The potential for innovative ionising radiation applications is enormous and should support the EU’s strategic autonomy, circular economy and climate change policies. The areas are extensive and concern applications of charged particle beams (accelerators), x-rays, radioisotopes (alpha, beta and gamma emitters) and neutrons. For example, radiometric techniques and radioisotopes as tracers allow for monitoring climate change effects on ecosystems and soil, water and air pollution. Irradiation processes offer advantages over typical thermal and chemical processes, including higher throughput rates, reduced energy consumption, lower environmental pollution, more precise process control and products with superior qualities.

In environmental protection and monitoring, an action should modify existing quality assured nuclear techniques and develop new ones to provide complementary solutions for conventional climate adaptation and climate science technologies. These solutions should help build EU resilience and reduce EU vulnerabilities in land use and management, smart climate agriculture, food production systems, analysis of greenhouse gas emissions, management of water resources, and ocean and coastal protection.

On pollution, the development of radiation technologies and isotopic tracing techniques offer solutions, for instance, to waste water treatment or to characterising and assessing microplastic pollution while allowing for recycling and transforming waste into reusable resources. Action in this area could cover sorting challenges, waste treatment and transformation into secondary products, cleaner production and recycling processes, reducing the use of potentially harmful additives and solvents and delivering energy savings.

This action could focus on closer-to-the-market activities, including prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting and scaling up new or improved products, processes or services. Proposals may include limited R&D activities and demonstrate European added value.