DOCSLIB.ORG

Case Studies Reports: In-Depth Understanding of the Mechanisms for Effective Interaction with Civil Society : Selected Case Studies

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

This is a repository copy of Case studies reports: in-depth understanding of the mechanisms for effective interaction with civil society : selected case studies. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/140388/ Version: Published Version Monograph: Espluga, Josep, Medina, Beatriz, Konrad, Wilifred et al. (8 more authors) (2018) Case studies reports: in-depth understanding of the mechanisms for effective interaction with civil society : selected case studies. Research Report. European Commision Reuse This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND) licence. This licence allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the original authors. More information and the full terms of the licence here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Ref. Ares(2018)2779818 - 29/05/2018 D4.3: CASE STUDIES REPORTS: IN-DEPTH UNDERSTANDING OF THE MECHANISMS FOR EFFECTIVE INTERACTION WITH CIVIL SOCIETY: SELECTED CASE STUDIES WP leader: UAB (updated March 2018) Authors: Josep Espluga (UAB), Beatriz Medina (UAB), Wilfried Konrad (DIALOGIK) Co-Authors: Anne Bergmans (UANTWERPEN), Ioan Charnley-Parry (UCLan), Pieter Cools (UNANTWERPEN) Matthew Cotton (USFD), Ann Enander (FHS), Jan-Henrik Meyer (UCPH), Gene Rowe (GRE), John Whitton (UCLan) 1 D4.3 : Case studies reports: in-depth understanding of the mechanisms for effective interaction with civil society: selected case studies PARTNERS 1 D4.3 : Case studies reports: in-depth understanding of the mechanisms for effective interaction with civil society: selected case studies CAVEAT Following the HoNESt research approach, the empirical basis of this deliverable consists of the so-called ‘short country reports’ (SCR) produced by HoNESt historians that are experts of the history of nuclear energy in a specific country. The aim of social science research in HoNESt Work Package 4 is to analyse these reports in terms of perception and engagement. In this process we are only occasionally able to refer to original references since these are usually not accessible e.g. for language reasons. Given this, it is all the more important to mention that, at this stage, these ‘short country reports’ are still in a draft status and not yet approved by the EC. 2 D4.3 : Case studies reports: in-depth understanding of the mechanisms for effective interaction with civil society: selected case studies PREFACE This document Deliverable 4.3 ‘Case studies reports: in-depth understanding of the mechanisms for effective interaction with civil society: selected case studies’ is an update – in response to the HoNESt midterm review – of the previous version of D4.3 which was submitted in March 2017. The revision consists of four elements: 1. Update of country studies: The first issue of D4.3 had to be based on preliminary versions of HoNESt historians short country reports. In the meantime, the final draft versions of these reports are available, which offered the opportunity to amend D4.3 social science country studies in the light of the latest versions of the short country reports which, however, are not yet approved by the EC. 2. USA country study: Following the emphasis put on US nuclear developments by the midterm review, D4.3 will be enhanced by an additional country study analysing the US case. 3. State of the art: In order to improve the theoretical framework and the justification of the analytical dimensions, an extensive literature review has been done to detail the state of the art regarding public perception and engagement in nuclear issues. 4. Completing the in-depth analysis: In the first version of this report, only the phase of classification of the information could be presented (due to the lack of data in the first SCRs versions). Now, however, in the light of the complete reports, it has already been possible to carry out the complete analysis, making connections between variables and dimensions, and testing the working hypotheses arising from the literature review and the proposed theoretical framework.. 3 D4.3 : Case studies reports: in-depth understanding of the mechanisms for effective interaction with civil society: selected case studies EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This deliverable (D4.3) summarizes the key findings from the selected case studies of the HoNESt project in terms of societal perception and societal engagement. Reports from eight countries were selected from a total of twenty, according to the following key criteria: geography (location), political system evolution, and degree of public acceptance. The completed analysis reveals a broad overview of how actors have perceived nuclear developments over the past decades, and which types of engagement tools and mechanisms have been used in each case studied. According to our theoretical proposal, the perception of nuclear energy is composed of four dimensions: health & environment, economics, socio-cultural, and political-institutional. In each specific case, these dimensions may have different weights in their influence on the opinions, attitudes, or behaviours of the population and of the promoters and public authorities. In this way, we not only distinguish between proponents or opponents of nuclear energy, but are able to identify the specific dimensions that underlie actors’ support or rejection of nuclear technologies. This will allow us to better explain the frequent ambivalences related to nuclear developments. Additionally, the relationships between the four analytical dimensions are not linear. Our analysis is based on the assumption that nuclear energy is a technology with different degrees of public acceptance in different countries, depending on the perceived risks and benefits (which are mostly included in the health & environment and economic dimensions). These risks and benefits depend on the social trust of the institutions in charge of managing and/or regulating it (political- institutional dimension), all of which are a function of a series of socio-cultural factors generated by the social climate over time (socio-cultural dimension). The analysis demonstrates that the perceived risks and benefits are very similar in all the countries sampled. The most frequently mentioned risks are those related to the possibility of accidents and radiation contamination; in both cases these include damages or losses that may affect human health or the environment (especially aquatic, fluvial or marine environments). There are also concerns about the safety of nuclear facilities, as well as references to episodes of stress and anxiety in some people when confronted by the possibility of such risks materializing. 4 D4.3 : Case studies reports: in-depth understanding of the mechanisms for effective interaction with civil society: selected case studies A majority of the references to health and environmental concerns related to nuclear power were reported in the period 1970-1990, although some references can also be found in other periods. In all the countries studied, there are actors who argue that nuclear energy will bring benefits of different types, including: economic benefits (jobs, socioeconomic development, inexpensive electricity and/or a guarantee of energy supply), environmental benefits (to a lesser extent), and even benefits to human health (i.e., medical helthy uses, as reported in Michelsen & Harjula, 2017). Regarding these benefits, changes can be small and are observed over time, specifically with respect to environmental benefits. In the first two phases (1950-1970 and 1970-1990), some actors talk about the positive environmental impacts of nuclear energy production. These include temperature increases that could favour certain ecosystems and economic activities (i.e. advantatges for the farmers of the touristic destinations, as said in the Spanish case, in Rubio- Varas et al., 2017) and the fact that nuclear energy produces less pollution than other industries (as said in the Swedish report, in Kaijser 2017). However, since 1990, there are no more references of this type; and instead, more is spoken about the benefits of nuclear energy in the fight against climate change. So, although the perceived risks and perceived benefits are very similar in all the countries studied, the social and institutional responses are very different. In order to give an answer to this enigma we first need to understand how people perceive their relationships with institutions (social trust, or what we have considered here as the political-institutional dimensions), as well as what kind of socio-cultural factors are part of the context in which the nuclear technology is perceived. According to our analysis, the main political-institutional factors identified in the SCRs shaping social trust are the following: - Low institutional trustworthiness, which draws attention to the fact that the behaviours of the institutions in charge of managing or regulating nuclear energy have been perceived as not worthy of trust by certain social sectors. In the SCR there are many examples of these types of behaviours generating mistrust. 5 D4.3 : Case studies reports: in-depth understanding of the mechanisms for effective interaction with civil
Recommended publications
  • Nuclear Radiation Health Effects

    Nuclear Radiation Health Effects

    (C) Safety In Engineering Ltd Radiation health effects and nuclear accident consequences – an overview Jim Thomson www.safetyinengineering.com 1 Radiation doses and radiological hazards (C) Safety In Engineering Ltd • Other issue - Doserate effects - uncertain Dose/risk• Normal cancer risk ~ 30% Additional Cancer Risk 5% Region where data are available, e.g. from Hiroshima-Nagasaki Gradient = 5%/Sv survivors Delayed health effects (cancers) – the linear dose -risk hypothesis Region of interest for societal risk in nuclear Effective dose (Sv) reactor accidents 1 Sv 100% Risk due to radiation sickness Acute effects (radiation sickness) Effective dose (Sv) 3 4 5 2 Radiation doses and radiological hazards (C) Safety In Engineering Ltd • The Emergency Reference Level (ERL) = 300mSv effective dose • Very small fractionsRadiological of a reactor core’s inventory wouldhazards yield a major radiological hazard to the public if released off-site, e.g. typically a release of about one-millionth of the I-131 inventory in a reactor would equate to the Emergency Reference Level (ERL) for someone at the site boundary. Isotopes Characteristics Iodine - 131 Volatile. Beta/gamma thyroid-seeker. Short half life (8d). Effects can be mitigated by swallowing iodate tablets. Caesium - 137 Volatile. Permeates whole body (mimics sodium). Actinides May be air-borne by fine (e.g. Plutonium, Curium, particles of U 3O8 in accidents. Americium isotopes) Alpha lung and bone seeker. Very long half lives. 3 Radiation doses and radiological hazards (C) Safety In Engineering Ltd 4 different terms used:Radiological hazards DOSE is measured in Grays (Gy). 1 Gy = 1 Joule of radiation energy absorbed per kg of organ tissue DOSE-EQUIVALENT is measured in Sieverts (Sv).
  • Chernobyl: Worst but Not First

    Chernobyl: Worst but Not First

    (reprinted with permission from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, August/September 1986, www.thebulletin.org) Chernobyl: worst but not first Until Chernobyl, only two nuclear reactor accidents had spread significant amounts of ionizing radiation beyond the site of the mishap: a fire at the Windscale No. 1 plutonium production pile in northwest England in 1957, and a 1961 accident at an experimental prototype reactor in Idaho which killed three servicemen. Both the Stationary Low-Power reactor (SL-1) involved in the Idaho accident and the Windscale reactor were of novel and inadequate design; in a sense they were accidents waiting to happen. For that reason the Western nuclear industry now - perhaps too hastily - discounts those two accidents as minimally relevant to nuclear safety in the 1980s. It could make a similar mistake about Chernobyl. The Windscale No. 1 pile was the first large-scale reactor built in Britain; a second was built beside it. Each was cooled by blowing air through the fuel channels in the graphite core and discharging the air directly back to the atmosphere through a tall stack. This primitive system was dictated by the political urgency of Britain's bomb program, but it made the responsible scientists and engineers acutely nervous. While Sir John Cockcroft, head of Britain's Harwell nuclear center, was on a visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the late 1940s, the reactor malfunctioned, sending radioactivity up the stack to settle on the site. Cockcroft returned to Britain insisting that a way be found to ensure that fuel damage in a Windscale reactor would not release uncontrolled radioactivity into the surroundings.
  • Richard Batten1 University of Exeter a Significant Moment in The

    Richard Batten1 University of Exeter a Significant Moment in The

    Richard Batten Ex Historia 79 Richard Batten 1 University of Exeter A Significant Moment in the Development of Nuclear Liability and Compensation: Dealing With the Consequences of the Windscale Fire 1957. Introduction The fire at the Windscale Nuclear plant in October 1957 transformed an installation which was once a grand symbol of technological pride into a ‘dirty relic of an early nuclear age’. 2 Nuclear power became associated with destruction, accidents and unimaginable apocalyptic images which reinforced human fallibility and the erratic nature of nuclear material. 3 However, Britain’s post- war society was oblivious to the threat of a nuclear reactor experiencing a meltdown. In fact, during the fifties, politicians, scientists and the general public hoped that Britain’s ambitious atomic energy programme would offer an escape from its dependence on coal for the country’s energy requirements and restore the nation’s industrial prestige. David Edgerton pointed out in Warfare State that techno-nationalism had become a powerful ideology within the realities of ‘austerity Britain’. 4 By investing in nuclear technology, Britain was not only creating the right conditions for the country’s scientific growth but was also supporting its engineering and power- generating development. Hence, nuclear power was a key facet of Britain’s post-war future.5 1 Richard Batten's ( [email protected] ) academic interests include the development of nuclear power in the United Kingdom, the experiences of British agriculture in the twentieth century, and the social history of Britain during the First World War. He holds a BA (Hons.) in English and History (2007) and an MA in History (2008).
  • Robotics For

    Robotics For

    TECHNICAL PROGRESS REPORT ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE SRS 235-F FACILITY Date Submitted: August 12, 2016 Principal: Leonel E. Lagos, PhD, PMP® FIU Applied Research Center Collaborators: Peggy Shoffner, MS, CHMM, PMP® Himanshu Upadhyay, PhD Alexander Piedra, DOE Fellow SRNL Collaborators: Michael Serrato Prepared for: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management Cooperative Agreement No. DE-EM0000598 DISCLAIMER This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, nor any of its contractors, subcontractors, nor their employees makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe upon privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any other agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. FIU-ARC-2016-800006472-04c-235 Robotic Technologies for SRS 235F TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary .....................................................................................................................................
  • Assessment of the Nuclear Power Industry

    Assessment of the Nuclear Power Industry

    Assessment of the Nuclear Power Industry – Final Report June 2013 Navigant Consulting, Inc. For EISPC and NARUC Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Assessment of the Nuclear Power Industry Study 5: Assessment of the Location of New Nuclear and Uprating Existing Nuclear Whitepaper 5: Consideration of other Incentives/Disincentives for Development of Nuclear Power prepared for Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Council and National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners prepared by Navigant Consulting, Inc. Navigant Consulting, Inc. 77 South Bedford Street, Suite 400 Burlington, MA 01803 781.270.0101 www.navigant.com Table of Contents Forward ....................................................................................................................................... ix Basic Nuclear Power Concepts ................................................................................................ 1 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 5 1. BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Early Years – (1946-1957) ........................................................................................................................ 9 1.1.1 Shippingport ............................................................................................................................. 11 1.1.2 Power Reactor Demonstration Program ..............................................................................
  • Terrorism As Discourse

    Terrorism As Discourse

    DIPLOMARBEIT Titel der Diplomarbeit „The multi-causal and asynchronous development of terrorism laws in Germany from the 1970’s to the present” Verfasser Mag. iur. Clemens Kaupa angestrebter akademischer Grad Magister der Philosophie (Mag. phil.) Wien, im Dezember 2009 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 312 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: Geschichte Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Mag. DDr. Oliver Rathkolb Content Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 Terrorism as discourse ............................................................................................................... 6 Terrorism discourse: the case of SDS .................................................................................... 7 Terrorism discourse: sympathizers....................................................................................... 11 Terrorism laws in Germany enacted during the RAF period................................................... 16 Kronzeugenregelung – the leniency law .............................................................................. 16 Conclusion........................................................................................................................ 23 Lauschangriff – the wiretapping program............................................................................ 24 Conclusion........................................................................................................................ 32 Rasterfahndung....................................................................................................................
  • Nuclear Graphite Waste Management

    Nuclear Graphite Waste Management

    Technical Committee meeting held in Manchester, United Kingdom, o 18-20 October 1999 o ro 00 CD O Nuclear Graphite Waste Management Foreword Copyright/Editorial note Contents Summary List of participants Related IAEA priced publications INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY Copyright © IAEA, 2001 Published by the IAEA in Austria May 2001 Individual papers may be downloaded for personal use; single printed copies may be made for use in research and teaching. Redistribution or sale of any material on the CD-ROM in machine readable or any other form is prohibited. EDITORIAL NOTE This publication has been prepared from the original material as submitted by the authors. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the IAEA, the governments of the nominating Member States or the nominating organizations. The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA. The authors are responsible for having obtained the necessary permission for the IAEA to reproduce, translate or use material from sources already protected by copyrights. FOREWORD Graphite and carbon have been used as a moderator and reflector of neutrons in more than one hundred nuclear power plants, mostly in the United Kingdom (Magnox and AGRs), France (UNGGs), the former USSR (RBMK), the United States of America (HTR) and Spain.
  • Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: History and Status

    Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: History and Status

    Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: 8 History and Status Thomas B. Cochran, Harold A. Feiveson, Walt Patterson, Gennadi Pshakin, M.V. Ramana, Mycle Schneider, Tatsujiro Suzuki, Frank von Hippel A research report of the International Panel on Fissile Materials February 2010 Research Report 8 International Panel on Fissile Materials Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: History and Status Thomas B. Cochran, Harold A. Feiveson, Walt Patterson, Gennadi Pshakin, M.V. Ramana, Mycle Schneider, Tatsujiro Suzuki, Frank von Hippel www.fissilematerials.org February 2010 © 2010 International Panel on Fissile Materials ISBN 978-0-9819275-6-5 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License. To view a copy of this license, visit www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0 Table of Contents About the IPFM i 1 Overview: The Rise and Fall of Plutonium Breeder Reactors Frank von Hippel 1 2 Fast Breeder Reactors in France Mycle Schneider 17 3 India and Fast Breeder Reactors M. V. Ramana 37 4 Japan’s Plutonium Breeder Reactor and its Fuel Cycle Tatsujiro Suzuki 53 5 The USSR-Russia Fast-Neutron Reactor Program Gennadi Pshakin 63 6 Fast Breeder Reactors in the United Kingdom Walt Patterson 73 7 Fast Reactor Development in the United States Thomas B. Cochran, Harold A. Feiveson, and Frank von Hippel 89 Contributors 113 Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: History and Status Figures Overview: The Rise and Fall of Plutonium Breeder Reactors Figure 1.1 Plutonium breeding. 3 Figure 1.2 History of the price of uranium. 6 Figure 1.3 Funding in OECD countries. 7 Figure 1.4 Dose rate of separated transuranics.
  • 1 the Following Are Some of the Personal Testimonies from People Involved in the Fire at Windscale, Sellafield, in 1957 and Some

    1 the Following Are Some of the Personal Testimonies from People Involved in the Fire at Windscale, Sellafield, in 1957 and Some

    The following are some of the personal testimonies from people involved in the fire at Windscale, Sellafield, in 1957 and some statistics on estimates of the health impact of the fire. The plume of radioactive contamination spread across England into Holland and Germany and also across into Ireland. In some cases I've changed the tense from when I wrote the book (Living in the Shadow, the Story of the People of Sellafield), when some of those interviewed were still alive, but of course what they said remains the same. In particular in typing this out - and with the benefit of hindsight and more knowledge – the sense of the risk they took with their own lives, and the massive gamble taken to put the fire out – seems all the more vivid. All that is asked is that you give some time to read this and remember the fire, those who fought it and the victims. Jean McSorley 9th October 2007. (If you want to use extracts please reference this material). Finding the Fire Arthur Wilson (now dead) ‘I opened the gag-port and there it was, there was a fire at the face of the reactor.’ These are the words of Mr Arthur Wilson, the ‘Man Who Found the Windscale Fire’. The blaze he discovered on the 10th October 1957 signaled the beginning of the world’s second biggest nuclear disaster. Mr Wilson was a master of understatement. ‘I can’t say I thought a lot about it at the time, there was so much to do. I didn’t think “Hurrah, I’ve found, it.” I rather thought, “Oh dear, now we are in a pickle.” In some ways I was quite lucky because I had been on duty so long that day I was allowed home quite soon after the fire itself was discovered.
  • Pathways Into and out of Nuclear Power in Western Europe

    Pathways Into and out of Nuclear Power in Western Europe

    Stichting Laka: Documentatie- en onderzoekscentrum kernenergie De Laka-bibliotheek The Laka-library Dit is een pdf van één van de publicaties in This is a PDF from one of the publications de bibliotheek van Stichting Laka, het in from the library of the Laka Foundation; the Amsterdam gevestigde documentatie- en Amsterdam-based documentation and onderzoekscentrum kernenergie. research centre on nuclear energy. Laka heeft een bibliotheek met ongeveer The Laka library consists of about 8,000 8000 boeken (waarvan een gedeelte dus ook books (of which a part is available as PDF), als pdf), duizenden kranten- en tijdschriften- thousands of newspaper clippings, hundreds artikelen, honderden tijdschriftentitels, of magazines, posters, video's and other posters, video’s en ander beeldmateriaal. material. Laka digitaliseert (oude) tijdschriften en Laka digitizes books and magazines from the boeken uit de internationale antikernenergie- international movement against nuclear beweging. power. De catalogus van de Laka-bibliotheek staat The catalogue of the Laka-library can be op onze site. De collectie bevat een grote found at our website. The collection also verzameling gedigitaliseerde tijdschriften uit contains a large number of digitized de Nederlandse antikernenergie-beweging en magazines from the Dutch anti-nuclear power een verzameling video's. movement and a video-section. Laka speelt met oa. haar informatie- Laka plays with, amongst others things, its voorziening een belangrijke rol in de information services, an important role in the Nederlandse
  • Radiation Monitoring in Ireland – the Impact and Lessons Learned from Nuclear Accidents

    Radiation Monitoring in Ireland – the Impact and Lessons Learned from Nuclear Accidents

    Radiation Environment and Medicine 2017 Vol.6, No.2 49–54 Special Contribution Radiation Monitoring in Ireland – The Impact and Lessons Learned from Nuclear Accidents Kevin Kelleher* Office of Radiation Protection and Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Protection Agency, 3 Clonskeagh Square, Clonskeagh Road, Dublin 14, Ireland Received 24 February 2017; revised 25 April 2017; accepted 15 May 2017 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Ireland monitors both natural and man-made radioactivity in the Irish environment. This radiation monitoring programme has evolved over time as a result of legislative requirements, the inventory of anthropogenic radioactivity in the Irish environment and as a response to nuclear accidents. The three most significant nuclear accidents from an Irish perspective are the Windscale fire in October 1957, the Chernobyl accident in May 1986 and the Fukushima accident in March 2011. As a result of these accidents, the radiation monitoring capabilities and expertise in Ireland has increased and there have been significant developments in the areas of emergency preparedness and response to nuclear accidents. In order to respond effectively to nuclear accidents it is important that Ireland maintains an integrated comprehensive monitoring network, engages all relevant stakeholders, communicate effectively and to continue to develop resources taking into account the lessons learned from past accidents and international best practice. Key words: Radiation monitoring, nuclear accidents, emergency response, Windscale, Chernobyl, Fukushima 1. Int roduc t ion The radioactivity monitoring programme is conducted by the EPA in order for Ireland to fulfil a number of The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ireland statutory requirements and international commitments monitors the levels of radioactivity in the Irish environment.
  • NKS-180, Overview of Sources of Radioactive Particles of Nordic

    NKS-180, Overview of Sources of Radioactive Particles of Nordic

    Nordisk kernesikkerhedsforskning Norrænar kjarnöryggisrannsóknir Pohjoismainen ydinturvallisuustutkimus Nordisk kjernesikkerhetsforskning Nordisk kärnsäkerhetsforskning Nordic nuclear safety research NKS-180 ISBN 978-87-7893-246-4 Overview of sources of radioactive particles of Nordic relevance as well as a short description of available particle characterisation techniques Ole Christian Lind1), Ulrika Nygren2), Lennart Thaning2), Henrik Ramebäck2), Singh Sidhu3), Per Roos4), Roy Pöllänen5), Ylva Ranebo6), Elis Holm6) and Brit Salbu1) 1)Norwegian University Of Life Sciences, Norway 2)Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI), Sweden 3)Institute For Energy Technology, Norway 4)Risø National Laboratories, Denmark 5)STUK, Finland 6)University Of Lund, Sweden October 2008 Abstract The present overview report show that there are many existing and potential sources of radioactive particle contamination of relevance to the Nordic countries. Following their release, radioactive particles represent point sources of short- and long-term radioecological significance, and the failure to recognise their presence may lead to significant errors in the short- and long-term impact assessments related to radioactive contamination at a particular site. Thus, there is a need of knowledge with respect to the probability, quantity and expected impact of radioactive particle formation and release in case of specified potential nuclear events (e.g. reactor accident or nuclear terrorism). Furthermore, knowledge with respect to the particle characteristics influencing transport, ecosystem transfer and biological effects is important. In this respect, it should be noted that an IAEA coordinated research project was running from 2000-2006 (IAEA CRP, 2001) focussing on characterisation and environmental impact of radioactive particles, while a new IAEA CRP focussing on the biological effects of radioactive particles will be launched in 2008.