About-MEREIA

  IAEA MEREIA Programme

The IAEA Methods for Radiological Environmental Impact Assessment (MEREIA) Programme is the latest in the series of international initiatives in developing competence in IAEA Member States on radiological environmental impact assessment. MEREIA was established in 2021 and will run until 2025, following in the steps of the previous IAEA programmes in environmental and dose assessment modelling, such as MODARIA and EMRAS.

MEREIA’S goal is to be recognized as an international collaborative and multidisciplinary benchmark for an integrated approach to REIA in connection with the uses of radiation for medical, research, industrial and energy production applications. In this respect the key objective of the programme is to connect and encourage worldwide experts to make use of the most appropriate models and methods when undertaking a radiological environmental impact assessment.

While MEREIA continues the work performed under the MODARIA and EMRAS programmes to develop and improve models and methodologies used in radiological environmental impact assessments, it also introduces new and innovative elements. The key elements of MEREIA are:

• Performing activities within the scope of the programme around case studies based on real scenarios with radiological implications for public and the environment.
• Building capacity and sharing skills and knowledge.
• Taking a holistic approach for REIA.

MEREIA provides its participants with a valuable opportunity to develop approaches, to improve and test models for the transfer of radionuclides in the environment and to assess the radiological impact on humans and non-human biota. In this regard, MEREIA will focus on:

• Providing support on selection and use of assessment methods, approaches, models and data for a given exposure situation.
• Providing access to models, codes and data already available to undertake radiological environmental impact assessment.
• Assisting in the development of new assessment approaches or adapt existing methodologies to address new challenges faced by Member States.
• Testing existing models and compare their output for different situations and areas of the world such as temperate, arid, and tropical areas, as required by different Member States.