The determination of the power conducted and/or convected to the scrape-off layer (SOL) of tokamaks is usually based on two types of measurements: Main plasma characteristics (Power input and radiated) and SOL measurements (Langmuir probes and thermocouples on the limiters). The power flow to the beryllium toroidal limiters in JET, determined by Langmuir probes, is lower than the input power to the plasma edge, PEDGE = PINP ­ PRAD. This difference is partly explained if account is taken of the excess of ion temperature over electron temperature and partly by systematic errors associated with uncertainties in the area of Langmuir probes and that they provide a measurement which ignores variations in axisymmetry due to field ripple effects etc. However at high densities, which concern us here, it has become apparent that the power losses associated with recycling have not been properly accounted for in JET and this is the subject of this paper. When an atom of beryllium enters the plasma from the limiter, it is ionized rapidly to Be+(~1µs) and to Be2+(~1µs) and mor slowly thereafter. Significant radiation occurs during the transient charge stages towards full ionization, because the low charge states have a concentration greater than the equilibrium one and are in a plasma with relatively high Te. hence their excitation cross sections are large. Because the beryllium ions are in a cloud of recycling hydrogen atoms, they could undergo charge exchange with them (Ben+ + HÆ Be(n­l)+ + H+), the population of lower charge estates would be enhanced and the radiation losses increased. These processes are described by a transient ionization code which follows the ionization of an impurity atom in a uniform plasma with a uniform neutral hydrogen density. To study these losses requires a model of the beryllium and hydrogen behaviour which takes into account the geometry of the recycling region and shows why the bolometer in JET ignores this radiation (sensitivity at relevant wavelengths and geometrical constraints due to the fact that the bolometer looks through a gap in the toroidal belt limiters). One model would be the LIM code, but we describe here a flexible analytical approach which accounts readily for variations in plasma profile and geometrical effects.