Workshops (COMET)

Workshop: Thirty years after the Chernobyl accident what do we know about the effects of radiation on the environment?

Venue: Hotel UKRAINE, Chernihiv, Ukraine
Dates: 30^th - 31^st August 2016 (1^st September: Optional trip to the CEZ)

The workshop will focus on what we have learnt from studies of the effects of radiation on the environment in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) and what questions still remain. It will include presentations giving an overview of results from those groups which have studied the environment with the CEZ and also those currently working there. An evaluation of studies conducted to date in Japan following the Fukushima accident will also be given. There will be a number of discussion sessions on topics such as:

• How do we resolve the anomalies between field and laboratory studies?
• Implications of Chernobyl (and Fukushima) studies for current benchmark dose rates
• What next for field studies in Chernobyl?
• Each of these sessions will have one or two introductory presentations to set the scene for subsequent discussions.

Aims of the workshop: To recognise the implications of contrasting results from studies in the CEZ and to identify priority research needs and possibilities.

Presentations and abstracts are here

Workshop report  Deliverable_56_COMET_workshop_4_final.pdf

June 15-17, 2016 in Seville, Spain

Venue: The workshop was hosted by the University of Seville, in the Spanish Accelerator Centre (CNA), Seville, Spain.

Objectives: The objective of the workshop was to discuss modelling as fit for purpose, by organizing a dialogue and obtaining feedback from modellers, experimentalists and stakeholders on this subject.

Questions addressed at the workshop were:

• What is the purpose of the models?
• Why do we need radioecology models?
• How should an ideal radiological model look like?
• How is the interactions between the modellers and the experimentalist?
• What is the model/data requirements? 

 Invitation

 Program 

Workshop report

 Deliverable D55_COMET workshop 3_Final.pdf

The second COMET workshop comprised of three events in July 2015. These were (i) A special session at the 13th International Conference on the Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements (ICOBTE) held at the Fukuoka International Congress Centre on 12th – 16th July 2015. The Symposium was on “Understanding and mitigating the environmental behaviour of radiocaesium after the Fukushima accident”. There were 73 presentations, including 25 posters, from 9 countries. (ii) an associated excursion on 17th July 2015 to the region affected by the Fukushima accident, and (iii) the COMET Fukushima Workshop at Iizaka, Fukushima, on the 18th – 19th July 2015. The workshop, organised by the Institute for Environmental Radioactivity at Fukushima University, had 42 participants from 6 countries. The speakers covered a wide range of topics and summarised current key findings and issues.

 This deliverable describes each of the three activities, summarises their content and considers the main messages for both Japan and the wider international community.

Photo: stevecadman on Flickr

10th - 12th December 2014, St. Catherine's college, Oxford

Workshop on Transgenerational and Epigenetic Mechanisms of Radiation Toxicity at Chronic Doses. This was a joint activity between STAR and COMET to bring together biological scientists studying transgenerational and epigenetics effects during chronic and long-term chemical and radiological exposures in the laboratory and field. Unfortunately, as a number of novel studies were presented (see agenda) the attendees have requested that their presentations are not made available here.

 Agenda

 Deliverable 5.3