Environmental Modelling for Radiation Safety
EMRAS - Environmental Modelling for Radiation Safety
The IAEA's EMRAS Programme was launched at its First Combined Meeting which was held at the Agency's Headquarters in Vienna from 1 to 5 September 2003. EMRAS continues some of the work of previous international programmes in the field of radioecological modelling. The activities of EMRAS will focus on areas where uncertainties remain in the predictive capability of environmental models, notably in relation to the consequences of releases of radionuclides to particular types of environment (e.g. urban and aquatic environments) restoration of sites with radioactive residues and impact of environmental radioactivity on non-human species.
Four Combined Meetings of the EMRAS Programme have been held so far at the IAEA's Headquarters in Vienna:
| First Combined Meeting | 1 to 5 September, 2003 | 78 participants | from 24 countries |
| Second Combined Meeting | 8 to 11 November, 2004 | 84 participants | from 24 countries |
| Third Combined Meeting | 21 to 25 November, 2005 | 106 participants | from 31 countries |
| Fourth Combined Meeting | 6 to 10 November, 2006 | 101 participants | from 32 countries |
| Fifth Combined Meeting | 5 to 9 November, 2007 | 99 participants | from 30 countries |
Seven Working Groups were established and continue to operate within the EMRAS Programme:
Theme 1 - Radioactive Release Assessment
- Working Group 1 - Revision of IAEA Technical Report Series No. 364 “Handbook of parameter values for the prediction of radionuclide transfer in temperate environments” working group
- Working Group 2 - Modelling of tritium and carbon-14 transfer to biota and man working group
- Working Group 3 - The Chernobyl I-131 release: model validation and assessment of the countermeasure effectiveness working group.
- Working Group 4 - Model validation for radionuclide transport in the aquatic system “Watershed-River” and in estuaries working group.
Theme 2 - Remediation of sites with radioactive residues
- Working Group 1 - Modelling of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) releases and of the remediation benefits for sites contaminated by extractive industries (U/Th mining and milling, oil and gas industry, phosphate industry, etc) working group
- Working Group 2 - Remediation assessment for urban areas contaminated with dispersed radionuclides working group
Theme 3 - Protection of the environment
- Working Group 1 - Model validation for biota dose assessment
Theme 1 Working Groups 1 to 4 concentrate on the assessment of radioactive release while Theme 2 Working Groups 1 and 2 consider the issues of restoration of sites with radioactive residues. Additionally, Theme 3, Working Group 1 concentrates on the area of protection of the environment.
Documents of the Fifth Combined Meeting, held from 5 to 9 November, 2007.
For further information please contact C. Halsall.
