L. Davidson, 2020, Free to use under Unsplash Licence.
Why a Working Group?
Exposure to radon represents an important contribution to the exposure of the public and the workers to ionizing radiation. In Europe, the national regulations for the protection of workers against exposure to ionizing radiation and radon in particular have been updated with the implementation of the Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom. Compared with the former Directive, the number of workplaces potentially concerned by the regulation has increased and now include many workplaces not previously aware of radioactivity and without a radiation protection system in place. The management of radon can be challenging in practice and even for radiation protection specialists, radon might not be an easy problem to solve.
Therefore, it seems appropriate for the European ALARA Network (EAN) to engage the collection of the early feedbacks of the application of the new regulatory framework to identify why questions are raised and where difficulties are met to share it to a wider audience. This action could also be the opportunity to collect good practices to address radon and share it at the same time.
Actions engaged
In March 2021, the Working Group ALARA for Radon at the Workplace (A-RAW) was set up. The working group developed a survey instrument to collect elements from national regulation and case studies in the management of radon. The working group actively disseminated the survey and collected feedbacks from Radiation Protection Authorities/Agencies (RPA) and National Insurance Fund. A synthesis of the collected feedbacks have been elaborated.
The objectives of the working group include sharing the results and the members are looking for the opportunities to present the result in conference and by the publication of an article.
Documents produced
- Minutes of the Meeting n°1, including the term of reference of the working group, March 2021
- Minutes of the Meeting n°2, June 2021
- Survey instrument, June 2021
- Minutes of the Meeting n°3, September 2021
- Data collected from 7 countries: Belgium, France, Ireland, Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland, United-Kingdom
- Abstract to IRPA Budapest Conference and presentation (2 June 2022)
- Presentation at ROOMS conference (27 September 2022)
- Application of the ALARA Principle for radon at work: feedback from the European ALARA Network, S. Andresz, J. Morgan, C. Nuccetelli, M. Palacios, C. Schieber, M. Sneve, N. Stritt, H. Synnott and F. Vermeersch, Journal of Radiological Protection, Accepted manuscript online, https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/ac9b46