Countermeasures in agriculture and forestry after a nuclear accident

As nuclear facilities are not normally sited in densely population areas, the adjacent land is likely to be agricultural or at least rural. Furthermore, the accident at Chernobyl, albeit a severe one, showed that agricultural practices can be affected hundreds and even thousands of kilometres from the accident site. Therefore contingency plans are needed to initiate countermeasures that can be used to reduce contamination of agricultural produce, even in countries with no nuclear power of their own. This paper presents an overview of the principles for intervention to protect the public from the perspective of agricultural countermeasures, the development of generic and specific intervention and action levels, the range of countermeasures available at various times after an accident and some of the factors involved in developing an overall strategy for decision making and implementation. (author)