LIMITATIONS AND PERSPECTIVES OF RADIOECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT FOR SOIL-PLANT SYSTEMS IN GREECE

摘要

Approaches to radiological risk assessment in Greece are insufficient. There is a need to point out some regional differences between Mediterranean region and the Northern European countries. The more important limitations concerning Greece are presented as follows: Limited data are available for the behaviour of radionuclides in the different agricultural ecosystems of the country. Important differences in the soil ecosystems exist between the Southern and Northern countries of Europe. Furthermore, a detailed soil mapping for the whole country does not exist except for some regions, covering approximately 30% of the land. Significant differences in plant cultivation are revealed. Concerning, for example, the tree plantations, 73% of the country is covered by evergreen trees (olive trees, citrus) and 25% by deciduous trees (grapes, pomes, stone-fruits, nuts). This distribution of cultivated tree species might be similar in Mediterranean countries but is different in Northern countries, where most - if not all - of the fruit-trees are deciduous. Climatic differences are obvious (i.e. long dry seasons are dominant in Greece). A Data Bank does not exist for the Transfer Factors (TFs) concerning the Mediterranean plant species. Finally, some differences in diet and food consumption are pointed out between Mediterranean and other countries. The main Greek perspectives are shortly presented by the following activities: Soil evaluation will be made on the basis of the main soil properties influencing the radionuclide availability from soil to plant. Classification of soil ecosystems, on the basis of TFs of radionuclides from soil to reference plants, will be performed for the whole country. A well organized Data Bank of radionuclide TFs from soil to the most important Mediterranean crops will be created and kept updated. Finally, an assessment of radionuclide kinetics in the whole system "atmosphere-soil-plant production" will be performed with the use of Experimental/Laboratory and Computational/Simulation methods.