Abstract:
Environmental radiochemistry is a basic and applicative science, which was born with the combination of radiochemistry and environmental sciences, and she was coming to be a branch of sciences with the human’s concerns of the health effects of environmental radioactivity at around 1950
th. At that time, the major nuclear weapon production countries conducted a large amount of weapon related experiments and tests, and a considerable amount of radioactive materials were released into the environment. When these radioactive materials(radionuclides) coming into the environment, they will react with the environmental medium, and finally, through the channels of breath or food chain, coming into the human bodies, resulting in direct or potential health risks. This paper briefly introduces and discusses the concept and the source of environmental radiochemistry, she’s development in China, the main research areas in environmental radiochemistry, the important communication platforms with which the research works in environmental radiochemistry are published, presented and discussed, the hot spots of environmental radiochemistry research work and it’s up-to-data state in China, the role of environmental radiochemistry in the healthy and sustainable development of nuclear energy in China, the main developments in environmental radiochemistry, and finally, the major challenges for China’s environmental radiochemistry.