Environmental Risk from Ionising Contaminants: Assessment and Management

The objective of ERICA is to provide an integrated approach to scientific, managerial and societal issues concerned with the environmental effects of contaminants emitting ionising radiation, with emphasis on biota and ecosystems. The final outcome of the project will be the ERICA integrated approach to assessment and management of environmental risks from ionising radiation, using practical tools. The project will partly build on the achievements of the FASSET project, which provided a basic framework for the assessment of environmental impact of radionuclides. The objectives of the ERICA project will be fulfilled through development of a user-friendly assessment tool with risk characterisation methodologies coupled with communication strategies aimed at decision-making. This involves detailed consideration of gaps in scientific data, expansion of the current effects database, and experimental and theoretical consideration extrapolation issues, e.g. from effects on individuals to effects on populations. The tool will be tested and applied to a series of case studies and supported by stakeholder interaction. The development of science-based managerial guidance, including methodologies for stakeholder involvement in assessments, will be based on a number of meetings with end-users representing a range of different interests, whom have agreed to participate in ERICA. The meetings will be concerned with different scientific and managerial aspects of assessments, including the development of methodologies to derive standards. Emphasis will be put on disseminating the progress of the work through continuous interaction with the end-users. A workshop will be organised towards the end of the project to demonstrate to end-users how the integrated approach developed within this project can be practically applied within a European dimension.

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