Refresher courses on ERICA Tool Update and Noble Gases modelling
Organised by the ALLIANCE with COMET and STAR
10-11 September, Barcelona, Spain
During the Barcelona International Conference on Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity the ALLIANCE is offering two hour long sessions in collaboration with the COMET and STAR NoE projects.
Both sessions start at 08:00 and will conclude at 09:00 and are free of charge.
Please register your intention to attend (and which or both sessions) with clb@ceh.ac.uk by 1 September 2014.
Participants will be advised of the location asap.
Wednesday 10th September Updates to the ERICA Tool – N.A Beresford
Since the ERICA Tool was released in 2007 a number of updates have been made. Typically, these have been to resolved minor ‘bugs’ and other problems reported by users. Changes are noted in 'Release Notes' accessed via the ‘Help’ drop down menu.
In 2014 a revised version of the Tool will be released with more substantial changes.
This hour long session provides an over view of what will change in the Tool.
The changes to the Tool were predominantly prompted by experience gained since 2007 and user feedback, developments in and analyses of transfer parameter databases and ICRP publications.
For more information on changes to the Tool see: bit.ly/1oGtdNo
NOTE: We hope to a hold a half-day refresher course in the first few months after the updated version is released through the STAR NoE.
Thursday 11th September: Modelling Noble gases – J. Vives i Batlle
The ERICA tool (and its forthcoming revision) does not include a method for the calculation of exposures from noble gases to biota. In this session, we will describe alternative approaches to calculate doses from noble gases which began with the development of the ‘England & Wales EA R&D’ approach for 41Ar and 85Kr and have been followed with methodological updates to include 88Kr, 131m,133Xe and a-emitting radon decay products.
The session will include a detailed lecture covering Ar and Kr external exposures, an allometric model for the calculation of internal exposure to Rn daughters to terrestrial biota, and a case study of application to burrowing mammals. We will give practical guidance on how to make noble gas assessments to animals and plants and there will be a free distribution and succinct demonstration of the Excel-based tools developed to apply these models.