Annual Report 2011 - Institute of Radiochemistry

The Institute of Radiochemistry (IRC) is one of the seven institutes of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). The research activities are fully integrated into the “Nuclear Safety Research Program” of the Helmholtz Association and focused on the topic “Safety of Nuclear Waste Disposal”. The research objectives are to generate better process understanding and data for the long-term safety analysis of a nuclear waste disposal in the deep geological underground. A better knowledge about the dominating processes essential for radionuclide (actinide) mobilization and immobilization on the molecular level is needed for the assessment of the macroscopic processes which determine the transport and distribution of radioactivity in the environment. Special emphasis is put on the biological mediated transport of long-lived radionuclides in the geosphere and their interaction with different biosystems like biota and human organism for a better calculation of environmental and health risks. Advanced knowledge is needed for description of the processes dominating at the interfaces between geo- and bio-systems related to the distribution of long-lived radionuclides in various bio-systems along the food chain