What is it for ?

The EAN produces a regular ALARA Newsletter, widely distributed (especially in Europe), to provide a link between all those concerned with ALARA, mainly the health physicists, but also the managers, the radiation protection organisations, the research bodies, the regulatory bodies, the trade union representatives and the medical doctors. This Newsletter intends to reflect some major aspects of the ALARA life in Europe: evolution of regulations and judicial precedents, results of research, description of existing databases, analyses of dosimetric data, authorities and utilities ALARA programmes, available ALARA tools, need for ALARA improvements, lessons learnt from incidents, and recommendations to EC coming from the panel sessions of the EAN Workshops. Each issue includes one or two feature articles, as well as experts' viewpoints and ALARA information.

The content of the Newsletter has mainly been provided by EAN Members. However, the EAN Newsletter Editorial Board has decided to also encourage recipients of the Newsletter to submit article for inclusion in future issues. Submitted articles should aim to fit the current ediotorial line and will be selected on that basis. 

• Proposal should be written in English language and send electronically to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

You are free to translate the Newsletter: As in many countries the English language is not understood by some of the potential addresses of the Newsletter, it has been suggested it should be translated into other languages (Flemish, Spanish, French...). The Network is not able to do this centrally but, as the objective of the Newsletter is to facilitate as wide as possible dissemination of the ALARA culture, every participating organisation may translate the Newsletter and publish it as a 'common' publication with the European ALARA Network. Moreover any journal can translate one or more articles in its own publication using its national language, providing the original article in the Newsletter and authors are referenced.

Authors are solely responsible for their publication in this Newsletter. It does not represent the opinion of the community. The community and the Editorial Board are not responsible for any use that might be made of the data appearing therein.

• To subscribe to the Newsletter, please send your request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Feed back experience shows that there is in Europe a need for Workshops which are neither a big congress nor a collection of working groups with lots of different meetings, but which over a few days provide a forum for a few dozen experts to exchange feedback experience and to identify problems that need further research or development. Therefore the Network has organised and will continue to organise such type of Workshop once a year.
The subject is selected in order to cover domains where the Network Steering Committee Group estimates that many improvements in terms of ALARA implementation may be found. All papers are invited presentations. To promote discussions, appropriate time is made available for work in small groups and the number attending the workshop is limited to a few dozens experts. The language of the Workshops is English.
At the end of each Workshop the chairpersons and the working groups propose to the participants some recommendations to the EC and national regulatory bodies and other stakeholders corresponding to the feedback from the sessions of the Workshop. These recommendations are validated by the Network Steering Committee Group and send to the Commission and to other appropriate stakeholders.

1. "ALARA and Decommissioning", Saclay, France, December 1997
2. "Good Radiation Practices in Industry and Research", Chilton, UK, November 1998
3. "Managing Internal Exposure", Neuherberg, Germany, November 1999
4. "Management of Occupational Radiological and Non-radiological Risks: Lessons to be Learned", Antwerp, Belgium, November 2000
5. "Industrial Radiography: Improvements in Radiation Protection", Rome, Italy, October 2001
6. "Occupational Exposure Optimisation in the Medical and the Radiopharmaceutical Sectors", Madrid, Spain, October 2002
7. "Decommission of Installations and Site Remediation", Arnhem, The Netherlands, October 2003
8. "Occupational Radiological Protection Control through Inspection and Self-assessment", Uppsala, Sweden, September 2004
9. "Occupational Exposure to Natural Radiation", Augsburg, Germany, October 2005
10. "Experience and new Developments in Implementing ALARA in Occupational, Patient and Public Exposures", Prague, Czech Republic, 12-15 September 2006
11. "ALARA in Radioactive Waste Management", Athens, Greece, 9-11 April 2008
12. "ALARA issues arising for Safety and Security of Radiation Sources and Security Screening Devices", Vienna, Austria, 21-23 October 2009
13. "ALARA and the Medical Sector", Oscarborg Fortress, Norway, 7-10 June 2011
14. "ALARA in existing exposure situations", Dublin Castle, Ireland, 4-6 September 2012
15. "Improving ALARA Culture through Education and Training", Rovinj, Croatia, 7-9 May 2014
16. "ALARA in Industrial Radiography", Bern, Switzerland, 14-16 March 2016
17. "ALARA in Emergency Exposure Situations", Lisbon, Portugal, 15-17 May 2017
18. "ALARA for Decommissioning and Site Remediation", Marcoule, France, 11-13 March 2019
19. "Innovative ALARA Tools", Athens, Greece, 27-29 November 2019
20. "ALARA for interventional radiology and nuclear medicine", Vienna, Austria, 2-4 October 2022
21. "Optimization of the transport of radioactive material", Petten, The Netherlands, 23-25 April 2025

As specified in the Terms and Conditions for the operation of the network, EAN can establish sub-networks and working groups on topics of particular interest. Sub-networks are mean to be sustainable, whereas working groups are created for a limited period of time. The first EAN sub-network was created in 2002 on research reactors. This sub-network is no more active.

Up to now 1 sub-network and 1 working group are in operation:

• The European Radioprotection Authority Network (ERPAN), created in 2006.
  
• The Working Group on ALARA Culture, set-up in October 2009.

The European Commission has financially supported a project for the setting-up of a European ALARA Network for NORM. This 2-year project ended in December 2008. Although the European project ended, the EAN-NORM is still active and is organizing its 3^rd Workshop in November 2010.

In this section, you will find the results of European surveys performed thanks to the European ALARA Network and Regional European and Central Asia Network.

For each of these surveys, you still can send information on the situation in your country by sending an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please also inform us if the situation has changed in your country.