The Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring (REM) group of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission provides qualified information about the level of environmental radioactivity to the public, Member States, European Commission and European Parliament.
Environmental radioactivity information are provided as a real-time monitoring data and estimated natural radioactivity levels through:
EUropean Radiological Data Exchange Platform (EURDEP) network for the exchange of radiological monitoring data between participating countries almost in REAL TIME. Monitoring information are collected from automatic surveillance systems in 39 countries. These data reflect essentially the natural radiation background, if NO radiological events occur.
The
European Atlas of Natural Radiation (EANR) is a collection of maps of Europe displaying levels of natural radioactivity caused by different sources (e.g. indoor radon, cosmic radiation, terrestrial gamma radiation, natural radionuclides in soil and bedrock).
The JRC REM group mission is based on the Euratom Treaty (download). The group collects, validates and reports information on radioactivity levels in the environment.
What is the source of your daily radiation dose?
The human population is continuously exposed to ionizing radiation from several natural sources (cosmic and terrestrial contributions). For most individuals, exposure to natural sources exceeds that from all man-made (artificial) sources combined. The man-made sources arise from peaceful (e.g. medical use, energy generation, and associated fuel cycle facilities, radioisotope production, waste management) and military purposes (nuclear tests and their fallout or radioactive release, nuclear explosions).
