Newsletters

EUTERP newsletter issue 15 - September 2017

Visit us at the EUTERP booth during the RPW conference in Paris, 10-12 October, 2017

The 4th International Symposium on the System of Radiological Protection of ICRP and the 2nd European Radiation Protection Research Week of the 5 European research platforms (ALLIANCE, EURADOS, EURAMED, MELODI and NERIS) will be held at the Disney Newport Bay Club Convention Centre.

This combined event will offer the opportunity for more than 600 professionals, experts and researchers worldwide to discuss their respective concerns and the current challenges faced in all areas of radiological protection, as well as the ways forward through new research, updating doctrines, or better interactions with stakeholders.

The congress also offers the possibility to national and international exhibitors in the domains of research, innovation and training to hold a booth during the entire duration of the Conference.

EUTERP welcomes you at the Education and Training booth N°8 (note change) to present the different E&T initiatives of several Platforms dealing with radiation protection and to discuss potential future collaboration initiatives.

EUTERP - ENETRAP III database

In our previous newsletter you could read all about the launch of the E&T database developed in the framework of the 7FP ENETRAP III project (nr. 605159 Fission-2012-5.1.1).

Meanwhile, the ENETRAP III partners, as well as the EUTERP Associates have the possibility to start contributing information to this online platform. We invite all EUTERP Associates to add their events and opportunities in radiation protection so that this database can grow further.

EUTERP E&T session at IRPA 2018

The E&T session at IRPA 2018 will be held on the afternoon of Wednesday 6 June. This is being organised by the EUTERP Foundation with the session being conducted along the lines of a workshop. As mentioned last June, the intention is to address just two core topics :

“Training for Radiation Workers”

and

“Evaluating the impact of training programmes”

These topics fit well with the overall theme of the conference of “Encouraging Sustainability in Radiation Protection”. For each topic, there will be a keynote presentation with the objective of summarizing the main issues, current concerns and known activity in the area, as well raising questions for the open discussion session that will follow each presentation. As the workshop will be a discussion forum we are not expecting to include submitted presentations. However, the EUTERP Board would greatly value your input to the workshop in the form of posters relating to the two topics, which would be available to reference throughout the discussion session. The Board intends to contact all EUTERP NCPs and Associates with a survey in advance of the workshop to better inform the keynote presentations; please feel free to email us if you would like to contribute to the survey questions.

We hope that you that you will be able to join us in The Hague in June 2018 !

European Guidance on the implementation of the requirements for RPE and RPO

Perhaps one of the most significant outputs from EUTERP in recent times was the recommendation – taken on board by the European Commission – that the definition and role of the Qualified Expert should be replaced by a new expert, the Radiation Protection Expert (RPE) , and that a new role, the Radiation Protection Officer (RPO) should be clearly defined. Between them, the RPE and RPO collectively form an important component of radiation protection arrangements; one provides expert specialist advice to the employer on complex radiation protection issues and the other ensures the maintenance of good radiation protection practices in the workplace.

In order to try and encourage a common approach to the implementation of RPE and RPO requirements across Europe, the Commission funded the development of Guidance on the Implementation of the Requirements of the Euratom BSS with respect to the Radiation Protection Expert and the Radiation Protection Officer through the ENETRAP III project. This guidance, which can be found in “Reference Documents” in the E&T Centre on this website is intended to provide a best practice approach to the implementation of the BSS requirements for the RPE and RPO and includes :

guidance to regulatory authorities and professional bodies on the roles of the RPE and RPO, as defined in the BSS
specification of the knowledge, competencies and practical skills that RPEs and RPOs will need to have for the effective implementation of their roles
the core training requirements for RPEs and RPOs
description of a process for the national recognition of RPEs and
guidance on the development of mutual recognition processes between Member States.

While it it is inevitable that the methods of implementation of RPE and RPO requirements will vary to some extent in each country, adoption of the model arrangements as described in this guidance will contribute to the development of a common approach between Member States.

A further piece of work, currently ongoing within ENETRAP III, is a “live test” of the methodologies proposed in the guidance for RPE recognition both on a national and mutual recognition basis. Test subjects in this programme of work are two countries with previously established Recognition schemes (UK and Netherlands ) and two countries developing Recognition Schemes for the first time (Slovenia and Lithuania). This work is due to conclude in Spring 2018 and we aim to provide a summary of the experience in a future Newsletter.

Looking back at RICOMET 2017

The third conference on “Risk communication, perception and ethics of exposure to ionizing radiation” (RICOMET 2017) was dedicated to “Social and ethical aspects of decision-making in radiological risk situations”. This field was explored for three days through keynote addresses, presentations and discussions by 150 participants in the following sessions:

Integrating societal concerns and ethical considerations in emergency preparedness and response
Social and ethical aspects in, and of, long-term exposure situations
Challenges and solutions for societal aspects of environmental remediation
Stakeholder engagement in decommissioning of nuclear installations
Strategic research agenda for Social Sciences and Humanities in radiation protection
History of risk regulation, including Basic Safety Standards
Establishing a European Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities research relating to Ionizing Radiation

The conference had been organized by SCK•CEN PISA in collaboration with IAEA, OECD/NEA, H2020 projects (Honest, Concert, Confidence and Territories) and EC DG energy project BSS-communication. The invited keynote speaker, Dr Ulrike Felt, Professor of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna and Head of the Research Platform "Responsible Research and Innovation in Academic Practice" opened the conference with her presentation Why we need to understand "the nuclear" as always entangled with "the social". Distinguished speakers presented, discussed and confronted issues related to ionizing radiation, its applications or consequences from different socio-economic-political-psychological and historical perspectives.

The list of speakers included:

Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, Exeter University, UK
Kate Brown, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA
Ryugo Hayano, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Jim Malone, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Behnam Taebi, Delft University and Harvard University
Edward Lazo, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)
Martin Krottmeyer, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Azby Brown, SAFECAST, Japan• Douglas T. Sim, Wikipedia author
Nadja Železnik, Chair of Nuclear Transparency Watch
Peter G. Rickwood, Atomic reporters and Stanley Foundation

The conference has been widely broadcast on different social media and followers from different world locations have been sharing their views and opinions simultaneously on-line. All presentations can be found at http://ricomet2017.sckcen.be/en/Presentations.

The RICOMET 2018 will be organised in den Hague in the week from 4 June to 8 June in parallel with the IRPA 2018 conference.

ENETRAP III train-the-trainer module

In the June EUTERP Newsletter we announced that the Train-the-Trainer course set up under the ENETRAP III project had been a success and was oversubscribed which is why a second course was being held this coming October. This second 5-day course is now full and as there is a waiting list, 3 further courses are envisaged for 2018, in February (in French), March (in English) and April (in French). Further details will be announced as soon as they are available.

EUTERP News Headlines

If you like to be the first to hear the latest news headlines from the EUTERP, please join the EUTERP Foundation Group on LinkedIn. Articles of immediate interest to those involved in RP E&T are notified directly to the Group using the Share button. Although we try and provide news headlines on a daily week-day basis, only those items that are identified as of specific E&T rather than general RP interest are shared by us. Obviously, you may share any article to your own community.

If you are not already a member, please consider joining the EUTERP Foundation Group to receive news in a timely manner; simply request the EUTERP Secretary to send you an invitation. Please note that the three most recent headlines are illustrated on the home page and all the news headlines are listed on the website under “View more news”. You may access this page at any time for an overview of the previous news headlines and see what you might have missed, for example, on 1 August we pointed to the IRPA document on the impact of the new eye dose limits and on 1 September we announced the EUTERP subscription rate for 2018.

EUTERP Associates

The EUTERP is delighted to welcome a new Associate, the University of Novi Sad Faculty of Sciences - Laboratory of Radioactivity Measurement (UNSPMF-LIRA). We now have 23 Associates, two being from European organizations. Associates input to the Board membership, work plans and budget. Their ideas and opinions are invaluable to the functioning of the Foundation. All organizations involved in radiation protection education and training in Europe are invited to become Associates. The benefits, listed on the EUTERP website, are becoming more widely recognised and appreciated. The President is always willing to give talks about the work of the EUTERP during national events. Do please contact the EUTERP President or Secretary if you would like to invite a speaker?

Please would you let us know of any education and training organizations involved in radiation protection training, in your country or elsewhere in Europe, with a contact name and e-mail address so that we can then invite them to join us. Any such organization may of course apply directly, using the application form from the How to Join page on the EUTERP website. We look forward to hearing from you!

EUTERP NCPs

The EUTERP has three new National Contact Points (NCPs) for Bulgaria, Estonia and for Serbia. They may be contacted for information about education and training for radiation protection in their respective countries.

We are currently adding new features to the NCP pages and would appreciate feedback from you as to what you would like to see for your country also on the National pages.

Upcoming events

4th ICRP symposium and 2nd Radiological protection research week
October 10-12, 2017
Disney Business Centre, Paris, France

The programme will include the following topics:
- Effects, Risks, and Detriment at Low Dose and Low Dose-Rate
  (in collaboration with MELODI)
- Advances in Dose Coefficients
  (in collaboration with EURADOS)
- Advanced Radiotherapy: Benefits and Radiation Protection due to Developments in Imaging, New Technologies, and Stratification
  (in collaboration with EURAMED)
- Post-Accident Recovery
  (in collaboration with NERIS)
- Integrated Protection of People and the Environment
  (in collaboration with ALLIANCE)
Registration is online available at: www.icrp-erpw2017.com

Visit our booth at the exhibition !

5th European IRPA Congress
Encouraging Sustainability in Radiation Protection
June 4-8, 2018
The Hague, The Netherlands

Abstract submission deadline is November 1st, 2017.
Visit the congress website for more information.

The EUTERP workshop will be held on Wednesday afternoon, 6 June, 2018.