The early Miocene Murree Formation, late Miocene Nagri Formation and recent alluvium rockunits are exposed in the sub-Himalayas of the Bagh area, State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir,Pakistan. The Bagh area was badly affected by the Kashmir earthquake of October 8th 2005which, along the Muzaffarabad Fault, deformed both the hanging and footwall blocks. Thecracks, joints, fissures and fractures in houses and bedrocks might have affected theemission of radon to the surface. Indoor radon concentration measurements were carried outin some dwellings of the Bagh area, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. The measurements were based onpassive integrative detection of radon using CN-85 plastic track detectors in box-typedosimeters. The radon concentration in dwellings was between 50  ±  11.6 Bq·m-3and 167.1  ±  21.4 Bq·m-3with an overall average of 95.1  ±  15.8Bq·m-3(geometric mean  =  93.4 Bq·m-3). The average radonconcentrations in pucka, semi-pucka and kucha houses were 97.6  ±  15.4 Bq·m-3,89.7  ±  15.2 Bq·m-3 and 101.9  ±  15.9 Bq·m-3, respectively. Themean values of radon concentrations in the Nagri Formation, Murree Formation and recentalluvium lithology were 99.3  ±  15.8, 90.1 and 96.2  ±  15.5 Bq·m-3,respectively. The annual effective dose to the Bagh population was calculated as 2.38  ± 0.77 (1.33  ±  0.2 to 4.7  ±  0.5) mSv. The average radon (95.1  ±  15.8Bq·m-3) concentration in dwellings for the inhabitants of the Bagh area wassafe from radon-related health hazards and was within the recommended action level (ICRPpublication 65 (1993) Protection against radon at home and at work, InternationalCommission on Radiological Protection, Ann. ICRP 23(2)).The indoor radonvalues obtained in the present study are more than the world average of 40Bq·m-3 (UNSCEAR (2000) United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects ofAtomic radiation, Report to the General Assembly, United Nations, New York).

In Finland, Olkiluoto Island on the western coast has been selected as a repository site for spent nuclear fuel disposal. With the approaching licensing steps (application for the nuclear construction licence in 2012), the biosphere assessment demonstrating the long-term safety of the repository is developed into more and more site specific. At the present coastal site, lakes will form in the future millennia due to the post-glacial crustal rebound, i.e. land uplift, which at least eventually will outrun the anthropogenic sea level rise. Both the brackish bays of Baltic Sea and the future lakes can be primary recipients of releases from the deep underground repository, and the aquatic plants can form a major pool of radionuclides with a rather rapid turnover. In some cases the aquatic plants are a relevant part of wildlife food web and possibly also a resource to human. To provide the biosphere assessment models with site-relevant input parameter data, samples of typical aquatic plants were collected from the sea area at the site and from two nearby lakes analogous to those expected to form at the site during the future millennia. This contribution presents water-to-plant concentration ratios of stable elements of high relevance to the biosphere assessment of the Olkiluoto spent fuel repository.

Né en 1869, Gaston Contremoulins commence sa carrière comme artiste peintre avant derejoindre à l’âge de 22 ans le laboratoire du professeur Étienne-Jules Marey, inventeur dela chronophotographie, puis les hôpitaux de Paris en 1895 au moment de la découvert desrayons X par Wilhelm Röntgen. Passionné de photographie, ingénieur autodidacte ingénieux,Contremoulins publie dès 1896 avec le chirurgien Charles Remy une série de travaux surl’usage des rayons X pour la recherche anatomique et la localisation des corps étrangersdans le crâne qui seront récompensés par le prix Montyon de l’Académie des sciences en1897. Nommé chef des laboratoires de radiologie des Hôpitaux de Paris en 1898,Contremoulins met au point sa méthode de métroradiographie pour localisation précisémentdes corps étrangers dans tous les organes qui rendra d’immenses services pendant lapremière guerre mondiale. Très tôt conscient des dangers des rayonnements pour lesmédecins, le personnel hospitalier mais aussi le voisinage des postes de radiologie,Contremoulins développe des moyens de protection des sources mais aussi préconise leplombage des murs et des planchers des installations malgré l’opposition d’une partie desradiologues. Retraité des Hôpitaux de Paris, Contremoulins exercera encore pendant 16années ses talents à l’hôpital de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Atteint d’une cataracteinopérable, il met fin à ses jours en 1950.

Objectif : déterminer l’intérêt des gants radio-atténuateurs plombés pour diminuerl’exposition des mains des opérateurs, en radiologie interventionnelle et au blocopératoire. Matériel et méthode : on a utilisé des gants radio-atténuateurs plombés dumarché, des dosimètres TLD thermoluminescents, un fantôme anthropomorphe de calibration enostéodensitométrie, une main anthropomorphe. Les mesures étaient réalisées sur 2installations : l’une avec capteurs plans, l’autre avec amplificateur de brillance. On acomparé les doses reçues par dosimètres sans et dans un gant, dans le champ direct (10séries de mesures dont 2 avec amplificateur de brillance) et dans le diffusé (3 séries surcapteurs plans), en scopie et graphie. Résultats : dans le diffusé, les dosimètres dans legant mesuraient une diminution de dose, variant de 1 à 3. Dans le champ direct, 7 mesuressur 10 montraient une augmentation de dose dans le gant (13 à 42 %). 3/10 mesuresmontraient une quasi stabilité de dose avec le gant (–3,3 % à  +2 %). Conclusion : nosmesures objectivent une efficacité des gants radio-atténuateurs plombés dans le diffusé.Dans le rayonnement direct, le port des gants radio-atténuateurs plombés entraîne uneaugmentation de la dose – main, du fait des réglages automatiques des paramètres.

In Finland, Olkiluoto Island on the western coast has been selected as a repository site for spent nuclear fuel disposal. With approaching licensing steps, the biosphere assessment demonstrating the long-term safety of the repository is developed into more and more site specific. As the literature data on site-relevant crops and garden products on site-relevant soils are sparse or in some cases lacking for the elements of a high relevance to the biosphere assessment of the Olkiluoto spent fuel repository, crops and garden products were collected from farms nearby the site. The samples were then analysed for stable elements for initial contribution to the site-specific database in respect of these edibles.

Natural radioactivity concentrations in commercially-used granites from Paraná state, Brazil, were measured in order to estimate the potential radiological hazard to mankind due to granite as an ornamental building material through the 226Ra, 232Th and 40K activities concentrations measured in several samples by high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy. Preliminary results, without considering samples self-attenuation, show activities concentrations varying from 4 ± 1 Bq kg−1 to 79 ± 3 Bq kg−1 for 226Ra, 7 ± 1 Bq kg−1 to 142 ± 6 Bq kg−1 for 232Th and 214 ± 14 Bq kg−1 to 1626 ± 77 Bq kg−1 for 40K. All results are within the range of literature values for similar rocks. Further, the annual effective dose, the radium equivalent activity and the external and internal hazard indexes will be assessed.

Radon (222Rn) is the most important cause of exposure to mankind due to natural radioactivity. Radon exhalation depends not only on the 226Ra concentration in the material, but also on other factors such as mineralogy of the region, size and density of grains and porosity of the material. As building materials are one of the major sources of environmental radon, the radiological implications of the use of materials with great content of uranium must be always assessed. In this work, radon exhalation from several undamaged granitic building materials used as ornamental rocks or coating tiles is determined using the “sealed-can technique” and CR-39 solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD). Preliminary results for radon concentrations showed values of the same order that literature values, in a range from 99 Bq.m−3 to 1100 Bq m−3. Further, the methodology will be validated with standard sources of 222Rn.

Locations of gamma dose rate sensors have often been chosen by administrative or geometrical criteria. Nowadays computational capacity allows for a more realistic basis. We use simulations of potential radioactive plumes based on weather data of one year to investigate the threats to regions without own nuclear power plants and to find good numbers and locations of sensors to detect such plumes. We optimise sensor locations by minimising a cost function that can take into account numbers of undetected plumes, their dose to the region in general, or on the population. Besides we assess the effect of administrative constraints, be it that sensors have to cover administrative units, or that optimisation is done for sub-regions separately. Finally we evaluate the robustness of the approach if less or other plumes are used. The main findings are that sensors at boundaries are often best, but also typical paths of plumes may be important, and that administrative constraints may necessitate much more sensors. The small numbers of sensors actually deployed in these regions seem sufficient. However, the latter may be an artefact of the low number of plumes we considered. Altogether, combined with other considerations, this approach can contribute to better decisions about gamma dose rate sensor locations.

The levels of gross alpha and beta natural radioactivities in surface, underground and drinking waters consumed by the urban and rural population living in Lagoa Real Uranium Province of central south Bahia state, Brazil were determined in several samples collected from urban public supply of drinking water and, in the rural area, from dug and drilled wells and also from small dams and reservoirs supplied with rainfall. After pre-concentration, the samples were evaporated under an infrared lamp on an inox planchet and subsequently counted on a thin end-window low-background proportional counter, namely Berthold LB 770. Preliminary results show natural radiation levels varying from 0.02 ± 0.001 Bq/L to 0.80 ± 0.04 Bq/L for gross alpha activity and from 0.010 ± 0.006 to 3.0 ± 0.2 Bq/L for gross beta activity. Some values exceed the 2004 WHO recommendation levels that the screening levels for drinking water below which no further action is required are 0,5 Bq/litre for gross alpha activity and 1 Bq/litre for gross beta activity. However, as we are dealing with natural radiation in a well-known high background radiation area, more studies are needed.

The transfer of transuranium element americium-241 (241Am) from food and water to organs and tissues of freshwater fish (Carassius auratus gibelio, crucian carp) has been investigated in laboratory experiments. The fishes were fed with homogenized biomass of submerged macrophytes labeled with 241Am, through catheter. For the first two days after force-feeding, fishes excreted up to 80% of ingested americium, for four days – 98%. 241Am was registered in internal organs and tissues that had no direct contact with americium (liver, bones, muscles) as early as two days after the feeding and after eight days, when the digestive tract was depurated. Among internal organs, the highest activity concentration was recorded in the liver (up to 427 Bq/kg). Activity concentration in bones (19–31 Bq/kg) was several times higher than in muscles, indicating the affinity of americium to bone tissue. Assimilation of 241Am in organs and tissues of crucian carp from water occurred mainly via the digestive tract too.