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Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring (REM) Data Submission Tool

The course will give the participant an overview of the REM activities and routine monitoring of environmental radioactivity levels in Europe.

The course will give the participant an overview of the REM activities and routine monitoring of environmental radioactivity levels in Europe. Furthermore, the participant will learn how: 

  • To submit environmental radioactivity data through the REM Data Submission Tool (DST); 

  • To check compliance and quality or the submitted data using the REM DST; 

Under Article 36 of the Euratom Treaty, EU Member States are obliged to inform the Commission on the levels of radioactive contamination in the various compartments of the environment. These data are being stored in the Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring (REM) Database. Once evaluated, the data are published by the European Commission (EC) in annual monitoring reports on environmental radioactivity levels.

The REM database was created by the EC Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Italy in 1986 to boost environmental radioactivity research. To allow data providers in the Competent Authorities to submit their monitoring data to the REM Database, the JRC developed the REM Data Submission Tool (REM DST). After releasing the first version of this software in 2007, the JRC proceeded to give a series of courses to the data providers. The data submission procedures and tools are continuously under development, therefore JRC offers a renewed course from 2012 on an annual basis. 

Scope

The training is divided in a theoretical general session, followed by practical hands-on training and exercises.

The General training will cover the following topics: 

  • Introduction to REM Data Submission Tool, 

  • Importance of the submission and how data are used 

  • User Interface overview 

  • Importing tab-delimited files 

  • Opening a submission from the REM database 

  • Managing data: adding, replacing, deleting; sparse graphs; error messages 

  • Submitting data to the REM Database 

The practical session will cover the following: 

  • Participants to train with their own datasets 

  • Correcting own import files 

  • Check compliance and quality of submitted data with a new tool

Course organisation  

2-day course delivered annually  at JRC Ispra.  

In a training room, each participant is provided with a PC. Each PC is pre-loaded with a test version of the REM Database, the REM DST and some common and well-tested datasets for exercises.  

All presentations and material used during the course are at students’ disposal and will be available online after the training. 

The possibility to provide online training sessions is under evaluations.

Organizers:  

EC JRC.G.9 in cooperation with the EC DG ENER 

Target groups:

REM data providers from the EU Member States with focus on new EU Member States, EU Candidate Countries and EU Potential Candidate Countries 

Language of the course:  

English  

Fees and charges:

The course is provided free of charge.  

Participants may be entitled to reimbursement of their expenses if they are explicitly invited by the organiser to contribute to the workshop's objectives. The European Commission may decide on the cost reimbursement for other participants on a case-by-case basis, depending on the available budget. Usually, each member State is entitled to one reimbursement; more than one participant for the same member State can be admitted with no reimbursement if places are available. 

Other requirements/suggestions:

Participants must fulfil an active role in the reporting scheme of their national authority competent for environmental radioactivity. They must have hands-on experience on data handling and reporting and the use of PCs. By preference, they also have a good basic knowledge of environmental radioactivity monitoring. 

Each participant will be asked to bring a sample copy of their own national datasets, to practice uploading them to the test version of the REM Database. 

How to apply?

The training is not open to anyone. JRC sends an invitation once/twice per year to all organizations that must submit data to REM database. The invitation is usually sent 6 months in advance.   

Contact information:

jrc-rembdsupportatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (jrc-rembdsupport[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)