IAEA Handbook of parameter values for the prediction of radionuclide transfer to wildlife.

The full influence of the IAEA Handbook of parameter values for the prediction of radionuclide transfer to wildlife (in press) will develop as the need to demonstrate protection of the environment in its own right from ionising radiation becomes standard practice in line with recent international recommendations and safety standards. The ERICA Tool will be revised, based on this handbook, by CEH and its collaborators. It is likely that other models will be similarly reparameterised: e.g. the US Department of Energy software RESRAD-BIOTA uses the ERICA Tool; an Australian group is evaluating the data with respect to national requirements; and the UK EA have stated an intention to use ERICA Tool parameters (rather than its own in-house model). CEH and its collaborators in the European network of excellence in radioecology (Strategy for Allied Radioecology - STAR) is using parameters from the IAEA handbooks to develop a model to enable combined assessments of humans and wildlife which are currently conducted separately. CEH’s leading role in these areas will continue via the chairing of two new working groups by NERC-CEH, in the IAEA’s Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments (MODARIA) programme (initiated November 2012 for four years).