International scientific collaboration on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident: Project reports

The European Commission, DG XII, has published a series of reports on projects carried out within the framework of international scientific collaboration on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. The Chernobyl reactor accident was, without question, the largest and most ...

The European Commission, DG XII, has published a series of reports on projects carried out within the framework of international scientific collaboration on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident.

The Chernobyl reactor accident was, without question, the largest and most severe disaster involving radiation exposure and radioactive contamination in the history of civil nuclear power production. When the accident happened in April 1986, the Radiation Protection Research programme (1985-1989) of the European Commission was revised and 10 coordinated multinational projects for assessing and mitigating the short-term consequences of the accident within the Community were launched.

Soon after the start of the Third Framework Programme, the European Parliament launched a separate budget for Chernobyl activities. The financial resources provided by the Commission for the whole programme (1991-1995) amounted to ECU 20 million. A further ECU 10 million was provided by the EC institutes participating in the programme, bringing the total budget available to ECU 30 million. This budget was used to support 16 research projects, involving some 80 research groups in Western Europe and around 120 research groups within the three Republics.

The reports published cover 14 of these 16 projects. These are:

- Joint study project No. 1: Real-time online decision support systems for off-site emergency management following a nuclear accident (EUR 16533EN);
- Joint study project No. 3: Diagnosis and treatment of patients with acute radiation syndromes (EUR 16535EN);
- Joint study project No. 4: Development of optimal treatment and preventive measures for radiation-induced childhood thyroid cancer (EUR 16536EN);
- Joint study project No. 5: Pathway analysis and dose distributions (EUR 16541EN);
- Joint study project No. 6: Atlas on caesium contamination of Europe after the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident (EUR 16542EN);

- Experimental collaboration project No. 1: Contamination of surfaces by resuspended material (EUR 16527EN);
- Experimental collaboration project No. 2: The transfer of radionuclides through the terrestrial environment to agricultural products, including the evaluation of agrochemical practices (EUR 16528EN);
- Experimental collaboration project No. 3: Modelling and study of the mechanisms of the transfer of radioactive material from terrestrial ecosystems to and in water bodies around Chernobyl (EUR 16529EN);
- Experimental collaboration project No. 5: Behaviour of radionuclides in natural and semi-natural environments (EUR 16531EN);
- Experimental collaboration project No. 6: Biological dosimetry for persons irradiated by the Chernobyl accident (EUR 16532EN);
- Experimental collaboration project No. 7: Epidemiological investigations including dose assessment and dose reconstruction (EUR 16537EN);
- Experimental collaboration project No. 8: Molecular, cellular, biological characterization of childhood thyroid cancer (EUR 16538EN);
- Experimental collaboration project No. 9: Transfer of radionuclides to animals, their comparative importance under different agricultural ecosystems and appropriate countermeasures (EUR 16539EN);
- Experimental collaboration project No. 10: Retrospective dosimetry and dose reconstruction (EUR 16540EN).

Reports on the remaining two projects carried out under this programme may be published at a later date. These are:

- Joint study project No. 2: Decision aiding system for the management of the post-accidental situation (EUR 16534EN);
- Experimental collaborative project No. 4: Evaluation and development of decontamination strategies for a range of environmental situations and evaluation of their efficacy and other impacts (EUR 16530EN).

Countries

Belarus, Russia, Ukraine