Status of the European Atlas of Natural Radiation.
According to the EURATOM (European Atomic Energy Community) Treaty, one of the missions of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC) is to collect, process, evaluate and present data on environmental radioactivity. In 2006, the JRC started the 'European Atlas of Natural Radiation' project, in order to give an overview of the geographic distribution of sources of, and exposures to, natural radiation. As a first task, a map of indoor radon concentration was created, because in most cases this is the most important contribution to exposure, and since it could be expected that data collection would take quite some time, because radon (Rn) surveys are very differently advanced between European countries. The authors show the latest status of this map. A technically more ambitious map proved the one of the geogenic Rn potential (RP), due to heterogeneity of data sources across Europe and the need to develop models to estimate a harmonised quantity which adequately measures or classifies the RP. Further maps currently in the making include those of secondary cosmic radiation, of terrestrial gamma radiation and of the concentrations of the elements U, Th and K that are its source. In this article, the authors show the progress of some of these maps.
German Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Köpenicker Allee 120-130, Berlin 10318, Germany pbossew@bfs.de.
P
P
Bossew
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), Via Enrico Fermi 2749, Ispra, VA 21027, Italy.
T
T
Tollefsen
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), Via Enrico Fermi 2749, Ispra, VA 21027, Italy.
G
G
Cinelli
Radiation Protection Department for Radon and Radioecology, Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Wieningerstrasse 8, Linz A-4020, Austria.
V
V
Gruber
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), Via Enrico Fermi 2749, Ispra, VA 21027, Italy.
M
M
De Cort
D000398:Air Pollution, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*; D001271:Atlases as Topic; D001417:Background Radiation; D003359:Cosmic Radiation; D005060:Europe; D005062:European Union; D000069079:Radiation Exposure / Q000032:analysis; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D011886:Radon / Q000032:analysis*
D011868:Radioisotopes; D011886:Radon