A definition of Long-Term Stewardship (LTS) is: “all activities required to protect human health and the environment from hazards remaining after cleanup is complete.” “Cleanup” in this sense may mean completion of a prescribed remedy for contaminated soil or buried waste, or it could mean entombment of a nuclear facility or placing nuclear materials in safe, long-term storage. Among the activities included in this definition are long-term monitoring and surveillance, maintenance of engineered barriers, operation and maintenance of long-term remedies (such as groundwater pump and treat operations), institutional controls (e.g., deed restrictions, land use restrictions, permanent markers, etc.), and information management (including intergenerational transfer of data on residual hazards). The magnitude of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) LTS commitments, in terms of scope, cost, and time, is beginning to be better understood. The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) has been chartered to assist DOE’s Idaho Operations Office and the DOE Headquarters Office of Long-Term Stewardship in: 1. planning and management of the National Long-Term Stewardship Program, 2. ensuring the effective transition of sites from cleanup to long-term stewardship, 3. ensuring safe and effective execution of long-term stewardship operations (in conjunction with the DOE Grand Junction Project Office), and 4. developing and implementing improvements to long-term stewardship operations and decision making through advances in science and technology (S&T). An initial step in determining how advances in S&T can be applied in the LTS program is to identify LTS S&T needs. These are needs which, if advances in scientific understanding can be made or technologies developed to address the needs, may result in reduced risk, cost, or uncertainty of LTS activities, or improved reliability of LTS measures. After LTS S&T needs are identified, DOE will coordinate and manage a research and development program to address needs which aren’t already being addressed through current projects. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2000 (October 1999 through September 2000), we completed an Initial Needs Assessment and Technology Baseline Inventory 2000 report (available on the Internet at http://emi-web.inel.gov/lts), and prepared a Conceptual Framework for a Science and Technology Roadmap . The needs were analyzed, sorted, and placed into categories where they seemed to logically group. The greatest number of needs identified were related to monitoring and surveillance. In FY 2001 (October 2000 through September 2001), we will initiate development of a LTS Roadmap. This Roadmap will lay out a plan for prioritizing and funding research and technology development that has the greatest potential for impacting cost and reliability of LTS actions.

The cost-benefit analysis of the remedial actions for the contaminated Enisey River floodplain, due to the release of radioactive materials at Mining Chemical Combine (MCC) «Krasnoyarsk-26» is carried out. The analysis was carried out for a region within the first 260 km below discharge point, where the Exposure Dose Rate (EDR) in the air ranges between 50 and 400 microR/hr and the concentration of the radionuclide reaches 25,000 Bq/kg. Both the methods of a) a cost-benefit analysis as functions of time and b) a cost justification analysis in the terms of the Action Levels (AL) have been used. Two possible situations have been considered concerning the remediation of various sites on the contaminated floodplain: 1. The spatial and depth distribution of radioactive contamination is known. In this case, it is possible to estimate the cost of removing the contaminated soil as one of the alternatives of remediation. Two contrasting examples are analyzed, which cover the entire spectrum of possibilities for removal of the contaminated soil: a) The “Gorodskoy” Island, situated inside the “Eniseysk” City, at a distance of 260 km from MCC and b) the Islands and coast of the «Kazachenskoe» settlement, at a distance 160 km from MCC, where the impacted area, the volume of contaminated soil to be removed and the number persons impacted differ by an order of magnitude. These situations were analyzed as a cost-benefit in functions of time. 2. The information is limited: only the EDR or surface contamination is known. In this case, remediation by removing the contaminated soil is impossible. In this case, remedial actions result only in limiting the people’s actions (i.e. - closure of the area). This is a typical and frequent occurrence concerning remedial actions for the Enisey River floodplain. These situations were analyzed as “generic”: the doses were analyzed using data concerning surface contamination and resulted in pessimistic estimations of the site’s specific parameters, the level of contamination and information about depth profiles of the radionuclide-specific concentration in the soil of the Enisey River floodplain. Cost justification of closure of the area is analyzed in terms of the AL. Cost-benefit as functions time and analysis in terms of the AL were used to analyze the alternatives of remedial actions: a) no action, b) removal of the contaminated soil without its stabilization, c) stabilization by the injection of silicate of sodium into the soil, followed by the excavation and removal of the firm soil, d) closure of the area. The cost used, in accordance with the cost assigned to the unit collective dose a (alpha)= $20,000–$3,000 per man*Sv, facilitates a comparison of the justification of the cost alternatives of remedial action to suit the different economical conditions in Russia (the numeral values a were chosen by experts of MCC). It has been proven that under current Russian economical conditions (α = $3,000 per man*Sv) “no action” is best for most contaminated sites on the Enisey River floodplain. Removal of contaminated soil (without stabilization) is cost justified action for high contamination of small areas (such as “Gorodskoy” Island) only. Removal of the contamination in large areas (such as the “Kazachenskoe” settlement) may be a cost justified action in the future (for α = $20,000 per man*Sv).

The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program was created to meet the demand for innovative technologies for hazardous waste treatment. The primary mission of the SITE Program is to expedite the cleanup of sites on the National Priorities List (NPL). These sites often have multiple contaminants in soil and groundwater, and few cleanup options exist. To accomplish this mission, the SITE Program seeks to advance the development, implementation and commercialization of innovative technologies for hazardous waste characterization and remediation. Innovative technologies are field-tested on hazardous waste materials and engineering and economic data are gathered to assess the technology’s performance, cost, and applicability. The SITE Program has two components: the Demonstration Program and the Measuring and Monitoring Technologies Program (MMTP). The Demonstration Program focuses on evaluation of full-scale innovative technologies for site remediation. The MMTP conducts evaluations of innovative measuring and monitoring technologies under field conditions. This paper outlines the SITE Program’s dynamics and impact on innovative technology development and use.

In the beginning of April, 1998, Belgoprocess started the large scale decommissioning of shutdown facilities at the former waste treatment department of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN). In the second half of 2000, the decommissioning of a former open concrete storage pond was started. It has two parts, one with a volume of 200 m 3 , the other has a volume of 2 000 m 3 . In the past, the tanks were used as open cooling reservoir for the scrubber water of an incinerator for low level beta-gamma wastes. As a result, it contained some 126 Mg of sludges that were treated in a bituminisation facility. After emptying and rinsing of the tanks, samples were taken from the inner (brick) and the outer (concrete) wall to define the contamination levels in the material. It was found that the first layer of about one centimetre of the brick wall showed some radium contamination. Samples taken from the outer wall showed no contamination, which does not mean that the entire outer wall should be free of contamination. It was seen that the outer wall had some cracks, and there was no guarantee that a layer of bitumen in between the two walls was still in good condition. Also the top layer of the concrete bottom proved to be radium contaminated. The outer walls of the storage pond were supported by a thick layer of soil, which proved to contain some spots of contamination. The contaminated soil was segregated and evacuated, the remaining part was removed to a temporary storage area, waiting to be monitored for final unconditional release. The paper gives an overview of the decommissioning activities relating to the open concrete storage pond at the former waste treatment department of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN).

A mathematical model was used to predict radionuclide release from bitumen and glass waste forms over extended time periods. To calculate some model parameters, we used experimental data derived from 12yr field tests with six borosilicate waste glass blocks (each ∼30 kg in weight) and a bitumen block (310 kg), containing real intermediate-level NPP operational waste (NaNO 3 , 86 wt.% of a dry salt content; 137 Cs, 82% of the radioactive inventory). Specific radioactivities of the glass material containing 35 wt.% waste oxides were β tot ( 90 Sr+ 90 Y), 3.74×10 6 Bq/kg, and α tot ( 239 Pu), 1.3×10 4 Bq/kg. The bitumen block with ∼31 wt.% salt content and β tot ( 90 Sr+ 90 Y), 4.0·10 6 Bq/kg, and α tot ( 239 Pu), 3.0×10 3 Bq/kg was manufactured on base of a hard bitumen BN-IV. Tests with the waste forms were performed under saturated conditions of an experimental near-surface repository with a free access of groundwater to the waste blocks through a covering of host loamy soil and backfill of coarse sand. The way used to quantify the amount of leached radioactivity was to measure the volume and radioactivity concentrations of contacting groundwater. In the model, radionuclide release from the waste glass is assumed to be controlled by the processes of diffusion limited ion exchange and glass network dissolution. The mechanism of radionuclide release from the bitumen matrix is believed to remain the same throughout the long-term storage period, except for the initial stage when an enhanced leaching from the surface layer occurs. This long-term release is assumed to be controlled by diffusion of radionuclides through the bitumen matrix. So, identical formulae were applied to calculate the values of leached radioactivity fractions for two waste forms. Radioactivity release curves were plotted for field data and calculation results. For both waste forms, there was good agreement between the modelled and available experimental data. According to the modelling results, f max = 2.3×10 −3 % of the initial radioactivity will release from the waste glass into the environment within a proposed institutional control period of 300 years under conditions of the near-surface repository and in the absence of additional engineered barriers. For the bitumen block and the same 300-yr period, the total (maximum) leached radioactivity fraction will be f max = 4.2×10 −3 %. The main result of the modelling and experimental studies concerning the leaching behaviour of the bituminised and vitrified waste materials is that the fractional radioactivity release for two waste forms is on the same order of magnitude. Numerical release values per a unit of a surface area to volume ratio are also rather close for two waste forms (exposed surface area to volume ratio for the bitumen block is 2 to 4 times greater then for the glass).

Development of a self-sustainable remediation process seems to require an approach that uses the entire ecosystem functions. Selected effects have been documented in four case studies both in forests and wetlands: I) In the course of vegetation and soil development on experimental plots forested since 1963, concentration of RNs was reduced from >1000 Bq/kg to <200 Bq/kg in the top soil due to dilution by accumulation of organic carbon; II) in the stem wood of spruce and alder as few as 13–54 mg U/ha had been fixed; III) wetland compartments acted as strong sinks (> 1000 Bq/kg in organic matter); IV) water quality below a natural wetland — working as a filter within an uranium mineralisation hot spot in Malawi (SE-Africa) (> 2000 Bq/kg soil) — demonstrated no difference to a reference brook within the catchment.

Laboratory and pilot scale tests have been carried out to assess the potential application of soil washing to the treatment of radioactively contaminated soil, rubble and rocks from its sites. With radioactively contaminated soils it was difficult to clean to a free release level (<0.4 Bq/g), although it was possible to clean to a risk based target, or to a waste categorised as Very Low Radioactive Material. With radioactively contaminated rubble and rocks, wet scrubbing in a tumbling mill was very effective at removing surface contamination so that the products could be disposed as free release material or Very Low Radioactive Material.

Uranium fuel rods were produced in the nuclear fuel site. The buildings should be dismantled after decontamination and the site should be released for industrial use. The individual dose to the critical group is limited to an annual value of about 10 μSv. The determined specific activity for remediation of the site was a mean value of 60 mBq/g total activity. For the building rubble and soil primarily two pathways, disposal at a landfill and refill of a disused salt mine, were considered. As a result of the investigations the total activity for the disposal at a landfill had to be limited to about 6,6 GBq. For the refill of the salt mine the estimated individual dose fell below the dose limit in the range of 10 μSv/y.

This paper provides a summary of the physical and chemical characteristics of plutonium contaminated soils from the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The NTS desires to decrease the amount of plutonium-contaminated soils that must be transported and disposed at the burial site. Volume reduction of these plutonium-contaminated soils has been attempted using various physical, chemical and biological treatment processes. Results of these trials are presented.

At VNIINM a facility was created to decontaminate soil and ground. The facility was tested using actual ground contaminated as a result of the CHERNOBYL accident that was brought from the BRYANSK region. At the initial ground contaminated with CS-137 to the degree of 1,6 bq/g the decontamination factor was 4–5. The practicability of the technology used in the facility for ground decontamination via hydroclassification has been demonstrated. The project of a commercial area remediation complex was designed having the throughput > 20 t/h contaminated soil.

This paper introduces a method of HPGe gamma spectrometry measurement for the soil samples collected from contaminated fields. HPGe gamma spectrometry system is equipped in a transportable laboratory, and the samples can be processed and analyzed on-site.

More than 100 U.S. Department of Energy sites throughout the United States require environmental remediation for contaminants from processes used primarily in the nuclear weapons program and the nuclear fuel cycle. These sites encompass almost 10,000 individual geographic areas. It is estimated that under current processes it will cost about $200 billion dollars over the next 70 years to remediate and monitor these areas. Cleanup criteria are the maximum residual concentrations of individual contaminants that will remain in environmental media or facilities after remediation has been completed. Cleanup criteria are presumably consistent with risk- or dose-based goals. The selection of cleanup criteria is an intricate process that takes into account factors such as projected site usage, numerous federal, state, and local requirements, and stakeholder concerns. An Internet-accessible database was established by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management to record agreed on values of cleanup criteria. Currently, it includes data from about 300 individual areas. This paper presents examples from this database to show the range of cleanup criteria for 137 Cs, 238 Pu, and 90 Sr contamination in soil. The data illustrate that, in some cases, the cleanup criteria agreed on for a single radionuclide can vary by orders of magnitude for the same land use scenario. This variation can be attributed to a number of factors, including physical conditions that contribute to differences in the results for pathway analyses for the same risk or dose goal (such as the presence of multiple contaminants or variations in local climate and geography). In many cases, however, input from regulators and stakeholders is likely to be the most significant factor. The development of appropriate cleanup criteria is crucial to cost-effective remediation. By providing a means of identifying site cleanup levels, the database can be a useful tool in the process of comparing cleanup criteria for individual contaminants across the DOE complex.

The paper reviews the findings of a recent international study to characterise the waste arising from the decommissioning of dumps in the Industrial Zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the Exclusion Zone. Studied sites included the Industrial Zone outside the Sarcophagus, three engineered disposal sites (the so-called PZRO), non-engineered near surface trench dumps (PVLRO), contaminated soil and sites of ‘unauthorised’ disposal within the Exclusion Zone. The paper summarises the inventory of wastes, the management options, which have been considered for various dumps, and the resulting estimates of the volumes of waste streams, as well as the approach that was used in the decision-making process.

The shutdown of the last Chernobyl NPP (ChNPP) unit essentially changes situation at the site. The plant terminates the activity as the electricity producer and starts decommissioning of the nuclear installations, located at the site. At the same time an activity connected with transformation of the “Shelter” object (the object has been erected to cover unit 4 of ChNPP destroyed by the accident at the April 26, 1986) in an ecologically safe system continues at ChNPP site. There are a large amount of scientific, engineering, economical and political issues connected to the both activities have been arisen in the past and should be resolved in the years to come. Scope and the complexities of the tasks must be performed at the site, have no analogs in the world. The nuclear world has accumulated experience of different nuclear installations decommissioning, including NPP units, but still never taken out of service multiunit NPP in a full structure, including the unit, destroyed by the accident. Chernobyl site is unique because of 1986 accident consequences. The “Shelter” object is even more unique. The clear safety regulations for ChNPP decommissioning and the “Shelter” object transformation in an ecologically safe system are missed till now. The attempts to apply the regulations destined for “ordinary” nuclear installations in an “ordinary” surrounding environment brings up amount of issues. It is obvious that particular conditions of surrounding area, the exclusion zone, should be taken into account. The principle of “reasonable sufficiency” should be implemented to reach the safety goals of the ChNPP decommissioning and the “Shelter” object transformation without excessive financial loses and doze commitment. Some important issues still remain unsolved: long-lived low and middle level solid radwaste (SRW) storage and storage of high-level SRW; damaged spent fuel assemblies management; polluted soil management. There is no solution on radioactive by-products management collected by the cooling lake of ChNPP in the consequences of the accident. Large amount of radwaste and spent fuel collected at ChNPP site brings up the question about possibility and expediency of radwaste management infrastructure using which is created at ChNPP site in accordance to the National Radwaste Management Program. Obviously this question requires serious comprehensive analysis to make final decision. Some of issues connected to peculiarities of ChNPP decommissioning and the “Shelter” object transformations in ecologically safe system (including coordination of both activities) are discussed in the presentation.

The testing begun in the framework of the CEC project ECP-4 “Decontamination technologies and strategies” have allowed to develop and to test new technology of the polluted soils decontamination by removal of the thin turf layer by the vibrating blade of the special machine (Turf-Cutter). The experiments were conducted at the radioactively contaminated soils of Ukraine and Belarus during 1992–2000. The machine “TURF HARVESTER” (USA) was used in the experiment. The first testing of the method was conducted on the well turfed radioecological polygon “Buryakovka”, 4 km from the Chernobyl NPP, with levels of contamination: 100 Ci/km2 by Cs-137, 80 Ci/km2 by Sr-90, 7 Ci/km2 by Pu-239. As the preliminary researches have shown, about 95% of the radionuclides were concentrated in the upper layer of the unploughed soil. In an outcome of tests on a selected plot the decontamination factor (Fd) 25–40 for different radionuclides was obtained. After removal of turf and opening the soil surface, the wind soil erosion and secondary resuspension the radionuclides was expect. It has not taken place, as special researches on an evaluation of the wind resuspension of radionuclides by the soil particles after the turf harvesting. This can be explained as follows. The vibrating blade does not decondence and decompose the soil layer remaining. At the same time, the thin turf and soil layer removal saves the vegetation regenerating organs and roots, which allows the grass restoration and surface fixation within one month after the experiment. The second test of a method was conducted on a polygon “Chistogalovka”, 3 km of the NPP. A high level of the radioactive contamination (150 Ci/km2 by Cs-137) and the weak turf cover of the rugged sand surface characterized the polygon. The turf removal at this polygon has allowed to receive Df = 10–15. Another testing was made at the Belorussian part of the Zone, which have demonstrated the possibility of the selected turf removal under the spotty radioactive contamination. The field gamma-spectrometer “Corad”, produced by the Kurchatov Institute (Russia), was used for the operative definition the highly contaminated spots. The selected removal of the mostly contaminated spots decreased the mass of the turf removed by 70%, obtaining the Df = 5–7. Next testing was conducted at the village Miliach (Rivne Province, Dubrovitsa district, Ukraine) at the pasture “Stav” with the contamination level by Cs-137 about 5 Ci/km2. This pasture was not influenced by any post-accident countermeasures. After the radioactive turf removal (Df = 15–20), the fodder grass was sow. The grass contamination was 15 times less, comparing to the control. The experimental fattening of 10 cows by a grass, skewed on the decontaminated plot, within 10 days, was carried on. A comparison the contamination of the milk from the experimental cows, which were fed by a grass of the turf-harvested plot, and the milk of the control cows, has shown the milk Df about 11 in 1993. The data obtained show high efficiency of the decontamination technology for the polluted soils based on the turf removal by the vibrating blade. Decontamination factor about 7–15 for the sandy and dusty-sandy soils with a weak turf layer up to 20–40 for the organic and wet silty soils with a strong turf layer was obtained. Important thing is, the best Dfs were obtained for the soils, which are critical on the intensity of the root uptake of the radionuclides. The high ecological and radioecological safety of the Turf-Cutter technology of the soil decontamination is also to be considered. The thin turf and soil layer removal does not deteriorate dramatically the migration situation and at the same time does not avoid the damaged ecosystem self-restoration. The volume of the matter harvested is comparatively low, because of the thin cutting. Being stored in the walls 2,5 m height, it occupies less 5% of the territory decontaminated, and the risk of migration the radionuclides outside the storage sites is comparative to those of the primary soil layouts. The field testing of the Turf-Cutter technology show correlation of its efficacy to the soil types, vegetation cover and the landscape conditions of the contaminated territory. It allowed, using some elements of the GIS-technologies and cartographic modeling, to prepare special evaluation and zonification the territories contaminated on the efficacy of the Turf-Cutter technology, and to identify the areas best for it’s mostly effective application. Following investigations confirm stable, long-term character of the improvements carried out. The sampling of 2000 at Miliach experimental plot shows the decontamination factor 10–11 for the grass and about 8 for milk. Moreover, as the Cs-137 still remains at the upper part of the soil profile, the Turf-Cutter technology is still actual for the territories of the post-Chernobyl radioactive contamination. Obviously, it can be suitable also for the removal of any other surface pollutant from the soil.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) manages the largest environmental remediation program in the world, with responsibility for an estimated 5.5 trillion liters of contaminated ground water and 40 million cubic meters of contaminated soil and debris. (1) Just the contaminated soils on DOE weapons facilities could cover the entire island of Manhattan more than five feet deep. (2) Attempting to accomplish this mission with the technologies currently available would prove far too expensive. Consequently, the DOE has mounted a major program to develop innovative technology to expedite the cleanup. The Office of Environmental Management (EM) has made a commitment, however, to maintain a program that is second to none in the dedication and skill with which it promotes occupational safety and health during all phases of development and deployment of these new environmental remediation technologies. Since 1995, the EM Office of Science and Technology (OST) has conducted a program with the International Union of Operating Engineers (TUOE) to include occupational safety and health (OSH) considerations in the EM technology development program. Building on this experience, EM is implementing an improved OSH program built around Integrated Safety Management (ISM) principles. This paper reviews EM’s policy on the integration of OSH into the technology development program. The EM ISM approach has begun yielding results. EM’s average annual rate of occupational illnesses and injuries just reached an all-time low rate of 1.6 per 100 employees, which is below the DOE average of 2.2 and well below the private sector average of 6.7. Even greater safety can be achieved by applying the best science and technology available, which was demonstrated in a recent study that found 71 percent of the technologies deployed by the Office of Science and Technology in 1999 had a moderate-to-high potential for reducing occupational safety and health exposures. (1) The key policy initiatives of OST that will be reviewed in this paper include: • The development of safety and health guidelines for the technology developer community; • The integration of safety and health considerations into a stage-gate procedure that allows formal review of the safety at specific stages in their development of the technologies; • The creation of guidance for integrating safety and health into the ongoing, formal peer review process that the American Society of Mechanical Engineers conducts for OST; • Development of a Technology Safety Data Sheet (TSDS) for every technology at Mid-stage Review; and • Identification and inclusion of safety and health compliance costs in technology cost-performance data.

Nowadays the world community attention focuses on soil contamination by nuclides from global fallout after nuclear weapons tests and nuclear fuel cycle accidents, or by man-made activities-induced heavy metals and other pollutants migrating in the environment. Results of an investigation into a protective polymeric layer applied on topsoil are reported (since the Chernobyl accident liquidation). The assessment has been made of the effect of interpolyelectrolyte complexes (IPEC) on physical-chemical properties of soils; process procedures; the effect of climatic factors on the soil-polymer complex; the effect of amount and components of IPECs on the microbial community and on germination of grasses of various botanical groups. In the final analysis it may be stated that IPEC is an effective structure-former capable of stabilizing to advantage radionuclide-contaminated erodible topsoils. Combination of IPECs and mixed grass crop provides a high effective peculiar technology for soil remediation. This technology was tested successfully in field experiment performed over the last two years.

The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) in collaboration with the interagency technical committee on radioactive waste has been undertaking a national project to find a final solution to the country’s low to intermediate level radioactive waste. The strategy adopted was to co-locate 2 disposal concepts that will address the types of radioactive waste generated from the use of radioactive materials. This strategy is expected to compensate for the small volumes of waste generated in the Philippines as compared to countries with big nuclear energy programs. It will also take advantage of the benefits of a shared infrastructure and R&D work that accompany such project. The preferred site selected from previous site selection and investigations is underlain by highly fractured “andesitic volcaniclastics” mantled by residual clayey soil which act as the aquifer or water bearing layer. Results of investigation show that the groundwater in the area is relatively dilute and acidic. Springs at the lower elevations of the footprint also indicate acidic waters. The relatively acidic water is attributed to the formation of sulfuric acid by the oxidation of the pyrite in the andesite. A preliminary post closure safety assessment was carried out using the GMS MODFLOW and HYDRUS softwares purchased through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) technical assistance. Results from MODFLOW modeling show that the radionuclide transport follows the natural gradient from the top of the hill down to the natural discharge zones. The vault dispersion model shows a circular direction from the vaults towards the faults and eventually to the creeks. The contaminant transport from borehole shows at least one confined plume from the borehole towards the creek designated as Repo1 and eventually follows downstream. The influx of surface water and rainfall to the disposal vault was modeled using the HYDRUS software. The pressure head and water content at the base of the foundation layer and the bottom of the concrete is where a significant reduction in water content can be observed. It is also noted that water content and pressure remain constant after one year.

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has raised questions about the accumulation of radionuclides in soils, the transfer in the foodchain and the possibility of continued restricted future land use. This paper summarizes what is generally understood about the application of agricultural countermeasures as a land management option to reduce the radionuclides transfer in the food chain and to facilitate the return of potentially affected soils to agricultural practices in areas impacted by a nuclear accident.

Soil is an essential component of all terrestrial ecosystems and is under increasing threat from human activity. Techniques available for removing radioactive contamination from soil and aquatic substrates are limited and often costly to implement; particularly over large areas. Frequently, bulk soil removal, with its attendant consequences, is a significant component of the majority of contamination incidents. Alternative techniques capable of removing contamination or exposure pathways without damaging or removing the soil are therefore of significant interest. An increasing number of old nuclear facilities are entering ‘care and maintenance’, with significant ground contamination issues. Phytoremediation — the use of plants’ natural metabolic processes to remediate contaminated sites is one possible solution. Its key mechanisms include phytoextraction and phytostabilisation. These are analogues of existing remedial techniques. Further, phytoremediation can improve soil quality and stability and restore functionality. Information on the application of phytoremediation in the nuclear industry is widely distributed over an extended period of time and sources. It is therefore difficult to quickly and effectively identify which plants would be most suitable for phytoremediation on a site by site basis. In response, a phytoremediation tool has been developed to address this issue. Existing research and case studies were reviewed to understand the mechanisms of phytoremediation, its effectiveness and the benefits and limitations of implementation. The potential for cost recovery from a phytoremediation system is also briefly considered. An overview of this information is provided here. From this data, a set of matrices was developed to guide potential users through the plant selection process. The matrices take the user through a preliminary screening process to determine whether the contamination present at their site is amenable to phytoremediation, and to give a rough indication as to what plants might be suitable. The second two allow the user to target specific plant species that would be most likely to successfully establish based on prevailing site conditions. The outcome of this study is a phytoremediation tool that can facilitate the development of phytoremediation projects, avoiding the need for in-depth research to identify optimal plant species on a case-by-case basis.