Publication Abstract

Protection of the environment from the effects of ionising radiation

D. Woodhead

It will not have escaped the notice of the readers of this journal that the subject of radiological protection of the environment - explicitly of wild plants and animals from radiation exposure, as opposed to the more frequently accepted interpretation in terms of the possible resultant impacts on humans arising from contamination by radionuclides - has an increased profile on the scientific/political agenda. In reality, this is not a fundamentally new concern; it was apparent in the programmes of research instituted in the United States when the plutonium production reactors were built at Hanford during the Second World War, and by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority when the Windscale facility was established in the early 1950s. It achieved greater international prominence from the outcome of the first UN Conference on the Human Environment at Stockholm in 1972. In this forum, it was suggested that, in order to protect and enhance human well-being, the control of pollution should have as a principal objective the protection of populations of non-human organisms. In the context of radiological protection of the environment, this position had already been taken up by the IAEA and the resulting activities produced several reports in the period 1976-92. These have considered the incremental radiation exposures of wild organisms as a consequence of the managed disposal of radioactive wastes to several different environments, and reviewed the available information on the effects of radiation on plants and animals so that the possible environmental impact of such radiation exposures could be assessed. This work has been continued by national authorities (e.g., by the NCRP in the USA and the Environment Agency in the UK) and in the international arena (most recently by UNSCEAR). The outcome of the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 reinforced the concern in the context of sustainable development for which environmental protection was seen to be an indispensable component. This was made explicit for the management of radioactive wastes in the resulting UN Action Plan (Agenda 21). Within the European arena, these developments have fed through to a requirement for assessments of possible impact on the environment in, for example, the Habitat Directive and the Water Framework Directive.

Reference:

D. Woodhead, 2002. Protection of the environment from the effects of ionising radiation. Journal of Radiological Protection, 22(3): 231-233.