Lucie D'Ascenzo

Issue 21 – October 2007

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In the first article of this 21st issue, L.E.Holm, chairman of ICRP, describes the ICRP’s 2007 recommendations on radiological protection. Then, the conclusions and recommendations of the first EUTERP Workshop on "Minimal qualifications and requirement for recognition of Radiation Protection Experts and Officers" are presented. The third and fourth articles analyse two radiological incidents: the first one deals with the retrieval of a fire damaged gauge containing a radioactive source; the second one deals with an incident during treatment of a breast cancer.

Finally, the first announcement of the 11th EAN Workshop on "ALARA in Radioactive Waste Management" (Athens, Greece, 9-11 April 2008) is included.

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New ICRP’s Recommendations

At its meeting in Essen (Germany), 19-21 March 2007, the ICRP approved a new set of Recommendations on the protection of man and the environment against ionising radiation. These Recommendations will replace the Commission’s previous Recommendations from 1990 and will be soon published in the Commission’s, the Annals of the ICRP.

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The Diagnostic Reference Levels (DRLs) in Europe

The concept of the Diagnostic Reference Level (DRL), as an investigation tool to identify situations where patient doses are unusually high and in most urgent need of reduction, was adopted by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in ICRP Publications 60 and 73 and by the European Directive 97/43/Euratom.

Diagnostic Reference Levels are values which are usually easy to measure and have a direct link with patient doses. They are therefore established to aid efficient dose management and to optimize patient doses. If such doses are found to exceed the corresponding reference dose, possible causes should be investigated and corrective action taken accordingly, unless the unusually high doses could be clinically justified.

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Issue 20 – February 2007

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The 20th issue of the Newsletter presents the conclusions and recommendations of the 10th EAN Workshop on "Experience and new Developments in Implementing ALARA in Occupational, Public and Patient Exposures" (Prague, Czech Republic, September 2006) and those of the 2nd RECAN Workshop on "Implementation of ALARA in Medicine" (Cavtat, Croatia, October 2006). The third article deals with the status of the different concepts of Diagnostic Reference Levels in some European countries. The fourth article describes the statement of the French Nuclear Safety Authorities following several radiotherapy incidents and accidents. Finally, the revised Germand guideline for incorporation monitoring and the implementation of the HASS-directive in Sweden are described.

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EAN from the beginning

Since 1980 the ALARA principle has been part of the European Basic Safety Standards and has been progressively introduced into national regulations. In the Euratom Directive 96-29 ALARA was re-emphasised as the cornerstone of the radiological protection system. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s ALARA was integrated into many organisations radiation protection programmes, particularly in […]

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Potential exposures in nuclear installations

This survey was carried out from October 2006 to January 2007 via the
EAN
Forum. The aim was to determine if and how the operator of a nuclear
installations takes into acount, in the dose planning for a job, the
occupational radiological incidents and mishaps. The questionnaire
contained the following
questions:

  • If this is taken into account, does a specific methodology exist?
  • Have
    you examples of scenario (biological shielding defaults, ventilation
    defaults, unplanned dose rate, fire, etc.), which have been used for
    these kinds of prevision?
  • Is that planning required by the authority?
  • Is there a dose criteria, above which an incident has to be reported to the authority?

Answers from 6 different countries have been received.

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The management of radioactively contaminated soils

This survey was carried out from
September to November 2006 via the EAN Forum. The aim was to establish
the state of the regulations concerning the management of radioactively
contaminated soils due to activities related to facilities from the
nuclear fuel cycle (i.e. nuclear power plant, research reactors, fuel
cycle facilities, excluding uranium mines and mining sites). The
questionnaire contained the following questions:

  • What is the regulatory framework within your country regarding the management of radioactively contaminated soils?
  • Are
    there any release criteria (in terms of individual or collective dose,
    Bq/g…) for unrestricted and/or restricted use of such a site?
  • What are these criteria and how are they used?
  • Do you have any example of such a contaminated site which was finally released from regulatory control after remediation?
Answers from 15 different countries have been received.
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20 countries participating to EAN

Slovenia, through the Slovenian Radiation Protection Administration, is the 20th country participating to the European ALARA Network.  Mr Dejan Žontar has been nominated as the Slovenian contact person.

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