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The Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring data bank (REMdb) was created in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident (1986) by the European Commission (EC) – Directorate-General Joint Research Centre (DG JRC), sited in Ispra (Italy). Since then it has been maintained there with the aim to keep a historical record of the Chernobyl accident and to store the radioactivity monitoring data gathered through the national environmental monitoring programs of the member states (MSs). The legal basis is the Euratom Treaty, Chapter III Health and Safety, Articles 35 and 36, which clarify that MSs shall periodically communicate to the EC information on environmental radioactivity levels. By collecting and validating this information in REMdb, JRC supports the DG for Energy in its responsibilities in returning qualified information to the MSs (competent authorities and general public) on the levels of radioactive contamination of the various compartments of the environment (air, water, soil) on the European Union scale. REMdb accepts data on radionuclide concentrations from EU MSs in both environmental samples and foodstuffs from 1984 onwards. To date, the total number of data records stored in REMdb exceeds 5 million, in this way providing the scientific community with a valuable archive of environmental radioactivity topics in Europe. Records stored in REMdb are publicly accessible until 2011 through an unrestricted repository "REM data bank – Years 1984–2006" https://doi.org/10.2905/jrc-10117-10024 (De Cort et al., 2007) and "REM data bank – Years 2007–2011" https://doi.org/10.2905/de42f259-fafe-4329-9798-9d8fabb98de5 (De Cort et al., 2012). Access to data from 2012 onwards is granted only after explicit request, until the corresponding monitoring report is published. Each data record contains information describing the sampling circumstances (sampling type, begin and end time), measurement conditions (value, nuclide, apparatus, etc.), location and date of sampling, and original data reference. In this paper the scope, features and extension of REMdb are described in detail.

The Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring data bank (REMdb) was created in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident (1986) by the European Commission (EC) – Directorate-General Joint Research Centre (DG JRC), sited in Ispra (Italy). Since then it has been maintained there with the aim to keep a historical record of the Chernobyl accident and to store the radioactivity monitoring data gathered through the national environmental monitoring programs of the member states (MSs). The legal basis is the Euratom Treaty, Chapter III Health and Safety, Articles 35 and 36, which clarify that MSs shall periodically communicate to the EC information on environmental radioactivity levels. By collecting and validating this information in REMdb, JRC supports the DG for Energy in its responsibilities in returning qualified information to the MSs (competent authorities and general public) on the levels of radioactive contamination of the various compartments of the environment (air, water, soil) on the European Union scale. REMdb accepts data on radionuclide concentrations from EU MSs in both environmental samples and foodstuffs from 1984 onwards. To date, the total number of data records stored in REMdb exceeds 5 million, in this way providing the scientific community with a valuable archive of environmental radioactivity topics in Europe. Records stored in REMdb are publicly accessible until 2011 through an unrestricted repository "REM data bank – Years 1984–2006" https://doi.org/10.2905/jrc-10117-10024 (De Cort et al., 2007) and "REM data bank – Years 2007–2011" https://doi.org/10.2905/de42f259-fafe-4329-9798-9d8fabb98de5 (De Cort et al., 2012). Access to data from 2012 onwards is granted only after explicit request, until the corresponding monitoring report is published. Each data record contains information describing the sampling circumstances (sampling type, begin and end time), measurement conditions (value, nuclide, apparatus, etc.), location and date of sampling, and original data reference. In this paper the scope, features and extension of REMdb are described in detail.

During the early phase of an accident with release of radioactive material to the atmosphere having an environmental impact at local or transboundary scale, a rapid and continuous notification and exchange of information including real-time environmental monitoring data to competent authorities and the public is essential to effect appropriate countermeasures. A rapid exchange of information and data must be carried out in a harmonised and consistent manner to facilitate its interpretation and analysis. After the Chernobyl accident in 1986, and in order to avoid that competent authorities be unprepared again for a similar event, the European Commission defined and put in place a Directive (Council Decision 87/600/EURATOM) which essentially obliges a member state that decides to implement widespread countermeasures to protect its population to notify the European Commission without delay. The same Council Decision also specifies that the results of radiological monitoring must be made available to the Commission and all potentially affected member states. Over the past 30 years, the European Commission has invested resources in developing and improving a complete system to carry out this delicate task, currently composed of two platforms: the European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange, ECURIE, and the European Radiological Data Exchange Platform, EURDEP. This paper aims to increase knowledge of this latter system as a valuable tool to understand and analyse the radioactivity levels in Europe. Commencing with background information, in this paper, we will describe the EURDEP system in detail, with an emphasis on its status, data availability, and how these data are diffused depending on the audience. Within the scope of this publication, we describe an example of measurements available in the EURDEP system, to be used for scientific purposes. We provide two complete datasets (air concentration samples, http://data.europa.eu/89h/23cbc7c4-4fcc-47d5-a286-f8a4edc8215f (De Cort et al., 2019a) and gamma dose rates, http://data.europa.eu/89h/0f9f3e2d-c8d7-4f46-bbe7-eacf3eed1560 (De Cort et al., 2019b)) for the recent radiological release of 106Ru in Europe which occurred between the end of September and early October 2017. Records stored are publicly accessible through an unrestricted repository called "COLLECTION" belonging to JRC Data Public Catalogue ( https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu ).

In the aftermath of a nuclear or radiological accident, an extended mapping of reliable dose rate values is of key importance for any governmental decision and countermeasures. Presently, numerous dosimetry network stations, operated by the national governments of the member states in Europe, provide such dose rate data on an hourly basis. Nevertheless, there are large areas in Europe that are not covered at all by these early warning networks and other areas that show only a low density of governmental network stations. Hence, there may be a significant lack of information in case of a nuclear or radiological emergency. As a consequence of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accidents in 2011, a number of non-governmental radiation monitoring networks (NRMN) appeared on the internet, providing dose rate data based on stationary as well as on mobile measurements of ionizing radiation by laypersons. Especially the mobile detectors are able to cover large areas in short time. Therefore, it is of considerable importance to investigate the feasibility of using dose rate data from non-governmental networks as a complementary input to the European Radiological Data Exchange Platform (EURDEP). Within the European Metrology Program for Innovation and Research (EMPIR), the project 16ENV04 "Preparedness" has studied the metrological relevance of such non-governmental dose rate data (also called crowd-sourced radiological monitoring) in the most comprehensive way so far. Sixteen different dose rate detector systems (in general 4 of each type, plus 2 types with 2 detectors, i.e. 68 detectors in total) used in NRMN have been investigated for the reliability of their data and the corresponding networks, and their data provision to the public were analyzed. The most relevant performance parameters of dosimetry systems (detector's inherent background, energy dependence and linearity of the response as well as the response to secondary cosmic radiation, the sensitivity to small increases of the dose rate and finally the stability of the detector's indication at various climatic conditions - temperature and humidity) have been investigated for fourteen representative types of non-governmental dose rate measuring instruments. Results of this comprehensive performance study of the simple, light-weighted and cheap dose rate meters used in NRMN, and conclusions on the feasibility of using their data for governmental monitoring in case of a nuclear or radiological emergency are presented. © 2021 The Authors