Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 72 (2004) 17–23

www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvrad

Environmental monitoring and radioecology:

a necessary synergy
C.M. Vandecasteele 
Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, Rue Ravensteinstraat, 36 B-1000, Brussels, Belgium
Received 1 May 2002; accepted 1 May 2003

Abstract

Environmental monitoring primarily aims through sampling or by the use of direct detec-
tion equipment to quantify the levels of radioactive substances and ionising radiation result-
ing from human activities and natural sources in the different compartments of the
environment. Its objectives are very practical and include the quantification of the environ-
mental sources of ionising radiation and the verification of compliance with regulatory
requirements and permit limits for industrial, research and medical activities, as stated by
their specific licence.
Radioecology is a multidisciplinary science, which attempts to understand and to quantify the
behaviour of radionuclides in the environment and the processes ruling their transport through
natural and agricultural ecosystems to various receptors such as plants, animals and humans.
A second facet of this science covers the assessment of the radiological dose to and effects on
man and its environment from present, past or future, even hypothetical, nuclear activities.
uprkos neposredan cilj,objekat
Despite their different immediate objectives, environmental monitoring and radioecology
are complementary. Many examples illustrate the connections between these two approa-
ches. For instance, transfer parameters generated by radioecological studies are necessary to
estimate through models the radiological exposure of population, derive from the contami-
nation level measured in a bio-indicator the quantity of radioactivity released from a nuclear
installation, or identify potentially important pathways to be monitored. On the other hand,
monitoring data will confirm important pathways suggested by radioecological modelling
and provide site-specific data for the estimation of model parameters or actual data sets for
the validation of transfer models.
# 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Radioactivity; Environment; Radioecology; Monitoring


Tel.: +32-(0)2-289-20-68; fax: +32-(0)2-289-21-52
E-mail address: [email protected] (C.M. Vandecasteele).

0265-931X/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0265-931X(03)00181-4
18 C.M. Vandecasteele / J. Environ. Radioactivity 72 (2004) 17–23

1. Introduction

Radioactivity is a universal phenomenon that has existed from the beginning of

time, but remained ignored until rather recently, when Henri Becquerel evidenced
ionising radiation from uranium salts in 1896. In 1899, the discovery of induced
radioactivity by Pierre and Marie Curie and the identification, in 1934, of artificial
radioisotopes of phosphorus and nitrogen (respectively from aluminium and boron
exposed to a-rays of a polonium source) by Frederic Joliot and Irène Curie opened
the era of artificial radioactivity.
Therefore mankind, as all living organisms, has always been exposed to natural
ionising radiations from cosmic or terrestrial origin. Without being related to their
true cause, their effects were already noted in some circumstances in the remote
past, namely in miners exposed to high radon concentrations in mines. The Ger-
man physician, Georgius Agricola (1556), reported in his ‘De re metallica’ a high
mortality in miners from the Schneeberger-Jachymov region (Agricola, 1556) who
were struck down by a disease later diagnosed as lung cancer (Härtung and Hesse,
1879). Cigna (1993) identified an even older quotation in a poem of Titus Lucretius
Carus (95–51 BC) entitled ‘De rerum natura’. Carus was himself quoting a text of
the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341–270 BC) referring to a miner’s disease in the
vicinity of Pangaion Mountains.
The acute effects of artificial ionising radiation on living beings were soon ident-
ified. Capranica (1896, 1897) and Tarkhanov (1896) published results on the dama-
ges induced in terrestrial and aquatic animals (including mice) exposed to X-rays.
Very early after their discovery, X-rays were observed to provoke eye irritation
(reported by Thomas Edison in the edition of Nature of 5 March 1896), skin
burns, dermatitis and alopecia (in Kathren, 1985). The British Medical Journal of
November 1896, published a report of what could have been the first observed
acute radiation syndrome, in a patient extensively exposed to verify a diagnosis of
kidney stones (in Kathren, 1985). In 1901, Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel
experimented skin burns due to exposure of their skin to a radium source, the first
one, on purpose, the second one, by accident (Curie and Becquerel, 1901).
The medical applications of ionising radiations however knew a rapid develop-
ment. X-rays were very soon applied for diagnostic radiography, treatment of
tumours and other more dubious applications. The X-ray craze decreased in the
public after several years, replaced by a new fascination for radium and popular
beliefs in its near magical curative properties. Radium waters and spas containing
elevated concentrations of natural radioactivity became very popular. Exposure to
a radon atmosphere (e.g. Badgastein in Austria, Free Mine Enterprise in Montana
USA) were recommended for the treatment of arthritis, asthma, sinusitis and other
similar disorder.
The experimental demonstration of fission by Otto Frisch (the nephew of Lise
Meitner) in 1939, the development of the ‘Manhattan project’ during World War
II and its conclusion at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 generated poten-
tial risks of large scale environmental contamination by artificial radioactivity.
Because negative effects were expected as a result of irradiation after the explosion
 C.M. Vandecasteele / J. Environ. Radioactivity 72 (2004) 17–23 19

of a nuclear weapon or a severe criticality accident, numerous studies were

devoted, since 1942, to the understanding of the mechanisms of radiation injuries
and the ecological relationships existing in a radiocontaminated environment.
These studies, mainly on animals, but also in human exposed to nuclear explo-
sions, justified the implementation of environmental surveillance programmes
around nuclear
facilities.
The worldwide radioactive contamination due to the global fall-out of the
atmospheric nuclear weapon tests gave the opportunity to many countries to install
an environmental radiononitoring programme.

2. Environmental monitoring

Environmental monitoring primarily aims through sampling or by the use of

direct detection equipment to quantify the levels of radioactive substances and
ionising radiation resulting from human activities and natural sources in the differ-
ent compartments of the environment. Its objectives are very practical, often driven
by legal obligations and international commitments. They include:

. identifying and quantifying the current environmental sources of ionising radi-

ation (planned or unplanned releases as well as natural sources) in order to
assess their impact on the environment and human health,
. verifying the compliance of industrial, research and medical nuclear activities
with regulatory requirements and permit limits stated by their specific licence,
. evaluating the effectiveness of environmental protection programmes (e.g. engin-
eering or administrative controls),
. ensuring that remediation strategies applied in a environment contaminated as a
result of past operations were performing as designed and,
. documenting the existing radiological conditions (radiological zero) prior to the
commissioning of a nuclear installation or to allow quantifying in the future the
contamination impact of nuclear accident.

The first studies dealing with the measurement of environmental radioactivity

started in the early 1900s (in Kathren, 1984). In 1900, H. Geitel, in Germany, and
C.T.R. Wilson, in Scotland, investigated independently the radioactivity in air and
were able to collect the decay products of radon. They also discovered, in the same
year, cosmic rays, confirmed by 1910, by measurements in altitude, from the Eiffel
tower or using balloons. In 1902, Wilson identified in rainwater the radon decay
product collected from the atmosphere by washout. During the first decade of the
XXth century different investigators determined the radioactivity in soils and rocks
from all over the world, in seawater and in waters from hot and mineral springs.
After 1945, measurements of fall-out radioactivity from atmospheric nuclear
tests were initiated in many countries. These studies pointed out that not only
external irradiation could be relevant for delivering a dose to living beings, but also
20 C.M. Vandecasteele / J. Environ. Radioactivity 72 (2004) 17–23

that contamination with radionuclides might largely contribute to the exposure

dose.

3. Radioecology

Radioecology is a multidisciplinary science, which attempts to understand and to

quantify the behaviour of radionuclides in the environment and the processes rul-
ing their transport through natural and agricultural ecosystems to various recep-
tors such as plants, animals and humans. A second facet of this science covers the
assessment of the radiological dose to and effects on man and its environment from
present, past or future, even hypothetical, nuclear activities. Numerous are how-
ever the radioecologists who consider only the first field as the single object of
radioecology and have abandoned the first shutter to a discipline defined by the
Anglo-Saxons as ‘radiation ecology’.
The objectives pursued when investigating the behaviour of radionuclides in the
food chains can summarised as follows:

. identifying the radioelements that are the main contributors of human exposure
to ionising radiation in various circumstances,
. obtaining quantitative information on the processes and transfer mechanisms in
order to be able to evaluate present, future and past situations, both in case con-
trolled or accidental releases,
. ascertaining the possibility of remedial actions (counter-measures) in the short-
and long-term.

Radioecology is a recent discipline born after the development of the applica-

tions of nuclear energy. The term of radioecology was introduced by E.P. Odum in
1955 at the First International Conference on the Peaceful Application of the
Atomic Energy’ in Geneva (Odum, 1956). In 1959, he defined it as ‘the discipline
that is interested in radioactive substances, radiation and the environment’ (Odum,
1959). To the strict sense of the term, radioecology can be considered as a subdiv-
ision of ecology and be defined, by analogy, as the science that studies the relations
between living beings and their radioactive environment.
The beginnings of radioecology (taken in its double concept) are closely associa-
ted with the discoveries of X-rays by W.C. Röntgen, of natural radioactivity by H.
Becquerel and of radium by the Curie. Cigna (1996) reviewed the early studies car-
ried out from 1986 on the effects of X-rays and radiation from uranium ores and
radium on vertebrates, invertebrates, plants and bacteria. V. Vernadsky (1929) was
the first to measure the accumulation of radionuclides (226Ra) in living organisms
(various species of Lemna) and introduced the notion of ‘concentration ratio’
between plant and water.
During World War II, the construction at Hanford of three graphite reactors for
the production of plutonium and the fuel reprocessing operations for extraction of
this element at Oak Ridge (in the framework of the ‘Manhattan Project’) provided
 C.M. Vandecasteele / J. Environ. Radioactivity 72 (2004) 17–23 21

the first opportunity of a major radioactive contamination of the environment and

initiated the first systematic studies on the environmental behaviour of different
radionuclides (Hanford reports). In the same years, similar scientific studies were
also undertaken in the third research centre installed at Los Alamos. The process
of global contamination of the environment started on 16 July 1945 with the first
atomic test (Trinity test) at Alamogordo in the desert of New Mexico (USA). It
intensified after World War II with the increase, in number and power, of nuclear
tests in the atmosphere conducted mainly by the USA and the USSR.
Radioecology developed in Europe from the fifties onwards, with the start of the
civil (and military, in France and in Great Britain) nuclear programmes, then with
studies on food chain contamination by radionuclides from global fall-out. Several
European laboratories participated in an international programme (Sunshine) initi-
ated in 1953 to study the fall-out intensity of 90Sr and its transfer in food chains
(Rand Corporation, 1953).
Since the beginning of the 1960s, several reports (Lidén, 1961; Miettinen et al.,
1963) called attention on the high radiocaesium load (137Cs) measured in the bod-
ies of Lapp people. The reason for this had to be assigned to the high contamination
levels detected in reindeer meat, which constitutes an essential part of their alimen-
tation. These animals fed on lichens in winter and that lichens exhibited very high
137
Cs from global fall-out.

4. Interaction between environmental monitoring and radioecology

Despite their different immediate objectives, environmental monitoring and

radioecology are not only complementary, but in a way, indissociable.nerazdvojivi
Environmental monitoring programmes are set up in many countries to ensure
that the radiological exposure of their population from natural and artificial,
national or foreign radioactivity sources remains below limits stated by inter-
national organisms (e.g. ICRP, IAEA, EC) and often officialised in their national
legislation. To meet this objective, the responsible authorities set up environmental
sampling and monitoring programmes, which provide raw information concerning
the radioactivity levels in the different environmental vectors and compartments.
These data will be used to assess through modelling the dose to members of the
public and of critical groups. This assessment is however only possible in so far as
reliable transfer parameters have been generated by radioecological studies. Experi-
ence gained by radioecology is also essential in establishing sound environmental
sampling programmes, identifying potentially important pathways to be monitored
and critical groups, and ensuring that the appropriate types of samples, from the
appropriate compartments of the ecosystem, are collected and measured, and that
the best sampling locations are selected.
Monitoring programmes for environmental radioactivity are established at many
facilities presenting a risk for routine or accidental radioactive releases into the
environment. Very often, especially in the case of routine releases, the radioactivity
levels in the receiving vector, water or atmosphere, are so low that, under normal
22 C.M. Vandecasteele / J. Environ. Radioactivity 72 (2004) 17–23

measuring conditions (namely considering sample volumes), the radioactivity con-

tent does not exceed the detection limits of many artificial radionuclides. To by-
pass this obstacle, environmental monitoring uses to rely on the radioactivity accu-
mulated in a number of organisms exhibiting high radionuclides accumulation and
known as bio(logical)-indicators (e.g. lichens to trace atmospheric contamination
or aquatic mosses and algae to track releases into river and sea ecosystems). The
quality of ‘bio-indicator’, which implies that the chosen organisms are representa-
tive of the contamination in their surrounding environment, needs of course to be
verified by radioecological studies. Radioecology will also have to quantify the
response of bio-indicators to more or less quick fluctuations of the contamination
in their medium.
Radioecology benefits also greatly from data collected in the framework of
environmental monitoring. These data can namely serve for model validation,
which is an important step in the construction of models and one of the major
approaches used in recent years to address the reliability of model performance by
comparing model predictions against field measurements. For instance, for radio-
nuclide transport in the environment, some of the most valuable model testing
opportunities have come about as a result of the Chernobyl accident in April 1986.
Several test exercises have been carried out over the last 15 years under inter-
national programmes sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the
Swedish Radiation Protection Institute, and other agencies: the Biospheric Model
Validation Study, Phases I and II (BIOMOVS and BIOMOVS II), the Co-ordi-
nated Research Programme on Validation of Environmental Model Predictions
(VAMP), and most recently the Biosphere Modelling and Assessment Methods
programme (BIOMASS). The same approach can be applied on many other situa-
tions presenting a risk of radiocontamination of the environment and can be used
to confirm the importance of pathways identified by radioecological modelling.
Last but not least, environmental monitoring will provide data, from which
reliable site specific parameters will be derived. The use of site-specific parameters
instead of generic ones (i.e. a best estimate to be applied for want of more rep-
resentative values) will markedly increase the reliability of a model prediction.

5. Conclusion

Conducting an environmental monitoring programme requests every year a non-

negligible financial investment. The scale of such a programme can of course be
adapted by the authorities according to the available budget and the political inter-
est, but minimum requirements imposed by legal texts must be met. Although there
is no legal obligation, supporting research in radioecology is essential not only to
allow reliable dose assessments but also to maintain a certain level of expertise in a
country exposed to radioactive contamination (from hospitals, research institutes,
national or foreign nuclear installations).
In order to maximise the financial resources allocated to environmental monitor-
ing, one could recommend, as a safe attitude, to design it, not only in function of
 C.M. Vandecasteele / J. Environ. Radioactivity 72 (2004) 17–23 23

checking compliance with norms and licences but also to produce data that will
allow improving and validating models and their predictions. Such data could be
very useful in an emergency situation.

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