Commission of the European Communities. Report. 1993. - 94 p.
The Basic Safety Standards for the health protection of the general public and workers against the dangers of ionising radiation incorporate values of activities not to be exceeded so that the requirements for reporting and obtaining prior authorisation of activities involving a hazard arising from ionising radiation need not be applied (article 4 of Council Directive 80/836). For this purpose all relevant nuclides have been classified in four groups, according to their relative toxicity. Also radioactive substances of a concentration of less than 100 Bq g-l are exempted from this requirement, this limit being increased to 500 Bq g-l for solid natural radioactive substances. These exemptions, while allowing competent authorities in Member States to disregard a multitude of trivial practices, have so far not given rise to any situations where the health of the general public or of workers were put at risk. However, the opportunity of a major revision of the Basic Safety Standards, to bring these in line with the recommendations of ICRP (publication 60), was taken to introduce a more transparent and consistent methodology for establishing exemption levels on a nuclide-specific basis. The Group of Experts set up under Article 31 of the Euratom Treaty advised the Commission on these matters and the Commission entrusted the task of establishing an adequate rationale and of calculating the corresponding levels to two European organisations, the National Radiological Protection Board (Chilton, UK) and the Institut de Protection et de Securite Nucleaire (Fontenay-aux-Roses, France). The excellent interaction of both organisations with each other and with a Working Group of Art. 31, chaired by Professor R Clarke, ultimately led to the present joint report. This report was discussed thoroughly at the plenary Art. 31 meeting of 22 June 1993 and the proposed methodology and resulting values were finally endorsed. The Commission of the European Communities acknowledges this advice and the efforts spent by all those involved in this work, and is pleased to use this report as the basis for the exemption levels laid down in its proposal for revised Basic Safety Standards
