Ionising radiation, environmental protection, and nuclear power

There is now a general appreciation of the need for an explicit approach to be taken with regard to the demonstration of protection of the environment itself (as well as of human beings) from all large-scale industrial practices, including the nuclear industries. It is therefore argued that a sensible approach for ionising radiation would be one that was closely allied to, or an integral part of, the system that has been developed for human radiological protection. This could entail the use of Reference Fauna and Flora to enable relationships to be established between exposure and dose and effect, for different radionuclides and a range of faunal and floral types. Such a combined approach could also be of some value in setting out the basis for future comparisons of the risk (or lack of it) of different forms of energy generation on the environment.