An extensive, nationally co-ordinated system of environmental monitoring stations and laboratories

The national radiation monitoring system in Finland is quite extensive, with about 450 measuring stations for external radiation. The equipment is the same as that used by the civil defense organization. A fairly extensive program for sampling and analyzing environmental radioactivity has also been in operation since the 1960s. A network of 50 local laboratories equipped to perform low-level total gamma measurements also forms part of emergency preparedness. The experience of the Chernobyl fallout situation proved the usefulness of this concept, even in a situation that was not so serious as to involve large scale countermeasures regarding foodstuffs