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EU-STRA-Strålevern

Territories : To Enhance unceRtainties Reduction and stakeholders Involvement for radiological Exposure Situations - NRPA's participation

Awarded: NOK 0.66 mill.

The TERRITORIES project is a large European project involving 11 institutes working in the field of radiation protection. The main aim of the project is to improve the risk management of radioactively contaminated sites through a refinement of the assessment approaches used and the development of better communication. The focus is on sites that have been contaminated in the long term, i.e. over many years, and includes areas where elevated levels of naturally occurring radionuclides are present. For the contribution from Norwegian institutes, DSA/strålevern and the Norwegian University of Life sciences, the chosen case study site is the Fen Field in Norway. For this region information on radioactivity has been collected and assessment approaches applied to see how well these match. If the match is not so good, suggestion have been made as to where improvements in the approaches might be made. Other work performed by DSA include a presentation of Norwegian dietary habits and time use results, and a summary of diets of special population groups (i.e., mainly reindeer herders). In the work on variability in wildlife behaviour, results from GPS collared reindeer from the Vågå herd have been used to illustrate variability in internal doses and how various factors affects external dose estimates.. Communication through dialogue with various groups of people is an important part of the TERRITORIES project. Workshops have been arranged to explore different scientific themes. It has been especially important to discuss the theme of uncertainty ? how confident can we be that our approaches are giving realistic answers and how far wrong can our results be ? Some work is focussed on remediation strategies ? what is the best approach to apply in cleaning up contaminated areas. This for example involves consideration of all benefits (e.g., dose reduction), disadvantages and costs of implementing mitigating actions for all affected groups (people living in the affected territory, remediation workers, consumers, retailers, environment etc.). The project will continue into 2019 and it is expected that a large number of guidance documents and scientific publications will be produced that will be important in supporting ongoing environmental management practices within the field of radiation protection.

The project has been executed according to plan and within the expected use of Resources in 2018. Most of the anticipated projected resources were connected with personnel costs. We have had 5 scientists contributing substantively to fufil the planned project tasks throughout 2018 but it should be noted that numerous tasks are incomplete with the expectation that the project continues into 2019 (the larger EC-EURATOM funded project where DSA/strålevern is a partner continues into 2019).

The research and innovation actions of TERRITORIES are organised in five work packages. WP1 (Quantifying variability and reducing uncertainties when characterizing exposure of humans and wildlife by making the best use of data from monitoring and of existing models) targets mechanistic fit-for-purpose knowledge for diagnosis and prognosis of the environmental behaviour of the radionuclides and exchanges with the public. WP2 (Reducing uncertainties when characterizing exposure scenarios, accounting for human and wildlife behaviour, and integrating social and ethical considerations in the management of uncertainties) aims to validate the added value of a realistic description of the exposure scenarios versus a generic scenario approach, and to integrate social and ethical considerations about uncertainties. WP3 (Stakeholder engagement for a better management of uncertainty in risk assessment and decision-making processes including remediation strategies) develops methods for a holistic management of uncertainties associated with remediation (dose reduction, socio-economic cost, generated waste amount etc.) and for an integrated decision-making process. WP4 (Strategic and integrated communication, education and training) aims to share with a wide audience (stakeholders and decision-makers, young scientists, students) the methodological approach and novel guidance documents developed. Last, coordination between work packages, between partners, and with the steering committee is achieved through WP5 (Project coordination and management). The project is a collaboration between 11 institutes from France (IRSN, CEPN, Mutadis), Germany (BfS), UK (PHE), Norway (NRPA and NMBU),Belgium (SCK-CEN) Estonia (UoT), Finland (STUK), Spain (CIEMAT). The project started in January 2017 and has a duration of 36 months

Funding scheme:

EU-STRA-Strålevern

Thematic Areas and Topics

No thematic area or topic related to the project