Summary:
Radioactive contamination due to massive accidental release of nuclear material from the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear power plants (NPP) in 2011 has a large geophysical impact and hence is a multi-disciplinary geoscience problem involving inter-alia, (i) Atmospheric Science (emissions, transport, pollution, ions); (ii) Hydrology (surface water, ground water, soil-water interaction); (iii) Oceanology; (iv) Soil Soil System; (v) Forestry; (vi) Natural Hazard (warning system, risk assessments including geophysical variability); (vii) Measurement Technique (e.g., analyses of multipoint data); and Ecosystem (natural removal/migration of radionuclides). Not only as the polluting materials that are hazardous to human society, the radioactive materials are also an ideal marker in understanding dynamics in the environment.

Together with the knowledge from long-term monitoring data Chernobyl Accident in 1986, new data from the Fukushima Accident from dense measurement networks by the most advanced instrumentation in history will improve our knowledgebase on both the behavior of radioactive materials and its environmental contamination. These knowledges should also be used in developing improved monitoring systems including emergency time, acute sampling/measurement schemes, and remediation schemes for a future accident.

We also invite contributions of updated observations, new theoretical developments, methods or tools which could improve our predictive capabilities during eventual future nuclear emergencies. Studies evaluating existing tools at the example of past nuclear accidents and/or other data sets (e.g., tracer experiments) are welcome as well.