The Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) manages the National Radiological Surveillance Network consisting of automatic and sampling stations. This network provides information on the activity levels in the air, water and soil and in basic food such as milk and a complete or typical diet.

Network of automatic stations (REA)

The purpose of the REA is the real time monitoring of radioactivity in the atmosphere. This network consists of diverse automatic stations with instrumentation to measure radiological variables continuously (gamma dose rate, radon concentration, radioiodine, alpha and beta emitters in the air) and weather variables (temperature, relative humidity, wind direction and speed, rainfall and atmospheric pressure).

The data are received, managed and analysed in the CSN Salem. There is also access from there to the data from the regional networks in Valencia, Extremadura, Catalonia and the Basque Country.

The environmental radiological values map shows the values for the average daily gamma dose rate for the stations that measure this parameter.

The radiological monitoring with automatic stations is completed with the receipt at the CSN of data from almost 1,000 stations in the Radioactivity Alert Network (RAR) of the Directorate General for Civil Protection and Emergencies.

Sampling Stations Network (REM)

Unlike the REA, surveillance in the sampling stations network is carried out by taking samples and their later radiological analysis in a similar way to that of the PVRAs, but with the difference that the surveillance (sampling and analysis) is carried out by the CSN with the collaboration of a group of Spanish laboratories and institutions.

The REM consists of two complementary types of network, the dense network consisting of numerous points distributed throughout the country and the high sensitivity or spaced network which makes measurements in very few points. In both systems, measurements are made within two types of programmes:

•    The atmosphere and land surveillance programme, the purpose of which is to measure the radioactivity in the soil, air, drinking water, milk and a typical diet. The CSN put this system into operation through collaboration agreements with universities and research organisations throughout the country.

•  The continental and coastal aquatic environment surveillance programme, the purpose of which is to monitor the radiological quality of rain water in the various river basins as well as the sea water in various points of the coast. This programme is carried out by the Centre for Public Works Studies and Experimentation (CEDEX) in collaboration with the CSN.