Having access to relevant data is essential for ensuring the quality and outreach of research work. In the context of the nuclear field, access to information and data facilitates competence building, long-term professional development, research, and information dissemination. Potential users of nuclear information resources come from different domains: scientists, experts, students, and the public. One of the main roles of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to ensure and promote peaceful uses of atomic energy worldwide. Through their activities, the IAEA strongly encourages the exchange of scientific and technical information. This paper presents an overview of different nuclear and radiological data available in several International Atomic Energy Agency databases. All data is available free of charge for educational and informational use. A summary of information is given for each database presented on the content, access options, copyright, acknowledgement, and dissemination of the available information. A concise summary of this various data might help in capacity building, as well as encourage research and information sharing between different stakeholders in the field.

Coal fly ash and slag waste residuals from coal combustion are an issue of importance as one of the possible sources of environmental contamination and exposure to NORM. This study compares the results of different radiological risk assessment scenarios targeting terrestrial biota at a legacy site in Croatia that contains large quantities of coal ash with an enhanced content of radionuclides originating from previous industrial activities. The ERICA assessment tool was used for a risk assessment, which included data from borehole samples with a maximum depth of 6 m and trees as the primary reference organisms. The results of the risk assessments from various depth ranges found the radiological risk to the reference organisms to be negligible, regardless of the depth range, since the screening dose rate of 10 µGyh⁻¹ was not exceeded in any of the assessments. The risk assessment results from all depth ranges show higher total dose rate predictions when the tool’s default CR values are used, compared to the site-specific ones, which is in agreement with previous studies on the application of the ERICA tool. A comparison of results from different spatial radiological risk assessments showed that sample depth does not affect the estimated total dose rate to biota.

Residuals from coal combustion are known as a potential source of radiation exposure, especially in cases where the coal used in the combustion is characterized by increased radioactivity, resulting in coal ash and slag with potentially high activity concentration of radionuclides. This paper presents the results of the radiological risk assessments based on the ERICA Tool approach, used to estimate dose rates to terrestrial biota in the proximity of a coal fired thermal power plant in Croatia. The study consists of three radiological risk assessments using environmental data on activity concentration (Bqkg-1) from samples collected prior to the remediation of the disposal site and samples after the remediation implementation was completed. The resulting total dose rate to biota derived using data prior to the remediation ranged from 3.28 μGyh-1 to 147.68 μGyh-1. Assessment results of total dose rate based on the data from the studied area after remediation ranged from 0.23 μGyh-1 to 18.06 μGyh-1. The results showed that after the remediation only the total dose rate for lichens and bryophytes slightly exceeded ERICA Tool conservative screening value of 10 μGyh-1, which implies that environmental risks in relation to exposure to the disposal site can be considered negligible. The study results confirm the applicability of the ERICA Tool for the assessment of potential radiological impact and the effective remediation implementation at the coal and ash slag disposal site.