Radioactivity Monitoring in Ocean Ecosystems

Project Information

RAMONES

Grant agreement ID: 101017808

DOI

10.3030/101017808

Project closed

EC signature date 7 December 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 31 December 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Total cost

€ 3 926 093,75

EU contribution

€ 3 926 093,75

Coordinated by

ETHNIKO KAI KAPODISTRIAKO PANEPISTIMIO ATHINON
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - RAMONES (Radioactivity Monitoring in Ocean Ecosystems)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

RAMONES is an ambitious, high-risk/high-gain project that aims at addressing long-standing questions regarding radioactivity monitoring in the marine environment. RAMONES is working on designing and implementing innovative solutions by investing on novel interdisciplinary approaches and producing beyond-the-state-of-the-art technology to deliver game-changing practices towards in situ measurements of radioactivity at large spatiotemporal scales inside the harsh oceanic environments. In doing so, RAMONES considers the existence of radioactivity in terms of its short- and long-term impact on marine and coastal ecosystems, also in correlation to natural hazards, such as seismic activity over submarine faults. Significantly undersampled in oceans, radioactivity poses real risks to marine ecosystems and human population. RAMONES offers detailed, data-driven modelling and appropriate exploitation of the results to strengthen the resilience of the ecosystems, as well as inform community, governmental, scientific, technological and societal stakeholders, thus magnifying and consolidating the impact of the project.

From the technological perspective, a new generation of submarine radiation-sensing instruments has been developed in the context of RAMONES, targeting radon, gamma, and Cherenkov radiation detection. The technology is complemented by novel state-of-the-art robotic and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for radioactivity mapping and monitoring towards understanding radiation-related risks near and far from coastal areas while providing data towards shaping new policies and guidelines for environmental sustainability, economic growth and human health. The main ambition is to lay a radical new path to close the existing marine radioactivity under-sampling gap and foster new interdisciplinary research in threatened natural deep-sea ecosystems. In the context of RAMONES tools for long-term, rapid deployments have been developed, offering scaled-up solutions to researchers, policy makers and communities.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first eighteen months, RAMONES started working amid the international pandemic crisis that has dramatically affected mobility, supply chains, personnel recruitment, and services availability worldwide, and continued to work and stay successfully on track, handled the execution of its workplan across all project directions successfully, with minor reasoned deviations, issuing high-quality and complete deliverables, by exploiting the interdisciplinarity and diversity of the potential and expertise of the consortium partners to the benefit of the project goals and objectives.

Building on this foundation, during the last reporting periods, RAMONES successfully completed its objectives, culminating in the development and validation of its core technologies. A suite of novel instruments was finalized, tested in both laboratory and field settings, and validated. Key devices like the γSniffer radiation detectors, the SUGI hotspot-detecting camera, and the αSPECT radon spectrometer were successfully deployed in challenging real-world environments. These tests ranged from the shallow hydrothermal vents of Milos to the 500-meter-deep Kolumbo underwater volcano and a nuclear reactor's waste pool to measure anthropogenic radioactivity. The Benthic Lab platform, designed to host these instruments for long-term measurements, was also developed and demonstrated in the area of Santorini.

Moreover, an integrated, cooperative marine robotics system equipped with γSniffers was delivered and validated through field trials involving a surface vehicle and two autonomous underwater gliders. This system proved capable of mapping regions of interest, reacting to incoming measurements to define new survey zones, and following dynamically designed paths. The project also released advanced software featuring deep learning frameworks to identify radioactivity hotspots and new physics-driven models to estimate radioactive plume distribution. Additionally, an innovative risk forecasting system, POIS2ON, became fully operational, providing data-driven decision-making capabilities to a diverse range of stakeholders by forecasting exposure risks and calculating the probability of exceeding certain radioactivity thresholds.

In terms of networking and dissemination, the project managed to: (a) disseminate, communicate, as well as effectively shape the overall exploitation of its thematic and core objectives; (b) initiate fruitful collaborations and activities; (c) undertake a leading role in the Environmental Intelligence Initiative supervised by the EIC; (d) invest in user engagement to strengthen and secure the overall project’s impact. RAMONES continued its crucial role in the Environmental Intelligence consortium, preparing two new blueprints for future European Innovation Council (EIC) programme actions during this period. Finally, RAMONES vastly exceeded nearly all of its initial dissemination goals, strengthening and securing the project's overall impact on a broad audience.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

By its conclusion, RAMONES successfully delivered a new generation of radiation instruments, including the compact γSniffer detectors, the GASPAR high-resolution spectrometer, the SUGI gamma imager, and two Cherenkov imagers. These were tested and validated while operating in harsh oceanic environments aboard an integrated cooperative system of autonomous marine robots. This robotic system is complemented with newly developed AI, including deep learning frameworks for identifying radioactivity hotspots.

RAMONES provided ground-breaking solutions, such as the first system using multiple cooperative vehicles to simultaneously acquire gamma radioactivity data, laying a radical new paradigm for marine monitoring. The project's results were offered according to Open Science and FAIR data principles to a broad audience. A key achievement was the delivery of the fully operational POIS2ON risk forecasting system, which enables fast and reliable risk forecasting for natural and man-made hazards by calculating the chances of exposure to certain radiation thresholds.

The project has created a tangible impact that spans research, business, and society. The developed solutions successfully inform socioeconomic stakeholders, enabling better decision-making where big data, risk, and forecasting play a pivotal role by providing data-driven decision-making capabilities to scientists, local governments, and international organizations.

Moreover, RAMONES has developed a new range of technologies to define the new state-of-the-art and offer opportunities for market opportunities in the years to follow.

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