[en] Radiation protection covers many disciplines from science through philosophy to law, and interacts with many human activities and endeavors. Professional societies for radiation protection were established and evolved throughout the second half of the twentieth century in many countries, and presently represent more than twenty thousand professionals working in more than fifty countries. During the same period a number of international organizations were established, some devoted to radiation safety, others with a role to play in radiation safety; such organizations being either independent non-governmental organizations or intergovernmental organizations of both regional and international dimensions. The national, regional and international radiation protection societies and associations have become the vehicle to provide this conduit from the profession to the international organizations. This is achieved by IRPA having representation within the relevant committees of the various international bodies, such as the Radiation Safety Standards Committee (RASSC) of the IAEA. At a national level radiation protection professionals can gain access to all international developments in radiation protection through the national societies and their interactions with IRPA and also as individual members of IRPA. The possibility to provide consolidated comment and feedback to the international organizations through national societies provides excellent opportunities for societies to organize national workshops and discussion platforms on all important areas of radiation protection

[en] The natural environment is subjected to a continual flux or ionising radiation from both cosmic and terrestrial sources. Certain components of this flux vary and people are subjected to differing levels of radiation exposure from them. Some of the variations are natural in origin but also many anthropogenic activities influence these exposures. The average levels of exposure from these various sources and the variability are summarised. In addition, the approach to controlling these exposures currently adopted in international radiation safety standards is addressed and a number of related issues presently under debate and discussed. (author)

[en] International recommendations and safety standards for the disposal of radioactive waste have been evolving over a number of decades. The ICRP has published a series of documents addressing the subject and the IAEA has issued a number of international standards on the topic. Despite these efforts by the international community a number of issues remain over which international consensus is yet to be achieved. The increasingly global nature of nuclear safety has become a reality in recent years as the Convention on Nuclear Safety and the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive waste Management have emerged and increasing focus has been placed on the development and use of international nuclear, radiation, waste and transport safety standards. The two conventions both involve a process of international peer review and the international safety standards are increasingly used as a point of reference for peer review of discrete national programmes and facilities. Such review and intercomparison activities have placed increasing scrutiny on approaches to safety demonstration and a consensus has emerged that internationally harmonized approaches to demonstrating the safety of radioactive waste management facilities and activities, and disposal in particular, is necessary to achieve broader stakeholder confidence. Such harmonization does need however consensus on the basis for safety - and approaches to safety demonstration, and this is where a number of issues remain unresolved. The international Commission on Safety Standards and the various safety standards committees developing nuclear, radiation, waste and transport safety standards have in recent years developed a consolidated set of safety principles and are increasingly promoting consistency and coherency across these safety disciplines and different nuclear and radiation related facilities. As part of this work efforts are underway to develop harmonized safety standards for the disposal of all types of radioactive waste and for all types of radioactive wastes disposal facilities. This work has led to the identification of a number of specific issues, inter alia; facility specific dose constraints, treatment of human intrusion, timeframes for assessment, the role of institutional control (particularly perpetual control over mine tailings), treatment of uncertainties, design concepts for very low level waste, the concept of intermediate depth disposal, the treatment of retrievability, the concepts and realization of containment and isolation and the status of near surface disposal facilities beyond the period of institutional control. The paper elaborates on these issues and proposes approaches for harmonization. (author)

[en] This paper presents the background and conclusions of an international appraisal of radiological protection of the population surrounding the Ezeiza Atomic Centre, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The appraisal was carried out by relevant UN and non-governmental professional organizations, at the request of the Argentine Government within the framework of a lawsuit which alleged contamination of the environment around Ezeiza with anthropogenic radioactive substances, including enriched and depleted uranium, which would, according to the allegations, be affecting the population living in the surroundings. The review concluded that there is no contamination due to the presence of anthropogenic radioactive elements in the soil or in surface and ground waters used for drinking-water; in particular, there is not contamination of either enriched uranium or depleted uranium. There is a natural concentration of natural uranium in an aquifer sampled in the area; the result of natural geochemical processes. The consumption of this water does not represent a radiological risk for the public. As no radioactive contamination was detected, no radioactive contamination could be attributed to activities that have been or are being carried on the Ezeiza site. Argentina's Nuclear Regulatory Authority is adequately regulating the radiation protection of the public in the surroundings of Ezeiza. While the required appraisal was limited to radiological aspects, it was noted that in some water samples the concentration of natural uranium slightly exceeds the toxicological guidance levels currently recommended by the WHO. However, the appraisal did not find evidence that consumption of water with such concentration had caused any health hazard. It was noted that all the natural levels found locally were lower than those in some other aquifers in Argentina, also used for drinking-water supply, and that they are below the toxicological limit established in the relevant Argentine regulations. (author)

[en] The IAEA provided information on various reports on monitoring issues that are in progress or close to publishing. Monitoring is viewed through safety standards, e.g. RQ 20 on geological disposal. In that document, two paragraphs present the place of monitoring within the step-by-step process, aiming to avoid compromises with the overall level of post-closure safety. The IAEA is developing a new safety guide DS-334 on geologic disposal discussing the whole life cycle of a geological repository including the safety case and design development, site characterisation, construction, operation, closure, and the post-closure control of the repository. Some sections will also touch on monitoring. Various existing materials are used as sources for establishing the DS-334: the DS-62 (its draft is close to completion on strategies for monitoring), the IAEA technical report on monitoring (monitoring purposes and using monitoring information) and the safety report No.35 on 'surveillance and monitoring'. This last report looks at the potential linkage between surveillance and monitoring, going through the various phases. Some definitions of the related terms are discussed. The forthcoming DS-334 will be submitted to the Waste Safety Standards Committee (WAASC) in October 2005 for approval to send to Member States for review. A possible safety report on surveillance and monitoring of geological disposal facilities could be then undertaken

[en] Phil Metcalf (IAEA, Austria) gave an overview of the background, content, sources of information and schedule for the document that is proposed to be published jointly with the NEA currently known as the 'IAEA Safety Standards Series, Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste, Draft Safety Requirements (DS-154)'. Discussion focused on the status of such a document, in respect of which the primacy of national laws and regulations was acknowledged by the speaker, as well as in the document, and on the safety case definition and description in the document

[en] The importance of the safe management of radioactive waste for the protection of human health and the environment has long been recognized and considerable experience has been gained in this field. In order to reflect this experience a decision was made to revise the safety requirements for predisposal radioactive waste management (Safety Series WS-R-2). The objective of the new predisposal Safety Requirements publication is to establish, on the basis of the objective and principles of the IAEA Fundamental Safety Principles (Safety Standards Series No. SF-1) the requirements that must be satisfied in the predisposal management of radioactive waste. The new safety requirements will sets out objectives and criteria for the protection of human health and the environment applicable to radioactive waste management activities, as well as to the different steps of a radioactive waste predisposal management facility development. It sets down the requirements that must be met to ensure the safety of such facilities. An important aspects introduced is a recognition that for the effective management and control of radioactive waste, the government must ensure that a national policy and corresponding strategies for radioactive waste management are established. The policy and strategies are to be appropriately proportionate to the nature and the amount of the radioactive waste in the State. The standard recognizes the importance of interim storage in the whole process of radioactive waste management and accordingly establishes a particular requirement on the issue. For long term storage in particular, measures are to be taken to prevent the degradation of the waste containment. The new safety requirements establish a holistic approach to safety. Also introduced is an obligation on the operator to prepare a safety case and a supporting safety assessment. The safety case and its supporting safety assessment are to be reviewed and updated at each major step in the facility development and for major modifications. (author)

[en] Full text: The Joint Convention on the safety of spent fuel management and the safety of radioactive waste management and the international safety standards on radioactive waste management, decommissioning and radioactive waste disposal call for assessment and demonstration of the safety of facilities and activities; during siting, design and construction prior to operation, periodically during operation and at the end of lifetime or upon closure of a waste disposal facility. In addition, more recent revisions of the international safety standards require the development of a safety case for such facilities and activities, documentation presenting all the arguments supporting the safety of the facilities and activities covering site and engineering features, quantitative safety assessment and management systems. Guidance on meeting these safety requirements also indicates the need for a graded approach to safety assessment, with the extent and complexity of the assessment being proportional to the complexity of the activity or facility, and its propensity for radiation hazard. Safety assessment approaches and methodologies have evolved over several decades and international interest in these developments has been considerable as they can be complex and often subjective, which has led to international projects being established aimed at harmonization. The IAEA has sponsored a number of such initiatives, particularly in the area of disposal facility safety, but more recently in the areas of pre disposal waste management and decommissioning, including projects known as ISAM, ASAM, SADRWMS and DeSa. The projects have a number of common aspects including development of standardized methodological approaches, application on test cases and assessment review; they also have activity and facility specific elements. The paper presents an overview of the projects, the outcomes from the projects to date and their future direction aimed very much at practical application of safety assessment methodology for assisting with project development and implementation. (author)

[en] Every country should have some form of policy and strategy for managing its spent fuel and radioactive waste. Such policies and strategies are important; they set out the nationally agreed position and plans for managing spent fuel and radioactive waste and are visible evidence of the concern and intent of the government and the relevant national organisations to ensure that spent fuel and radioactive waste are properly taken care of in the country. There is a large diversity in the types and amounts of radioactive waste in the countries of the world and, as a result of this diversity, the strategies for implementing the policies may be different, although the main elements of policy are likely to be similar from country to country. In some countries, the national policy and strategy is well established and documented, while in others there is no explicit policy and strategy statement and, instead, it has to be inferred from the contents of the laws, regulations and guidelines. The present paper describes the work undertaken by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) related to identifying the main elements of national policies for spent fuel and radioactive waste management, recognising that policies and strategies vary considerably depending on, among other things, the nature and scale of applications of radioactive material in a country. An indication is provided of what might be contained in national policies recognizing that national policy and strategy has to be decided at the national level taking into account national priorities and circumstances. The paper is concerned with the contents of policies and strategies and does not address the development of national laws, regulations and guidelines - although these are clearly related to the contents of the national policy and strategy. (author)

[en] The International Atomic Energy Agency (the Agency) is mandated to develop safety standards for nuclear, radiation, waste and transport safety. With the entry into force of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, internationally endorsed safety standards for waste management safety and decommissioning take on a more significant role. The safety standards are made up of fundamental principles, applicable to all waste management activities and facilities, safety requirements for particular facilities and activities and safety guides on compliance with the requirements. Radioactive waste from all types of nuclear activities or applications needs to be managed safely in the period before it is finally disposed of. Experience exists in this area, and procedures for safe pre-disposal management are well established in most areas. Nevertheless, there are a number of safety related issues that require attention, namely, the processing of legacy waste, the safety implications of longer storage of radioactive waste when repositories are not available or are built in a way that allows waste retrieval, the need for improved characterization and quality assurance of waste, the adoption of holistic national strategies for waste management and the assessment and demonstration of safety of predisposal waste management activities and facilities. The Agency is establishing safety standards covering the activities and facilities of pre-disposal radioactive waste management in which these safety issues are being addressed. Recognising the developments taking place around the world in the area of geological disposal, the Member States of the Agency agreed that the process of developing safety standards for these facilities should be accelerated. The safety requirements for geological disposal are now published and guidance on compliance is under development. Effluent discharges have the potential to cause national and transboundary impacts on people and the environment, and it is therefore important that internationally agreed standards and procedures are in place to control them - guidance on radioactive discharge control, e.g. setting discharge limits and continuing review of national and international trends is under implementation. IAEA safety standards provide guidance reflecting prevailing best practice and coherent with contemporary radiation protection principles and IAEA safety requirements, on the strategy of monitoring in relation to: (a) control of radionuclide discharges under practice conditions, and (b) intervention. IAEA Standards on monitoring cover three categories of monitoring: monitoring at the source of the discharge (source monitoring), monitoring in the environment (environmental monitoring) and monitoring of individual exposure in emergencies (individual monitoring). General guidance is also provided on assessment of the doses to critical groups of the population due to the presence of radioactive materials or radiation fields in the environment both from practice and from intervention activities. Decommissioning of a wide range of facilities using radioactive material (from nuclear power plants to small research laboratories) is increasing worldwide. In view of the increasing importance of decommissioning in Member States, a specific high level safety standard (a Safety Requirement) has been developed on the safety of decommissioning that provides a focal point for the subject. Existing guidance is under review to ensure consistency with the new Safety Requirements. The paper elaborates on the safety standards for waste management and decommissioning, their development process and their role in the global nuclear safety regime. (author)