Supporting public acceptance regarding the presence of radioactivity in projects involving natural ressources via the development of new radioanalytical tools

自然资源直接或间接地占加拿大国内生产总值的很大一部分，并为加拿大提供了数百万个就业机会。然而，这一经济部门的可持续增长取决于社会的接受程度。在我们的世界中，自然放射性无处不在，即使在任何人为活动发生之前，放射性排放者已经存在于环境中，但它仍是引起人们担忧的参数之一。因此，为了实现经济、环境和社会三大支柱的自然资源的可持续发展，有必要获得准确、公开和可靠的放射性存在和行为数据。由于暴露于放射性的环境和健康影响是公众关注的问题，因此在开采自然资源之前、期间和之后监测放射性的存在是证明对周围社区影响有限的最有力证据之一。遗憾的是，由于放射分析的限制，没有系统地对这些参数进行系统的监测。这是由于执行此类分析的实验室数量有限造成的，这是由于需要克服的成本和经过培训的合格人员问题。学术界和政府组织之间的伙伴关系旨在解决这些问题。我们建议开发新的工具，通过调整科学团队成员最近开发的分析方法来满足合作伙伴的需求，以加速和改善环境水平上Ra和Po的量化。由于合作伙伴将积极参与该项目预期可交付成果的开发和验证，他们将在自己的实验室中快速实施这些方法。这些具体行动直接针对需要更好地了解放射性在我们生活中的存在，从而为自然资源部门的持续发展提供一个关键因素。

Natural resources directly and indirectly accounted for a significant portion of Canada's gross domesticproduct and accounted for millions of jobs in Canada. Yet, the sustainable growth of this economic sector isconditional to social acceptability. Been ubiquitous to our world, natural radioactivity is amongst theparameters that create apprehension amongst the population even if the radioactive emmitters are alreadypresent in the environment before any anthropogenic activities occur. To tend towards the sustainabledevelopment of our natural resources for all three pillars (economic, environmental, and social), accurate,publicly available and reliable data on the presence and behavior of radioactivity are therefore necessary. Asenvironmental and health effects of an exposure to radioactivity are of concerns for the public, monitoring ofthe presence radioactivity prior, during and after the exploitation of natural resources is amongst the strongestargument to demonstrate the limited impacts to surrounding communities. Sadly, due to radioanalyticallimitations, a systematic monitoring of this parameters is not systematically performed. This is caused by thelimited number of laboratories performing such analyses due to cost and trained qualified personnel issueswhich need to be overcome. The partnership between the academia and the governmental organisations aimstowards addressing these issues.We are proposing to develop new tools to accelerate and improve the quantification of Ra and Po atenvironmental levels by adapting analytical methodologies recently developed by members of the scientificteam to the partner's needs. As the partners will be actively involved in the development and validation of theexpected deliverables for this project, they will rapidly implement these methods in their own laboratories.These concrete actions are directly targeting the need for a better understanding of the presence of radioactivityin our life and thus, providing a key element towards a sustained development of the natural resources sector.