Radioecological Assessments: when and why are they needed?
Radioecological Assessments are essentially based on monitoring site and surrounding environment of projects affected by Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) through field/lab determination of relevant parameters in water/groundwater, soil, air etc.
Regulatory authorities can require Radioecological Assessments as a precondition for permitting operations and may require those for their continuation or even for accepting specific closure plans. Thus, regular monitoring programs accompany the whole life-cycle of NORM affected projects:
1 Pre-operational phase
Radioecological Assessments determine the environmental baseline (natural background) of planned operations and thus, provide the basis to detect potential impacts. Not only if precondition to get operations permitted, monitoring should start well in advance, e.g. to avoid future liability risks.
Moreover, Radioecological Assessments can be part of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA). If EIA consider possible operational states (normal/accidental) and estimate operational data, they can lead to project specific provisions (e.g. modification of planned operational processes, if indicated) to prevent/minimize potential environmental impacts. Thus, EIA are particular forms of safety assessments.
2 Operational phase
Regular radioecological monitoring helps to verify compliance with valid regulations and issued specific permits. Moreover, complementing operational process control relevant monitoring enables to detect potential failure/leakage, should this occur, and to take adequate countermeasures.
3 Post-operational/closure phase
Monitoring the surrounding during and following closure confirms that no adverse processes occur after operation ceased (like leaching of on-site deposited materials etc.). For potential remediation of sites monitoring is conducted similarly as pre-remediation, remediation accompanying and post-remediation program, which verifies the success of undertaken measures.
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