12 November 1998

Present: Ph Bourdeau (Chairman), M. Goldman, R. Kirchmann, A. Iskra, Y. Mao, R. Alexakhin, R. Masse, U. Mishra

Apologies for Absence: N.Egorov, T.Sugahara, Sir Frederick.Warner

In Attendance: B. Myasoedov (IUPAC), V. Kovalevskyi (MoD.Ukr), E. Stukin (IGCE),

S. Kaiser (EU), V. Plocq-Fichelet (SCOPE), V. Tsyplenkov,(IAEA) C. Vandecasteele (Scientific Secretary), J.P. Verecken (Interpreter)

1) APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

The agenda for the meeting was approved without modification.

The Chairman of the Steering Committee noted that this is the first meeting of RADSITE, and hence the importance of defining the capacity of those involved was noted. The need to try to put together a unified programme, in view of the range of expertise that exists within various fields was mentioned. The RADLEG structure comprises 4 branches: US, Asia branch, FSU branch and EU branch. In each branch there are experts in fields ranging from the source term, to the exposure of population, going through pathways and dose assessment and countermeasures. It is expected that in the future, after reviewing all existing studies, in a critical scientific way, that recommendations may be made for governmental authorities. It is considered a timely, and ambitious project, with results three years hence.

2) FUTURE PROGRAMMES OF THE RADSITE BRANCHES

a) FSU (ISTC #245 RADLEG)

Dr. Iskra reported on FSU programs, noting that a first meeting relating to RADSITE occurred in Moscow, involving all the organizations connected with the project. These discussions are summarized in a Memorandum (report) of the meeting. The Memorandum was signed by the Project Leader - Deputy Minister Egorov, and there have already been discussions with Profs. Kirchmann and Goldman. The proceedings of this initial meeting will be presented in a publication the prototype of which is available. The main lines of work outlined during the Moscow meetings include: selection of the most representative facilities for each branch of the RADSITE matrix, e.g. Hanford for US, Krasnoyarsk 26 for FSU, and similarly for India and China, and EU. These facilities will be studied applying one and the same methodology. Another aspect discussed in Moscow concerns the RADLEG project which has now accumulated vast and complete data on radiation source-terms. These data will be mentioned within the framework of the symposium. Up to now information relating to 600 radioactive waste disposal sites has been collected with regard to the FSU. It is being attempted to determine the impact of this radiation on the environment and population health. The representatives of the Ministry of Public Health have had the possibility to intervene in this issue. There is also a detailed record from Drs. Stukin and Alexahkin relating to these matters. Dr Iskra noted their interest in organizing an international Scientific Seminar in Russia, in September 1999 (a RADLEG symposium). All interested organizations will be invited to participate. This will be supported by the Ministry for Atomic Energy, by the Russian Academy of Sciences and other institutions. So far 40 institutions have agreed to participate.

b) USA

Prof. Goldman reported that he is presently beginning to organize the North American program. He noted also that decisions about US budget are now being completed and consequently funded decisions are not yet completed. Contact has been established with Lynn Anspaugh, Ward Whicker and Stan Auerbach, and it is hoped that the group will be formulated in the next few months. Contact with the US Department of Energy has been established, and they are supportive, but have not yet done anything specific as regards funding. It will be attempted to summarize the consequences for the environment in the US nuclear military facilities, which number more than 130. The more significant facilities will be concentrated upon and an overview will be provided during a subsequent presentation. Prof. Goldman noted the welcome first opportunity for cooperation, to have an independent, non-governmental, organization review this topic. Appreciation for forthcoming work was expressed. The hope that the end-product would provide some general rules for all countries to agree to was expressed, including how to represent past-events, the current status of facilities, and the options for remediation and future action.

c) ASIA

Dr. Mishra noted that as far as India is concerned there are no military installations where radioactivity is involved. However there is a strong belief that those countries with nuclear weapons programmes must be involved in early stages. Radioactive waste was not treated and dispersed in the same way as it is treated today, and this has resulted in contamination at several sites. Since there is interest for power generation, these reports about contamination are providing material to anti-nuclear groups, with regard to preventing the growth of nuclear energy, which is very important for countries like India which do not have any other materials for electricity generation (apart from coal), and it is one of the lowest in per capita electricity consumption. For industrial growth and sustaining a large population it is necessary to increase this per capita electricity consumption 10 times over the next 20-30 years. Hence India would like to learn from this group what steps should be taken in order to avoid mistakes that have occurred in the past.

On behalf of CAST's SCOPE China, Prof. Mao noted that previous involvement in the RADTEST had occurred, and expressed interest in RADSITE. An ad-hoc meeting of the China group was held before Prof. Mao left from Beijing, involving Vice-Chairmen and the Secretary General of CAST's SCOPE China, Prof. Liu. Ideas for involvement in RADSITE were discussed, and the draft paper for this workshop to be presented by Prof. Mao. There are four parts in this paper relating to foundations of nuclear cycle facilities in China, nuclear test cycle facilities, environmental protection in the nuclear industry for the purpose of national defence and finally environmental evaluation and the impact of nuclear industry on the environment. Their group discussed this paper in detail and agreed the content. This is a general overview for the initial workshop. Further efforts to collect more material, including in quantitative detail, can be made (e.g. source term, dose evaluation and impacts on the environment). Following discussions, cooperation was agreed with their Chinese Society for Radioprotection (Prof. Pan) so further contact is envisage with this organization.

d) EU 

Prof. Kirchmann reported that the European Branch's the main objective is the preparation of a concerted action in the 5^th Framework programme of the European Commission. It was attempted to obtain some information from the EU authorities, but these are either not for general disclosure or, more likely, they are not yet well defined. Regret was expressed that representation from the EU (Dr. S. Kaiser) would not be possible until later in the day. It was noted that there must be clear ideas of what is needed for inclusion in the proposal. This is one of the reasons for the working party, next Saturday, with ISTC. Prof. Kirchmann noted that more details about SCOPE-RADSITE would be presented later during the meeting.

e) IUPAC

The representation by IUPAC was welcomed, and the late Prof. Koptyug's role in this organization (and in SCOPE) was noted. He was particularly involved in developing the relationship between IUPAC and SCOPE. Dr. V.Myasoedov note that IUPAC is an important organization for chemists, involving over 100 countries. IUPAC covers different aspects of modern chemistry, including environmental radioactivity. As an organization, it has seven different divisions including; physical chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry and, perhaps of most relevance to RADSITE, that of analytical chemistry, chemistry of environment. In the division of analytical chemistry there is provision for radiochemistry and nuclear technology. The main purposes of the Radiochemistry Commission with regard to RADSITE are: environmental radionuclides (including determination, speciation, behaviour and remediation). Radiation technologies associated with radioactive waste include radioanalytical methods and nuclear techniques for the determination and speciation of elements and isotopes in various matrices. This Radiochemistry Commission now elaborates a lot of their projects which are quite closely related to RADSITE projects, namely, determination of very low levels of radioactivity, speciation of trace elements in the environment by radioanalytical methods, radionuclide migration in ground water (review of the behaviour of the most dangerous actinides), and different aspects of behaviour of chemical species in environment (as covered by division 6, Chemistry and Environment). IUPAC is quite interested in active participation in the RADSITE programme and the need for coordination was noted.

f) IAEA

Dr. Tysplenkov noted the IAEA's division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology, which belongs to the Department of Nuclear Energy, which has various activities in related fields including with reference to environmental remediation and restoration. IAEA is interested to maintain contact with all groups responsible carrying out work relating to environmental remediation. He reported also on his recent attendance at a NATO Advanced Research Workshop on remediation of military sites (held in Poland), which is closely related to RADSITE interests. It included representatives from several countries (US (Doe), Los Alamos, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic). The main purpose of their meeting was to identify main areas of collaboration between different organizations (in particular Los Alamos and Kazakhstan National Nuclear Centre, and the Ministry of Emergency Situation in Ukraine and Los Alamos). During this ARW an earlier Estonian meeting was noted. The need to avoid duplication of efforts was emphasized. A similar NATO ARW was held some three years ago on Actinides and the Environment (involving LLNL). The involvement of PNL was also noted.

3) NATO ARW

The possibility of interesting NATO in an ARW for RADSITE was noted, in view of their activities in this field. Prof. Kirchmann reported on his contacts with Dr. Veiga da Cunha (NATO Scientific Secretary), who unfortunately is involved with Symposia elsewhere at the present time. However he has expressed interest in RADSITE, and he will be kept informed of RADSITE's evolution. In the past NATO supported two RADTEST ARWs in Vienna and Barnaul, which is why it is hoped that NATO will support an ARW next year within the framework of the current RADSITE programme. In this connection it is necessary to consider the proposal, date and location (including administrative support from the University of Essex, where there are problems in so far as the SCOPE Unit located there will terminate (from 1 January 1998). It was noted that the Essex Unit has had extensive experience of preparing the detailed proposals that are required by NATO. Following on from this, the need to identify a willing participant assist with organizing such a NATO ARW next year was noted. Prof. Kirchmann suggested that ideally this will involve big nuclear science facility in a big nuclear power country (e.g. Savannah River in USA, Mayak in RF etc.). It is hoped that this RADSITE meeting will enable identification of a relevant organization.

4) PUBLICATION OF THE INITIAL WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS 

It was recalled that when a RADTEST meeting was organized,in1995, in Brussels and Liege, proceedings were not produced at that time, but rather material provided an input to the synthesis volume. However, in retrospect this is not considered to be a wise decision, in view of the delay in publication of the synthesis volume (expected next year). Hence there is not wide access to material prepared at that time. Consequently, with regard to the present workshop it is considered necessary to examine possibilities for publication (and a tender has been provided by Elsevier). There are two difficulties in this regard: the amount of money necessary and editorial matters relating to the provision of camera-ready copy. Another solution could therefore be to put material on the RADSITE website, which has recently been created. This could be useful mechanism for advertising the programme and putting information at the disposal of interested parties. With regard to the general policy of SCOPE, the Executive Director (Ms V. Plocq) noted that the role of individual publishers with SCOPE was irrelevant to proceedings, because SCOPE publishes in its series only final synthesis volumes. Hence intermediate publications, such as proceedings, are welcomed but are not published within SCOPE's series. It was nevertheless noted that SCOPE's agreement with Wiley has been terminated (after more than twenty years), and new publisher(s) are being sought and the matter will be resolved by the time of RADSITE's concluding synthesis publication. With regard to disseminating results of the present meeting, she advised delaying a decision until the material provided has been assessed, as this may provide a clearer view of the best way to publish it. The need to remember that the project is in its initial stage was noted, and by definition it was noted that proceedings are an intermediary and short-lived publication. Ms. Plocq recommended that the proposal by Elsevier is probably not appropriate for this relatively short-lived material, in terms of money and effort required. The idea of utilizing a web site was considered to be very appropriate, and was welcomed as a first-step. In addition the preparation of a reviewed article for a journal was proposed, which would publicize the project to a wide audience and provide a strong focus for mobilizing participants at an early stage.

5) VARIA

Prof. Kirchmann noted the need for official participation by RADSITE scientists in international symposia. In this connection, next year's May Second International Symposium on Ionizing Radiation (in Ottawa) involving DGXI was noted and with reference to environmental radioactivity in the Arctic, the 4^th international Conference to be held in Edinburgh,Scotland,Sept. 20-23,1999. Information about symposia was invited, for provision to Profs. Kirchmann, Bourdeau and Goldman in order to inform those involved with RADSITE. This information will be made available, to enable decisions to be made regarding involvement and presentation of the achievements of the project.

It was noted that for RADSITE it was proposed to use the Essex SCOPE Unit to disseminate information, however its closure means that an alternative method needs to be identified. It is therefore proposed to use the web for this purpose, and to launch a newsletter via this.

Ms. Plocq advocated that the meeting should be used to update and complete the project document for RADSITE. The initial project document was appropriate but is now more than two years old and there have been many developments including in the workplan. Consequently, if interest in the project is to be attracted (both financial and scientific), a single document is needed. This should provide in significant detail the rationale for the project, the objectives, contents , programmatic and organizational aspects. At the SCOPE Secretariat (Paris) a meeting was hosted three weeks ago, involving French scientists who would like to involve their community, but a background document is required for this purpose.