Advanced Research in Environmental Radioactivity

A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2026 | Viewed by 1356

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences—National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Radiation and Environmental Protection Department, University of Belgrade, Mike Petrovića Alasa 12-14, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia
Interests: environmental radioactivity; radiochemical methods; alpha, beta and gamma spectrometry; radiation protection; sustainable development concept

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Guest Editor
Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland
Interests: radiation environment monitoring; astroparticles; Gamma-rays; satellite instrumentation; space instrumentation; X-rays

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 3, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Interests: environmental radioactivity; gamma spectrometry; liquid scintillation spectrometry; radon; radiation protection; Monte Carlo simulation; cosmic radiation; coincidence techniques

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Guest Editor
Escola Politécnica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Interests: radionuclides; environmental radioactivity; radiochemical methods

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Radionuclides are present in all parts of the environment, whether they are of natural or artificial origin. Exposure to ionizing radiation from natural sources is a constant and, thus, inescapable factor for life on Earth. In addition, the occurrence of anthropogenic (man-made) radioactivity effects changes in the natural ecological characteristics of the biosphere. Also, human activities (such as mining, fertilizer production, etc.) contribute to a redistribution and increase in radionuclide concentrations in the environment. For this reason, it is necessary to monitor the concentration of both naturally occurring and artificial radionuclides to assess and control their hazardous effects on the environment. In long-term monitoring, it is important to assess possible radiological consequences and associated risks, given the potential future use of contaminated areas and the effectiveness of planned remediation measures.

Accurate and precise detection and monitoring of radionuclides in complex environmental systems requires constantly improving methods and techniques. With rapid technological development, new sources of radionuclide contamination are emerging, creating a need for new approaches to efficiently detect even trace levels of radionuclides with greater accuracy. In addition to the importance of reliable detection of radioactivity for radiological risk assessments and design of remediation strategies, researchers in this field are also important to support policies regarding environmental and public health.

This Special Issue will be focused on contributions associated with research in environmental radioactivity, which are of crucial importance for enabling the timely reaction in case of an adverse event, in order to preserve the environment and to keep radiological risks for human health at a minimal possible level. Studies may examine develope/optimize new or improved existing radiological/radiochemical/nuclear techniques, with a focus on radioactive metabolites; quantify the diverse sources of radioactive pollutants and radiation risk assessment; model the transport of radioactive pollutants; analyze radioactivity pollution impact; and examine new technologies for radioactive waste reduction through design and testing of the characteristics of economically viable matrices for the immobilization of radioactive pollutants for the purpose of their solidification and stabilization, fitting into the concept of sustainable development through environmental protection, and other radioecological research are also welcome.

Dr. Nataša Sarap
Dr. Wojciech Hajdas
Dr. Jovana Knežević Radić
Prof. Dr. Inayá Corrêa Barbosa Lima
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Environments is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • environmental radioactivity
  • novel methodologies and techniques
  • radiation risk
  • radiation protection
  • nuclear safety
  • radioactive waste management
  • radiation monitoring

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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30 pages, 5479 KB  
Article
Hydro-Sedimentological Controls on Natural and Anthropogenic Radionuclide Distribution in the Western Black Sea Shelf
by Maria-Emanuela Mihailov, Alina-Daiana Spinu, Alexandru-Cristian Cindescu and Luminita Buga
Environments 2026, 13(4), 184; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments13040184 - 26 Mar 2026
Viewed by 1042
Abstract
This study examines the hydro-sedimentological–radioecological controls governing the distribution of natural (K-40, Ra-226, Th-232) and anthropogenic (Cs-137) radionuclides in surface sediments of the western Black Sea shelf. Activity concentrations were determined by high-resolution gamma spectrometry, and radiological indices—including radium equivalent activity (Ra_eq), external [...] Read more.
This study examines the hydro-sedimentological–radioecological controls governing the distribution of natural (K-40, Ra-226, Th-232) and anthropogenic (Cs-137) radionuclides in surface sediments of the western Black Sea shelf. Activity concentrations were determined by high-resolution gamma spectrometry, and radiological indices—including radium equivalent activity (Ra_eq), external hazard index (Hex), and annual effective dose (AED)—were calculated to evaluate environmental safety. All indices remained well below internationally accepted thresholds, confirming the absence of radiological hazard in both coastal and offshore settings. Strong correlations between Ra-226 and Th-232 indicate dominant lithogenic control of natural radionuclides, whereas Cs-137 exhibits geochemical decoupling consistent with its behavior. A significant relationship between the fine-grained sediment fraction (<63 µm) and Cs-137 activity highlights the grain size effect, with offshore depositional zones acting as sediment-focusing areas where Cs-137 and excess Pb-210 co-accumulate under low-energy hydrodynamic conditions. Despite localized offshore enrichment, dose contribution analysis shows that natural radionuclides dominate the absorbed-dose budget, while Cs-137 contributes only marginally. Spatial predictive modeling using Artificial Neural Networks, validated under a Spatial Leave-One-Group-Out framework, yielded moderate generalization capacity (R2 = 0.61 for Ra-226; R2 = 0.41 for Cs-137), reflecting smoother spatial gradients of lithogenic radionuclides than heterogeneous radiocesium deposition. Furthermore, Machine Learning algorithms provided significant analytical value: a Random Forest (RF) model successfully classified environments (nearshore/shelf/depositional basin) based on distinct radionuclide signatures. At the same time, an optimized Artificial Neural Network (ANN-GA) enabled the nonlinear reconstruction of radiometric–granulometric patterns to identify local anomalies. The results show that radionuclide distributions are primarily structured by sediment provenance, grain size sorting, and hydrodynamic energy gradients rather than ongoing anthropogenic inputs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research in Environmental Radioactivity)
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