Natural radiation sources contribute much the largest part of the radiation exposure of the average person. This paper examines doses from natural radiation to the red bone marrow, the tissue in which leukaemia is considered to originate, with particular emphasis on doses to children. The most significant contributions are from x-rays and gamma rays, radionuclides in food and inhalation of isot...

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident on March 11, 2011 attracted people's attention, with anxiety over possible radiation hazards. Immediate and long-term concerns are around protection from external and internal exposure by the liberated radionuclides. In particular, residents living in the affected regions are most concerned about ingesting contaminated foodstuffs, including dri...

Erratum: “Radionuclides in Fracking Wastewater: Managing a Toxic Blend” The Focus article “Radionuclides in Fracking Wastewater: Managing a Toxic Blend” [Environ Health Perspect 122:A50–A55 (2014); http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.122-A50] incorrectly stated that Pennsylvania requires pit liners for temporary impoundments and disposal to have a minimum thickness of 30 mm. The correct minimum thick...

Bone scanning with radioactive isotopes has become a routine method for investigating disorders of bone. Departments of nuclear medicine throughout the country offer diagnostic facilities for a variety of problems which affect not only bone, but also the heart, kidney, brain, liver, pancreas and spleen as well as disorders of the blood. Indeed the use of radionuclides is now an important and es...

Evaluation of the safety of high-level radioactive waste repositories is a requisite included in radioactive waste management policy. Criteria for the safety of those facilities require protection of the population and the environment over a time scale appropriate to the characteristics of the radionuclides present in the disposed wastes. In order to demonstrate compliance with regulations, a q...

To evaluate the environmental contamination and contributory external exposure after the accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP), the concentrations of artificial radionuclides in soil samples from each area were analysed by gamma spectrometry. Six artificial radionuclides ((131)I, (134)Cs, (137)Cs, (129m)Te, (95)Nb and (136)Cs) were detected in soil samples around FNPP. Calculated...

The transfer factors of radionuclides (Ra, U, Th, K and fallout radionuclides Cs) from soil to plant and grass collected from the north-west of West Bank environment – Palestine were measured. For soil to plant, the average transfer factor (TF) values were found to be 0.60, 0.50, 0.31, and 1.70 for 226 Ra, 238 U, 232 Th and 40 K respectively. For soil to grass the TF values were found to be 1.2...

Among the key environmental factors influencing the fate and transport of radionuclides in the environment is natural organic matter (NOM). While this has been known for decades, there still remains great uncertainty in predicting NOM-radionuclide interactions because of lack of understanding of radionuclide interactions with the specific organic moieties within NOM. Furthermore, radionuclide-N...

The Hydrological Dispersion Module (HDM) of the RODOS (real-time on-line decision support) system for nuclear emergency management in Europe has been is developed at IMMSP, Kiev, Ukraine; NRG, The Netherlands; FZK, Karlsruhe, Germany; SPA “TYPHOON”, Obninsk, Russia; IPEP, Minsk, Belorussia, and NCSR “Demokritos”, Athens, Greece. Initial testing and customisation work was performed by NPPRI, Slo...