Agriculture and food production after a nuclear power accident

In a situation with radioactive fall-out in agricultural areas in Sweden, many organisations will be engaged. The authorities in the field of agriculture and food will give advices and recommendations, the producers will see to their interests, the consumers will react and researchers and experts will be engaged. A combined game and seminar was carried through in the city of Huskvarna 17 - 18 March, 1998 with participation from the responsible authorities: Swedish Board of Agriculture, National Food Administration, Swedish Radiation Protection Institute and from producers, organisations and the government and with researchers and people from contract laboratories. The game and seminar was based upon a scenario with a release of radioactivity from the nuclear power plant of Ignalina in early July and focused on the threat phase and the time close to the deposition. The release and the weather condition resulted in a deposition of 137Cs and 131I in agricultural areas in southern Sweden. The biggest levels of deposition took place in the county of Oestergoetland, where the resulting levels were three times the highest levels in Sweden after the Chernobyl-accident The seminar combined lectures, group-work and discussions and actualised a great number of issues that should be further investigated. The report ends with a factual part about possible countermeasures in agriculture