The 16th issue of the NERIS Newsletter is now available.

This edition provides some feedbacks from recent events, information on European projects and announcement of upcomings events such as RICOMET 2019, ERPW 2019, and European Projects final Workshops.

We are pleased to announce that a revision of the NERIS SRA will be carried out on 2019. Comments on the document are open to registered members with the following link : 

• Comment the NERIS SRA

Please note that the document is on Google file, and be aware that your comments will be identified with the Google account you are logged in at the moment (e.g. you can anonymize comments with a secondary account).

If you need any help to access the document or making comments, do not hesitate to contact the secretariat. 

Use of uncertain information by decision makers at the various levels within the decision making process and its communication.

Guides and recommendations for the decision making in the post release and transition phase taking into account uncertain information will be presented and tested. Attendees will debate how to interpret, use and communicate uncertainties within the decision making process.  The course and practical sessions/workshops will also consider the: establishment and optimisation of remediation strategies; benefits of stakeholder involvement; inclusion of human behaviour, cultural differences and stakeholder preferences as a part of the tools to aid decision making. Training the trainers and facilitators of national, regional and local workshops based on learning from doing and own engagement and experience during the training course is one of the goals of the training.

While there is no registration fee, training course participation is limited to a maximum of 24 participants. Pre-registerers are accepted for final registration. and registration is required by filling the online registration form.

Priority will be given to participants from E.U. countries working in the domain of nuclear or radiological emergency and recovery management.

Important dates:

• Registration: January 31, 2019
• Training course: May 13-15, 2019

Please download the second announcement of the training course with this link.

For further information please contact the Coordinator (Tatiana Duranova tatiana.duranova@vuje.sk) or the NERIS Secretariat (sec@eu-neris.net).

Modelling and measurement training course, 23 April – 3 May 2019, Roskilde Denmark

The training course on “Assessment of long-term radiological risks from environmental releases: modelling and measurements”,23 April – 3 May 2019, Roskilde, Denmark is organised by the Center for Nuclear Technologies at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in cooperation with PDC-ARGOS. The training course is co-funded by the European Joint Programme for the Integration of Radiation Protection Research CONCERT.

The course is aimed at providing the participants with an understanding of how to assess by measurements and modelling the long-term radiological risks from releases to the environment of radionuclides. Nuclear power plant accidents will particularly be in focus, but RDD’s will be considered.

The course builds on decades of international research work, e.g., in European projects such as ECP-4, STRATEGY, EURANOS, NERIS TP and PREPARE, including unique experience from extensive practical investigations in contaminated areas and laboratory assessments. It comprises a hands-on introduction to laboratory measurement techniques including state-of-the-art radiochemistry methods for determination of radionuclides that can not easily be determined. It also includes a hands-on decision support modelling session using a state-of-the-art computerised decision support system for nuclear and radiological emergency management.

The course will provide insight into:

• Assessment of long-term radiological risks from releases to the environment
• Theoretical principles of dosimetry
• Implications of different contamination scenario types
• Migration of radioactive contaminants in different types of environment
• Modelling internal dose and specific factors influencing ingestion dose
• Modelling external dose in contaminated inhabited areas
• Decision support systems for accident management
• Important concepts in sampling and gamma spectrometry
• Radiochemical analysis for radionuclides that are difficult to measure
• Rapid radiochemistry techniques for multiple samples

Registration: Deadline on 15th of January 2019. Limited to 12 participants

The targeted audience is PhD students and young scientists / advisors. The course will give students 2.5 ECTS points.

There is no registration fee. Participants are expected to cover their own travel and subsistence costs (e.g., meals, hotel, visa if needed)

Do not hesitate to contact Kasper G. Andersson (kgan@dtu.dk) or Per Roos (roos@dtu.dk) at DTU if you need further information.

Please donwload the first announcement of the training course with this link.

Workshop on assessing risks from radioactive legacy sites and how to better present uncertain information.

The objective of the workshop is to discuss the risk assessment process as applied to radioactively contaminated legacy sites and how to better present the assessment findings and associated uncertainties to stakeholders. The workshop will show how the risk assessment process has been applied to a real site in the UK. The workshop discussions and presentations are intended to be of interest to students (final year, MSc, PhD) and those in early career stage in the field of radiological protection and nuclear sciences, particularly radioecology and environmental impact assessment, and therefore their participation is encouraged.

Please download the agenda here : https://territories.eu/assets/files/territories_workshop%202019_PROGRAMME_v1.pdf

If you need further information : https://territories.eu/workshops

The CONFIDENCE Project, funded under the H2020 CONCERT project, is performing research focused on uncertainties in the area of emergency management and long-term rehabilitation. It concentrates on the early and transition phases of an emergency, but considers also longer-term decisions made during these phases. The project brings together expertise from four European Radiation Protection Research Platforms (NERIS, MELODI, ALLIANCE and EURADOS) and also from Social Sciences and Humanities.

Actors in emergency and recovery preparedness and management from all levels and sectors are encouraged to participate in this the CONFIDENCE Dissemination to be held in Bratislava from 2 to 5 December 2019.

The main objectives will be: 

• To disseminate the knowledge acquired and to demonstrate the capability of the developed models, methods, approaches, guides, recommendations and tools.
• To collect feedback from end users on our outputs and remaining research requirements or improvements in models/guides etc. as a feedback to the Platforms to further develop their Strategic Research Agendas. 

Information on the agenda, registration and accommodation will be shared in the coming months.

You can download the « save the date » here.

The CONFIDENCE Project, funded under the H2020 CONCERT project, is performing research focused on uncertainties in the area of emergency management and long-term rehabilitation. It concentrates on the early and transition phases of an emergency, but considers also longer-term decisions made during these phases. The project brings together expertise from four European Radiation Protection Research Platforms (NERIS, MELODI, ALLIANCE and EURADOS) and also from Social Sciences and Humanities.

Objectives of the workshop:
• to disseminate the knowledge acquired and to demonstrate the capability of the developed models, methods, approaches, guides, recommendations and tools, 
• to collect feedback from end users on outputs and remaining research requirements or improvements in models/guides etc. as a feedback to the Platforms to further develop their Strategic Research Agendas and Joint roadmap.

We are pleased to announce that the first announcement is now available for download  : download the first announcement. You will find information on registration and accommodation.

The online pre-registration form is now available with the following link :

• Pre-register to the CONFIDENCE dissemination Workshop

The CONFIDENCE Project, funded under the H2020 CONCERT project, is performing research focused on uncertainties in the area of emergency management and long-term rehabilitation. It concentrates on the early and transition phases of an emergency, but considers also longer-term decisions made during these phases. The project brings together expertise from four European Radiation Protection Research Platforms (NERIS, MELODI, ALLIANCE and EURADOS) and also from Social Sciences and Humanities.

Objectives of the workshop:
• to disseminate the knowledge acquired and to demonstrate the capability of the developed models, methods, approaches, guides, recommendations and tools,
• to collect feedback from end users on outputs and remaining research requirements or improvements in models/guides etc. as a feedback to the Platforms to further develop their Strategic Research Agendas and Joint roadmap.

Workshop format:
The workshop will consists of presentations, panels, poster sessions and scenario based facilitated group discussions. Workshop will follow the decision making process which will be realised by using one scenario based on work and outputs from each and every project work-package. Scenario based demonstration of methods and tools will provide complex overview of project outcomes.

The dissemination workshop will take place from December 2 until December 5, 2019 on the premises of Lindner Hotel Gallery Central in Bratislava, Metodova 4, Slovak Republic. (https://www.lindner.de/en/bratislava-hotel-gallery-central/welcome.html) .
The workshop will start with registration and welcome coffee at 8:00 on December 2, 2019 and will conclude on December 5 at 12:30.

While there is no registration fee, dissemination workshop participation is limited to a maximum of 120 participants and registration is required by filling the online registration form. Pre-registered are accepted for final registration. So do not wait to sign up for the CONFIDENCE Dissemination workshop!

• Online registration

Important dates

• Registration deadline: September 30, 2019
• Dissemination workshop: December 2-5, 2019

For further information please contact the hosted Coordinator (Tatiana Duranova – tatiana.duranova@vuje.sk) and use logistics information for your travel arrangements. You can also download the second announcement, preliminary programme and logistics information with the following links:

• Download the second announcement
• Download the preliminary programme
• Download the logistics information

A common ALLIANCE-NERIS Workshop was held in Munich (BfS premises) the last 28th and 29th of March. Named ‘Towards improving radiological assessments and management:  Big data sets, spatial distribution and source to sink modelling’, this common workshop considered a joint research priorities arising from the ALLIANCE and NERIS recent gaps analyses. And so, the objective was to establish a consensus on the questions still to be addressed and to recommend future research priorities. The specific objective of the workshop was to address the spatial redistribution of radionuclides, focusing on water- and solid-mediated fluxes of radionuclides from the source to the ocean. The workshop explored how to develop a holistic understanding of key processes to improve radiological impact assessment and management.  The workshop also addressed issues around using  large volumes of possibly heterogeneous data and combining model predictions with monitoring results in an optimized way.

The detailed programme of the workshop is available here.

The different powerpoint presentations can be downloaded here.

Note that a statement paper is currently on progress and aims to  play a role for inspiring responses to the EURATOM Call as it is described in the Work Programme 2018 – NFRP-8.