Position of radioecology in view of radiation protection: Facts and trends

Radioecology can best be described in view of the aims it is after. In order to do this, it has to be put in its correct content. As the word says it deals with the ecology of radioactive compounds in the environment. Being dealing with radioactive substances however it is also necessary to respect the requirements of radiation protection, which eventually means the determination of the doses and risks eventually means the determination of the doses and risks a man possibly incurs after a radiocontamination. In order to cover as much as possible these requirements, the radioecology part of the CZC Radiation Protection Programme has worked out a number of projects under contract now with Member State Institutes. These radioecological projects are all intended to work out the basic phenomena that govern the transfer of radionuclides through the environment. This is meant to reduce the uncertainty of the radiological assessment modelling, not by refinement of statistical skills but by a better understanding of the relationship between the activity of the biosphere and the behaviour of the radionuclides. These projects deal therefore with sensitive steps of the transfer in agricultural and semi-natural ecosystems, cycling in forest ecosystems, problems of availability, true absorption and transfer in ruminants taking into account feeding habits, digestibilities, age of animals, etc, phenomena of loading and throughflow in fresh waters, and behaviour of actinides in the marine environment. These basic radiological studies hopefully will permit to describe as adequately as possible the transfer of radionuclides in nature. Combinations of the relevant findings should enable to make adequate improvements to existing general descriptions of radionuclide transfer. (author)