Freshwater and Estuarine Radioecology: Proceedings of an International Seminar, Lisbon, Portugal, 21-25 March 1994 - 68

The Chernobyl accident drew attention to the difficulties of understanding the dynamics of radionuclide transport through the environment using older methods developed after the pseudo steady state pollution resulting after the weapons testing fallout.

More recent approaches, which are reported in this book, have incorporated both the dynamic aspects highlighted by the pulse Chernobyl input and the importance of improvement in models that can be brought about by constraining parameters on the basis of a knowledge of the fundamental physics, chemistry, biology and ecology of the ecosystems involved.

The papers within this volume include hydrodynamic models of suspended solids transport, ion exchange interpretation of radionuclide sorption: approaches applying a knowledge of membrane transport kinetics to the uptake of radionuclides by biota; the effects of different ecological niches on the relative uptake of radionuclides by different species; kinetic models of radionuclide uptake through trophic chains and the success and failure of different countermeasures attempted after the Chernobyl accident.