Background

The Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) with its participating utilities and regulatory authorities, is a core group of experts for exchanging experience in developing safe, sustainable and societally acceptable strategies for emerging operational issues in the field of occupational radiation protection. In response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, the Expert Group on Occupational Radiation Protection in Severe Accident Management and Post-Accident Recovery (EG-SAM) was established by the ISOE in May 2011. The overarching objective of the group is to contribute to occupational exposure management (providing a view on management of high radiation area worker doses) in Fukushima with the ISOE participants, and to address the experience of various ISOE utilities with various occupational radiation protection management approaches in severe accidents, radiation protection management approaches for highly contaminated areas, selection of proper RP protective tools and clothes including remotely operated instruments, means to fix and eliminate contamination, access procedures to the site, shielding, emergency/accident individual dosimetry and its assessment, psychological aspects, etc. The final product of the group will be a report on best occupational radiation protection management procedures for proper radiation protection job overage during severe accident, initial response and recovery efforts and radiation protection lessons learned from previous reactor accidents.

The interim report of the EG-SAM, which was accomplished during meetings from 2012 to 2013 and approved in the 23rd Annual Session of the ISOE management board, included perspectives of the group and discussions on

• radiation protection management and organisation;
• radiation protection training and exercises related to severe accident management;
• facility configuration and readiness;
• overall approach on the protection of workers;
• radioactive materials, contamination controls and logistics;
• lessons learnt from the past accidents.

With the completion of the first step, the management board decided to organize an international workshop to introduce the interim report and to incorporate the national experiences that would be presented during the workshop for the finalisation of the report.

Workshop objectives

The objective of the Workshop on Occupational Radiation Protection in Severe Accident Management was to share practices and experiences in approaches to severe accident management. The workshop:

• provided an international forum for information and experience exchange amongst nuclear electricity utilities and national regulatory authorities on approaches to, and issues in severe accident management, including national and international implications. Focus was placed on sharing practices and experiences in many countries on approaches to severe accident management;
• identified best occupational radiation protection approaches in strategies, practices, as well as limitations for developing effective management. This included experiences in various countries;
• identified national experiences to be incorporated into the final version of ISOE EG-SAM report.

Workshop format

The workshop included a series of plenary presentations that provided participants with an overview of practices and experiences in severe accident management from various countries. Furthermore, by taking into account the structure of the interim report, common themes and issues were discussed in follow-up breakout sessions. Sessions included invited speakers, moderated by designated experts, allowing participants to discuss their national experiences and possible inputs into the report.

The outcomes of the breakout sessions were presented in plenary by the respective moderators followed by an open discussion, with a view towards elaborating ways forward to achieve more effective severe accident management.

Target audience and participation

The workshop was addressed to a broad cross-section of radiation protection professionals from nuclear utilities and national regulatory authorities, such as:

• nuclear electricity utilities;
• radiation protection and emergency management authorities;
• technical support organisations;
• international organisations (e.g. IAEA, EC).

Participation was limited in accordance with the workshop format. The workshop organisers were responsible for determining the appropriate mix of participants. Within these restrictions, delegates were expected to be drawn heavily from the ISOE's official participants.

Workshop outcomes

Following the workshop, the proceedings (presentations, discussion summaries and conclusions) and final version of the EG-SAM report would be prepared and made available to participants and other interested parties on the ISOE network website.

Date and venue

The workshop was held 17-18 June 2014 at the following venue:
1201 F Street, NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20004, USA
Tel: +1 (202) 739 8000
Fax: +1 (202) 785 4019
Website: www.nei.org

Working language

The working language of the workshop was English.

The workshop was organised by the ISOE, co-sponsored by the NEA and the IAEA and hosted by the Nuclear Energy Institute. The NEA provided the Scientific Secretariat for the workshop.

For further information, please contact:

Dr Edward Lazo

Deputy Head of Division
Radiological Protection and Human Aspects of Nuclear Safety
Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)
Tel.: +33 (0) 1 73 21 29 42
E-mail: edward.lazo@oecd-nea.org

For local information, please contact:

Mrs. Ellen P. ANDERSON
Nuclear Energy Institute
1776 I Street N.W, Suite 400,
Washington, DC, 20006-3708
USA
Tel: +1 (202) 739-8043
Fax: +1 (202) 533 0144
E-mail: exa@nei.org

Workshop organizing committee*

*In memory of Mr. Wataru Mizumachi

A PDF of the final workshop programme can be found here.

A PDF of the abstract proceedings can be found here.

• ISOE workshop flyer
• ISOE workshop announcement
• Nuclear Energy Institute