Isotopic techniques for environmental monitoring and nuclear waste management at CIRCE

CIRCE (Center for Isotopic Research on Environmental and Cul-tural heritage) was founded in 2005 as a research center dedicated to the application of isotopic methodologies in environmental and cultural heritage research. Later the spectrum of activities expanded and CIRCE became part of the laboratory hub of the Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of Campania L. Vanvitelli (formerly Second University of Naples), Caserta, Italy. In this context, an environ-mental monitoring program of the areas surrounding the Garigliano nuclear power plant (NPP) and of the building materials of the NPP was developed. The activities were carried out by involving undergraduate and doctoral students and taking care of communication with local administrations. In this framework, a survey among high school students was conducted to provide an insight into the public's percep-tion of risk connected to NPP. Alongside environmental radioactivity monitoring and material characterization techniques available at CIRCE are discussed. The activities presented here could find interesting applications in the framework of the Italian National Repository for Radioactive Waste and the annexed Technopark.