The Environmental Radioactivity Laboratory (LARAM) activities began in the 1950s in the Physics Department of Professor Joaquín Catalá de Alemany, in the former Faculty of Sciences of the Universitat de València. Subsequently, the laboratory was attached to the departments of Fundamental Physics and Theoretical and Experimental Physics, under the direction of Professor Fernardo Senent Pérez, and was then integrated into the IFIC (a joint CSIC-UV center). Since 1995, it is also attached as a unit associated with the Central Service for Experimental Research (SCSIE), dependent on the Vice-Principal Office for Research, and is dedicated both to research in the field of environmental radioactivity and to the performance of radioactivity measurements for all types of clients, institutional or private.
Among the projects in which LARAM participates, we can highlight the REM (Sampling Station Network) programme, under an agreement with the Nuclear Safety Council, whose aim is our country's continuous environmental radiological monitoring The PVRA Quality Control analysis of the Cofrentes Nuclear Power Plant are also carried out and they participate in the development of the Radiological Emergency Plan for the Government of the Valencian Community, both projects under a contract with the Government of the Valencian Community. Likewise, analyses of the radioactive content of drinking water are carried out (as required by Royal Decree 3/2023 of January 10, which establishes the technical-sanitary criteria of the quality of drinking water, its control and supply), since the radioactive parameters referred to in this RD are within the scope of LARAM accreditation. This accreditation was obtained for the first time in 2011 and has been subsequently extended in 2019 and 2021, being the first laboratory of the Universitat de València to have obtained it.
Another field in which LARAM continues to work is the determination of radon in air, regulated by RD 1029/2022 of December 20, Regulations for the protection of health against the risks derived from exposure to ionising radiation, which includes the obligation of companies to measure the concentration of this gas in certain workplaces (for example, underground) and to mitigate its presence when the reference level of 300 Bq/m3 is exceeded. Expansion of accreditation to include this analysis is currently being prepared
Another of the projects in which LARAM has participated is the Interreg-Sudoe TRITIUM project, where it has collaborated with other European universities and research centers to design, build and develop a monitor for the immediate detection of radioactive levels of tritium in water. Also at LARAM, have been designed equipment that made it possible to lower the detection limit associated with the measurements and which is being used in different laboratories.
Regarding research in the field of environmental radioactivity, it has led to the publication of several theses, dissertations, final degree and master’s degree projects and articles in specialised journals. The latest theses presented in the laboratory have been the following: "Contribution to Radon Gas Measurements: Methodology, Application and Dose Estimation" (Vanesa Delgado Belmar, 2020) and “Tritium: Design, Construction and Commissioning of an In-Water Tritium Detector” (Marcos Martínez Roig, 2022).
