15-17 May 2017

Emergency exposure situations can arise as a result of a nuclear accident, a malicious or terrorist act, or any other unexpected radiological event. It requires a quick response and sustainable countermeasures and remedial actions in order to avoid or reduce adverse short-term and long-term consequences. Radiation exposures can be received by the public, first responders, workers and volunteers engaged in the post-accident recovery.

The ICRP recommendations and European Basic Safety Standards – the bases for national regulations - re-emphasize the principle of optimisation (ALARA) as applying to emergency exposure situations. For the purpose of radiological protection, reference levels for emergency exposure situations should be set. More importantly, it is necessary to establish emergency plans based on an optimum protection strategy, resulting in more good than harm for the exposed people and the affected territories. In that perspective, lessons learnt from the Fukushima accident are of utmost importance.

 The objectives of the workshop are:

• To show, in particular from the experience of Fukushima accident, the challenges posed by the optimisation of exposures in emergency and post-accident situations;
• To review the national arrangements for assessing, monitoring and mitigating the radiological consequences of an emergency, especially with regard to applying the ALARA principle to public and occupational exposures;
• To review the arrangements for managing emergency doses to workers;
• To review the arrangements for providing ALARA-based training for the different types of stakeholders who would be engaged in the emergency response and long-term recovery actions.

The workshop will consist of presentations (oral and posters) intended to highlight the main issues, and a significant part of the program will be devoted to discussions within working groups. From these discussions, participants will be expected to produce recommendations on ALARA in emergency exposure situations, which are addressed to relevant local, national and international stakeholders.

For further information, please visit the EAN Website.