Recent advances in animal radioecology and mitigation of animal product contamination after accidents

Recent research has led to significant progress in our understanding of factors controlling transfer of radionuclides to animals and in the development of countermeasures for reducing contamination of animal products. Improved understanding has led to the development of more mechanistically based models for some radionuclides, which take account of stable or analogue interactions. The potential advantages of the development of generic approaches, dispensing with divisions into species, or even radionuclide, are discussed and constitute a significant area for future development. The advances have improved our knowledge of the effectiveness of a range of countermeasures and allowed potentially inappropriate measures to be identified. For radiocaesium in particular, effective and feasible countermeasures have been identified and successfully implemented over the years following the Chernobyl accident. However, countermeasure effectiveness is not the only consideration. In addition, cost and criteria such as availability, technical feasibility, acceptability and environmental and social side effects need to be taken into account. Evaluation of these factors has shown that some previously recommended countermeasures are unlikely to be feasible in Western Europe