Holistic countermeasures evaluation and the sustainable restoration and long-term management of contaminated rural, urban and industrial ecosystems

Both urban (including industrial) and rural environments may be contaminated for many years after a nuclear accident. To sustain acceptable living and working conditions, the capability to implement robust and effective restoration strategies is required. The criteria on which countermeasures are evaluated need to be extended from simply effectiveness and radiological protection criteria to a more integrated, holistic approach. Specifically, aspects such as whether measures can be practically applied, incur considerable direct or indirect (or side-effect) costs, have significant environmental effects, and are acceptable to society need to be incorporated. In addition, we should explore suitable approaches for successfully communicating with a wide range of stakeholders. Remediation following an accident cannot be based upon the evaluation of individual countermeasures in isolation; rather optimal strategies which combine a number of countermeasures need to be designed. A developing methodology to optimise restoration strategies is discussed using the results of an evaluation of a hypothetical accident. This initial evaluation is restricted to countermeasures that reduce ingestion doses and considers the effect of environmental restrictions, and dose distribution on the selection of remediation strategies. Communication strategies to be used within restoration are also discussed