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The science conducted in environmental radioactivity and radioecology ranges from the development and deployment of detection systems to the characterisation and implementation of radiological risk assessment tools. This has led to impacts in international standards, regulation development and regulation enforcement, including: advising the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on hot particle hazard, risk, detection and recovery; developing the framework for environmental protection through the International Commission on Radiological Protection; developing standard specifications for the manufacture of environmental monitoring equipment for the International Electrotechnical Commission; and providing training courses through the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Research at Loughborough University during the REF period (and extending back at least three decades beyond that) has had a significant impact on national and international policy decisions governing the management of radioactive waste, one of the Grand Challenges facing society. The Unit's research ranges from deep geological disposal to abatement of marine discharges and remediation strategies for industrial radioactive waste, the latter safeguarding the competitiveness of the oil & gas and mineral processing sectors. This input has been crucial for revising the new Environmental Permitting Regulations and International Basic Safety Standards. Many of the Unit's doctoral graduates occupy important decision-making roles at key organisations such as the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Sellafield, Environment Agency, CEA (France) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
In May 2013 the UN Environment Programme's Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants agreed to ban the widely-used flame retardant Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), following evidence that there may be harmful human exposure. Since the Convention came into force in 2004, only 21 compounds have had their use either banned or tightly restricted under its terms. Research findings from Stuart Harrad and his group at the University of Birmingham formed a significant element of the case used to support the ban on HBCD. Harrad's group provided the first measurements made anywhere in the world on concentrations of individual HBCD isomers in indoor dust leading to the realisation that the ingestion of indoor dust was a significant pathway of human exposure to HBCD. The group has also contributed important evidence of the capacity of HBCD to bioaccumulate and of its environmental persistence.
Global waste disposal strategies and chemical regulations have been transformed through LEC's world-leading research into the environmental sources, fate and behaviour of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Firstly, our research has directly supported controlled high temperature incineration as a long-term option for the disposal of municipal waste, by showing that well regulated incineration is not an environmentally significant source of dioxin emissions. Secondly, our research has maintained the controlled utilisation of sewage sludge (biosolids) on agricultural land as an effective risk-based management solution that re-cycles valuable carbon and nutrients to soil. Our research has underpinned the development of the UK's Dioxin Strategy and supported international chemicals regulation for one of the most important global flame retardant chemicals in current use under the Stockholm Convention.
Environmental management decisions are frequently based on records of environmental change recovered from natural archives such as lake sediments. Key to deciphering these records is a reliable technique for dating sediment sequences. Researchers in the Liverpool University Mathematical Sciences Department have played a major role in the development of dating techniques using natural (210Pb) and artificial (137Cs) fallout radionuclides. Working with environmental scientists they have been responsible for the implementation of these techniques in research programs that have resulted in national and international controls on e.g. emissions from power stations, the use of persistent organic pollutants and climate change. In particular, the US National Parks Service (NPS) is using their research to monitor pollution levels at sensitive locations in their National Parks and this research has also been a key factor in the UN decision in 2011 to ban the widely-used insecticide Endosulfan. Their research also enabled the NPS in 2012 to identify the most effective solution for marsh restoration off Long Island, New York, resulting in a considerable financial saving to the NPS; and finally their research on pollutants in the Norfolk Broads has led to the current campaign by the Broads Authority to promote environmentally friendly anti-fouling paints.
This impact case study describes major public communication activities by Professor Jim Smith on the immediate and long-term consequences of the Fukushima accident through radio, television, print and internet media. During the weeks after Fukushima, Smith made a key contribution to the developing scientific understanding of the likely consequences of the accident and to the worldwide dissemination of that understanding. This made a documented improvement to international news agencies' coverage of the event (Evidence 2, 4, 5) and "helped elevate and inform the debate" on the risks and consequences of nuclear power (Evidence 2).
Cranfield University has been a key contributor to development of policy and regulatory guidance for industrial composting in collaboration with the UK environmental regulators, Government departments and with in-kind and financial support from the waste management industry. The growth of the industry in the UK has needed applied research to support the evolving policy.
Cranfield has characterised and quantified the nature and magnitude of airborne bioaerosol emissions and dispersion from composting for the first time. This research has fed into policy development on the regulation of facilities, and the practices of bioaerosol monitoring and site-specific bioaerosol risk assessment.
The work of the UK's largest radiocarbon measuring laboratory, at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC, University of Glasgow), has had a range of impacts including the identification of the remains of Richard III; [text removed for publication]; providing evidence to solve high-profile murder cases and to prosecute people trading animal parts from endangered species e.g. rhinoceros horn and elephant ivory. The laboratory also leads inter-calibration studies that provide quality assurance to >75% of the world's radiocarbon laboratories.
University of Huddersfield research into the microbial production and metabolism of polysaccharides has had a significant impact in two distinct areas. In the food and health care industry it has driven developments in the use of bacterial starter cultures, leading to the adoption of new techniques to produce fermented products with proven functionality. In the policy arena, in modelling gas production by microorganisms, it has made a major contribution to the safety case for the disposal of nuclear waste, highlighting the economic and environmental benefits of underground storage. In each instance the reach of the research's impact has been international with the biggest beneficiaries residing in Europe and North America.
The research groups of Professor Laurence Harwood and Dr Michael Hudson (now retired) at the University of Reading have developed new and highly selective extractants for spent and reprocessed nuclear fuels. These novel extractants remove specifically the components in nuclear waste that have the highest levels of long-term radioactivity. The extracted components (minor actinides) may subsequently be converted — "transmuted" — into elements with greatly reduced radioactivity. Storage times for high-level nuclear waste can thus be reduced by a factor of a thousand, typically from 300,000 to 300 years. This significant advance in the management of nuclear waste means that next-generation nuclear power production will be safer, more economical and more sustainable, as well as increasing the wider acceptance of nuclear power as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. The newly-developed extractants are now available commercially through TechnoComm Ltd.