EURADOS has supported the third cycle of Working Group 2, WG2, “Harmonizing of Individual Monitoring in Europe” for the period July 2005 – January 2007 for two specific tasks:

• Review of the document published by European Commission in 1994 'Technical Recommendations for Monitoring Individuals Occupationally Exposed to External Radiation', EUR14852

• Proposal for the Preparation of Self-Supporting Inter-comparisons in Europe

A questionnaire distributed to Individual Monitoring Services (IMS) in Europe indicated that a number of issues (e.g. extremity dosimetry, approval procedures and database of stakeholders for individual monitoring in Europe, etc) required consideration by WG2. The above two tasks were chosen as they were ranked as the most important to IMS and they are in keeping with the work undertaken by WG2 since 1997. 

WG2 contains 47 members coming from 37 countries across Europe; 17 of these members are considered as WG2 full members. Exchange of information with CONRAD (EU funded project managed by EURADOS) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is carried out through four liaison members.

WG2 members have been divided into two sub-groups (SG1 and SG2), who have devoted their efforts to the two tasks respectively.

WG2 completed the two tasks within the assigned time, and in January 2007 submitted its final report to the EURADOS Council. The report contains, in the first instance, the outcome of an extensive review of the “Technical Recommendations” and secondly the results of a feasibility study, including a methodology, to organize an inter-comparison in Europe, through EURADOS. The report reflects also the feedback from corresponding members and 34 national representative dosimetry services who were asked to reply to a short questionnaire about the aspects of individual monitoring that need to be fulfilled in each country, throughout the European Union and sometimes beyond.

SG1 undertook a thorough review of the “Technical Recommendations” and the report gives advice on both the sections that require updating as well as the issues that should be covered by additional sections. Following discussions among all WG2 members an expanded index was drawn up and contains a list of contents, paragraphs and subjects to be covered in a new document . An up to date list of the relevant legislation, recommendations, reports, articles and other documents of reference that will be taken into consideration was also produced.

Following the European Commission - DGTREN call for tender No TREN/H4/98-2006, SG1 prepared a proposal entitled “Establishment of European Technical Recommendations for Monitoring Individuals Exposed to External Radiation”. The proposal was submitted to DGTREN jointly by a Consortium of GAEC and EURADOS. In February 2007 notice of the success of the proposal was received and the relevant contract was signed in April 2007. The project is named EU-Trimer. The project has duration 24 months and is composed of 5 working packages. The organisational scheme includes the project task group and the WG2 members. The kick-off meeting took place in Luxembourg 1^st June 2007.

SG2 has concluded that a program of regular self-supporting intercomparison exercises is feasible based on a reasonable participation fee which would be commercially attractive, even to small IMS. SG2 proposes to restrict the number of participants in the first intercomparison to about 60 IMS. The irradiation of dosemeters will be as near as possible to the protocol stated in ISO 14146 “Radiation protection -- Criteria and performance limits for the periodic evaluation of processors of personal dosemeters for X and gamma radiation“.  Twenty dosemeters per participant will be irradiated in terms of personal dose equivalent H_p (10) and at least 6 dosemeters will be provided for transit control according to ISO 4037-3 “X and gamma reference radiation for calibrating dosemeters and doserate meters and for determining their response as a function of photon energy - Part 3: Calibration of area and personal dosemeters and the measurement of their response as a function of energy and angle of incidence; 1999-06 “. The plan is for a 3 year cycle - with whole body photon dosemeters in 2008, extremity dosemeters in 2009 and whole body dosemeters in mixed photon and neutron fields in 2010.

An Organising Group (OG) within EURADOS has been established. This group will manage and control the intercomparisons and the material and data transfer between the participating IMS and the irradiation facilities.

It is agreed world-wide that such exercises are a fundamental tool in testing individual monitoring systems which are routinely used for occupationally exposed workers. Furthermore, such inter-comparison exercises would help to find/trace and solve problems during dosemeter processing. The results of these exercises would help the IMS to demonstrate to their customers, as well as to their approval or accreditation bodies, compliance with international recommendations.

However, at present regular performance tests or inter-comparison exercises are only carried out in a few countries and generally, it is not possible for services to participate in tests performed outside their own country. With the recent exceptions of the intercomparisons organized by EURADOS and IAEA information and advertisements of available performance tests tend not to cross borders, so services seldom participate in foreign intercomparisons. EURADOS through its network of voting Members, Corresponding Members, WG representatives and contact persons in each country, can reach many countries and services both inside and outside the EU.

Moreover, EURADOS, unlike national regulatory authorities, is independent of any approval or regulatory body. It is reasonable to assume that services across Europe would prefer to participate voluntarily in intercomparisons organized by such an independent group.

In conclusion, the EURADOS WG2 actions for the period July 2005 – January 2007 have clearly and efficiently contributed to harmonisation of individual monitoring in the EU.  It further demonstrates that EURADOS is a unique network and environment which allows sharing of knowledge, exchange of information and actions for improving dosimetry of ionising radiation in the EU.  

Preliminary results of the EURADOS Intercomparison 2008 for whole body dosemeters Details