European Air Radioactivity Monitoring and the Involvement of Nuclear Physics Groups

Abstract

Introduction Monitoring of radioactivity in air is an obligation for European Union (EU) member states following the Euratom Treaty. In this present time of climate change, combined with unrest in geographical Europe and fear of escalation, radiological preparedness is an increasingly important topic. There are several scenarios in which a nuclear disaster, of malicious nature or not, could result in a radioactive cloud being dispersed over the EU. Many laboratories and research groups from both universities and national monitoring laboratories are involved in measuring radioactivity in air. The results they produce are not solely used for understanding the local situation at their site but are integrated in the European radioactivity monitoring networks to help establish the greater picture of an event and possibly enable backtracking to the source.