**7. Conclusion**

Ionizing radiation is one of the best understood cytotoxic and genotoxic agents. Nevertheless, much remains to be understood about the behavior of radionuclides in nature and the biological responses they induce. The radiobiology of low-dose, protracted irradiation is still an open area of research.

At the same time, bioaccumulation of certain radioisotopes along food chains poses serious ecosystem risks, or as the doyen of modern ecology Eugene Odum stated: "we could give nature an apparently innocuous amount of radioactivity and have her give it back to us in a lethal package!" [26].

The mitigation of environmental risks from radionuclides involves responsible management of the nuclear fuel cycle, as well as careful monitoring and safeguarding of nuclear installations. Among the strategies discussed in the chapter, all have been applied to a varying degree in severely contaminated agroecosystems and forest ecosystems. Perhaps the most promising venue of detoxication research is the application of zeolites as immobilizers and bio-detoxifiers for radiocesium and radiostrontium. Nevertheless, no method can fully remediate a contaminated ecosystem, meaning that prevention of radioactive contamination remains the first and best defense against anthropogenic radioactive pollution.
