The European ALARA Network

Download the 10^th issue in PDF format

The 10^th issue presents in the first paper the summary and conclusions of the 5^th Workshop on “Industrial Radiography: Improvements in Radiation Protection”. The other two papers are dealing with harmonisation at the European level: it points out that there are still efforts to be performed to harmonise education and training of qualified experts and to reach mutual recognition. It also presents an Austrian study on the harmonisation of detection thresholds for practical implementation at boarders.

Download the 9^th issue in PDF format

The 9^th issue presents a picture of the situation on the implementation of the Basic Safety Standards into the national regulations of European countries. The second paper reminds us the comments made at the IRPA10 Congress (Hiroshima) by IRPA Member Societies on the evolution of the Radiological Protection.

Download the 8^th issue in PDF format

The 8^th issue provides a synthesis of the 3^rd EAN Workshop on "Managing Internal Exposure". One main conclusion of this Workshop is that when the exposures are "predictible", the ALARA principle can be applied to controlling the doses but many efforts remain to be done to find or develop adequate dose monitoring techniques (particularly personal air samplers) and strategies appropriate to the optimisation of radiological protection. An important radiological incident in Spain is also presented as well as the radiological aspect of a refurbishment in Belgium.

Download the 7^th issue in PDF format

The 7^th issue of the Newsletter describes a new software, the VISIPLAN ALARA planning tool. This facilitates the calculation of dose profiles for different work scenario’s taking into account worker position, work duration and subsequent geometry and source distribution changes. A new Spanish Safety Guide, concerning the practical implementation of the optimisation of radiation protection, was also presented. It describes the distribution of ALARA responsibilities within the utilities and contractors firms.

Download the 6^th issue in PDF format

The 6^th issue of the Newsletter provides a report back on the second Workshop organised by the European ALARA Network. The topic of the workshop was ‘Good Radiation Practices in Industry and Research’. As well as a summary of the Workshop, this issue includes recommendations to the European Commission. In this issue the Secretary of the International Commission of Radiological Protection also presents the recent work of the Commission.

Download the 5^th issue in PDF format

The 5^th issue of the Newsletter presents some reviews of occupational exposure data from France and Spain. Comparison of such reviews provides valuable feedback experience to identify priorities. This issue also covers some matters addressed during meetings in Washington and Dublin on exposure of aircraft crew to cosmic radiation: namely doses are not trivial, protection options are limited, and therefore there are a number of scientific and policy issues that need developing.

Download the 4^th issue in PDF format

The 4^th issue of the Newsletter provides a report back on the first Workshop organised by the European ALARA Network. The topic of the workshop was ‘ALARA and Decommissioning’. This issue provides a mechanism to widely disseminate the lessons learnt from the Workshop and particularly to develop, as an outcome from the Workshop, a set of recommendations to the European Commission to facilitate, within Member States, the implementation of ALARA in decommissioning strategies and operations.

Download the 3^rd issue in PDF format

The 3^rd issue of the Newsletter tries to highlight that ALARA can be successfully pursued in very different types of installations, such as laboratories, reprocessing plants in the nuclear industry, as well as in research centres; and can cover both repetitive operations and one-off projects. This issue also emphasises the potential for significant improvements of radiological protection in the non nuclear sector.

Download the 2^nd issue in PDF format

The 2^nd issue (of the ALARA Newsletter presents two tools developed with the support of the Commission of the European Union. These are, OPTI-RP (software that provides decision makers with a simple tool facilitating the selection of radiation protection options using monetary values of the collective dose unit through Cost-Benefit analyses) and IRID, (a new database in the UK that covers radiological incidents in the non nuclear sector in order to learn lessons from the past and improve ALARA implementation in these fields). This second issue also points out that feedback experience from many countries shows that practical implementation of ALARA relies essentially on personnel motivation and involvement: in essence ALARA is "a way of thinking", similar to the very well known "safety culture" or "total quality" approach in the industrial field.

Download the 16^th issue in PDF format

The 16^th issue of the Newsletter presents in its first article the summary and recommendations from the 8^th EAN Workshop on "Occupational Radiological Protection Control and Self Assessment" (Uppsala, September 2004). Another paper presents a summary of the feedback from the research reactors sub-network after 3 years of experience. The European Committee of Radiographers and Radiological Technologists presents here the main results of concern for radiological protection of an international survey they performed dealing with training of radiographers.An Analysis of a Radiological Incident, which occurred in a textile treatment plant in France, becomes the incident case study n°16.

Finally the first announcement for the 9^th EAN Workshop on "Occupational Exposure to natural Radiation"- to be held in Augsburg- Germany, October 2005 " is available with the Application Form.