possible to come to firm conclusions as to whether the aims of the OSPAR radioactivesubstances strategy are currently being delivered. However, in general there is anindication of a reduction in average marine concentrations of selected radionuclidesassociated with the nuclear industry, while doses arising from these selectedradionuclides in the OSPAR maritime area to humans are well within internationallyrecommended limits and are below the lowest levels at which any effects are likely tooccur for marine biota.

Quaternary sediments and soils at the Forsmark site (Sweden) would constitute the last barrier for radionuclide migration interposed between a deep repository of high level nuclear wastes (HLNW) and surface ecological systems. The retention capacity of these sediments is evaluated by means of reactive transport simulations. Two different scenarios have been modelled: (1) Inflow of deep fluids carrying radionuclides into shallow aquifers hosted in the carbonate glacial till, and (2) Inflow of deep fluids carrying radionuclides into organic matter-bearing clays. The model results predict that caesium is very efficiently retained in both scenarios for periods longer than 3000 years due to the strong affinity of this ion with the frayed edge sites of the illite layers. Strontium is also retained via cation exchange in illite and, in a lesser extent, via co-precipitation in calcite. The retention efficiency for strontium, however, quickly decreases to 0 after 1000 years. Uranium is retained in both scenarios with retention efficiencies higher than 40% at long term (>3000 years) due to precipitation of amorphous uraninite and adsorption on Fe(III) oxyhydroxides. Radium is only retained in the till aquifer since co-precipitation with barium sulphate does not occur in the clay porewater.

Le détecteur solide de traces nucléaires CR39 a été utilisé pour déterminer le seuil de détection du bore. La réponse du détecteur CR39 a été établie grâce à des concentrations connues de boreobtenues par implantation ionique du 10B dans l'aluminium, et en variant les durées d'irradiations dans le canal thermique du réacteur nucléaire universitaire de Strasbourg. Il a été observé que ladensité des traces dans le CR39 est une fonction linéaire de la quantité de bore implanté et de la durée d'irradiation. Des considérations pratiques sur le comptage optique des traces conduisent àestimer un seuil de 1011 atomes cm-2 de 10B. Cette limite est d'un facteur mille inférieure à la quantité minimale requise par la boroneutrothérapie.

The unusually strong earthquake in Japan on 11 March 2011 and the following extremetsunami caused enormous damage in the buildings of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant(NPP) situated on the Pacific coastline of Japan. The accident led to the release of alarge amount of radioactive material into the environment. According to the measurementsof the Radiological Monitoring and Data Acquisitions Network (RAMDAN) the radioactiveplume reached Hungary on 24 March 2011. The main volatile fission products –131I, 134Cs, and 137Cs radioisotopes – were measurable in aerosoland fallout samples in Hungary. Their activity concentration in air reached the maximumvalue in the last days of March and returned to the background level in the first half ofMay. As a consequence of respiration of contaminated air, a maximum of 1 Bq per capita of131I could be accumulated in the thyroid gland of the Hungarian population during thegiven period. The calculated upper limits of the committed effective dose from inhalationof 131I were 4 nSv and 10 nSv to the Hungarian adults and infants,respectively. These values are a hundred thousand times less than the annual radiationdose from natural sources to the Hungarian population. The radiation dose from radioactivecaesium isotopes originating from Fukushima was even less, around 1 nSv on average, toHungarian residents. No health deterioration can be expected from this radiationburden.

With the ICRP recommendations Publications 103, 109 and 111 (ICRP, 2007; ICRP 2009a,2009b), new concepts and quantities have been introduced into emergency management andrehabilitation. Two of them will possibly influence national procedures, but for sure theywill influence countermeasure simulation approaches: 1. The concept of a “reference level”for emergency and existing controllable exposure situations that represents the level ofdose or risk, above which it is judged to be inappropriate to plan to allow exposures tooccur, and for which therefore protective actions should be planned in advance. 2. Whendeciding on the optimum course of protective actions, all exposure pathways and allrelevant actions have to be taken into account. The major changes for the simulationmodels result from the second recommendation that all exposure pathways must be consideredwhen deciding on protective actions. So far all countermeasure simulations in the earlyphase of an emergency are carried out by considering individual countermeasures such assheltering or evacuation, if some dose limit for the respective action is exceeded. Thisapproach has to be changed and strategies of several countermeasures analysed andsimulated with the ultimate goal not to exceed the reference level over a given timeperiod, typically one year.