From the European indoor radon map towards an atlas of natural radiation

In 2006, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission launched a project to map radon at the European level, as part of a planned European Atlas of Natural Radiation. It started with a map of indoor radon concentrations. As of May 2014, this map includes data from 24 countries, covering a fair part of Europe. Next, a European map of geogenic radon, intended to show ‘what earth delivers’ in terms of radon potential (RP), was started in 2008. A first trial map has been created, and a database was established to collect all available data relevant to the RP. The Atlas should eventually display the geographical distribution of physical quantities related to natural radiation. In addition to radon, it will comprise maps of quantities such as cosmic rays and terrestrial gamma radiation. In this paper, the authors present the current state of the radon maps and the Atlas.