NRPA International Workshop - "Regulatory Supervision of Legacy Sites: the Process from Recognition to Resolution"

NRPA International Workshop - "Regulatory Supervision of Legacy Sites: the Process from Recognition to Resolution"

[ 21-23 November 2017 - Lillehammer, Norway ]


International workshop organised by the NRPA in cooperation with the IAEA, ICRP, NEA and IUR on

“Regulatory Supervision of Legacy Sites: the Process from Recognition to Resolution”

Lillehammer, Norway, 21-23 November 2017

Download this Announcement in pdf format here

This 2nd Legacy Workshop is follow up Workshop to previous event held in Oslo in 2015 documented in the NRPA report: http://www.nrpa.no/filer/7be4a09906.pdf

Background

The value of cooperation on regulatory supervision of legacy sites is evident from several existing international initiatives and roles of ICRP, IAEA, NEA and IUR. Recent evaluation of complexity of this subject was also done through expert discussions and by sharing the experience at an international workshop “Regulatory Supervision of Legacy Sites: from Recognition to Resolution1”, organized in 2015, by the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA). Conclusions from this workshop highlighted a substantial gap between theory and good practice, and suggested that further international guidance on practical application would be valuable.

Since that meeting, the ICRP has set up a Task Group (TG98) to clarify the application of the Commission’s recommendations to exposures resulting from contaminated sites from past industrial, military and nuclear activities. The NEA has set up a related Expert Group on Legacy Management (EGLM), to assist member countries in deriving practical interpretation of generic radiation protection guidance document to nuclear legacy site management, and support the development of international guidance specific to regulatory supervision of nuclear legacy sites. At the same time, NRPA has maintained substantial ongoing bi-lateral cooperation activities with sister Authorities in the Russian Federation, central Asian countries and Ukraine. These bilateral activities strongly contributed to the results of the first phase of the IAEA Forum on Regulatory Supervision of Legacy Sites Forum (RSLS) and supports a new IAEA network: The European and Central Asian Safety Network (EuCAS), to support the strengthening of the nuclear and radiation safety infrastructure. The significant support of IUR in identifying research needs, radioecological innovation and liaising the particular scientific outputs with relevant international organizations, focused, among others, on regulations and radiation protection has been given internationally through several IUR’s task groups.

These developments have highlighted the importance of a well-established process for legacy management. Accordingly, this has led to an initiative to hold a 2nd international legacy workshop, entitled “Regulatory Supervision of Legacy Sites: the Process from Recognition to Resolution”, organised by NRPA in cooperation with ICRP, IAEA, NEA and IUR.

Objective and Topics of Interest

The overall objective of the workshop is to extend the sharing of experience on all the specific issues in the process of practical regulation and management of a wide range of nuclear and radiation legacies. Providing a forum for discussion of good practice and comparison of lessons learned will help in further implementation and maintenance of more efficient regulatory supervision of legacy sites worldwide.

Therefore, addressing issues raised at the first workshop and during on-going work, the following topics will be discussed:

  • Support for development of a common methodology describing a comprehensive process for legacy management and regulation.
  • Practical experience and lessons learned in hazard characterization, risk identification and management.Encouragement of proportionate management of different risks and overall optimization.
  • Harmonisation of protection objectives, and assessment methodologies and practice, while creating locally optimised procedures and solutions.
  • Harmonization of requirements for efficient inspections and monitoring of sources and environment after clean-up or remediation activities.
  • Coordination among regulatory authorities and executive organisations, including those responsible for other hazardous substances.
  • Sharing underpinning scientific information, which supports sites characterization and decision making on the introduction and ending of countermeasures, remediation techniques and waste management.
  • Identification of further research needs for appropriate regulatory supervision.
  • Engagement of stakeholders and effective communication measures at each stage of legacy management as part of an overall transparent and traceable legacy management process.

The scope of the workshop includes the full range of issues linked to regulatory supervision of nuclear and radiation legacies, encompassing the entire process from recognising that a legacy exists to complete resolution of safety and protection issues associated with its management.
Participants will have a major opportunity to hear about and contribute to the latest and on-going developments to understand and further document the process from legacy recognition to resolution. It is planned to document the results of the 2nd Workshop as before1 and include recommendations for further international engagement and cooperation.

Participation

Organizations with special interest in scientific research and regulatory supervision of legacy sites are invited to participate and/or give presentations. Presentations covering for advances in radioecological models and methods, regulatory requirements (doubts) and good practice in terms of scientific analysis, examples of radioecological supportive role in regulatory decision making at legacy sites are welcome.

Next steps

To express interest in attendance, propose a presentation, or request further information, including support for visa to Norway if needed, please contact Malgorzata.k.Sneve@nrpa.no and Jelena.Popic@nrpa.no
Provisionally, we plan to develop and distribute a more detailed workshop program by the end of May, and so we politely request replies at your earliest convenience.

Professionals / Scientists