Re: The EC Dilemma

["A. Hancock" <a.hancock@s1.cxwms.ac.uk>]

Charles Willis wrote:
> 
> Wil,
> 
> Please inform us about the EC radiation protection dilemma.  I keep hearing
> stories suggesting that the economy of the continent may be threatened by
> misguided attempts to free the world of radiation.

----------------------------
Hi all

I wouldn't believe that. Them Frenchies especially, they're nuclear
nuts! Getting nearly all their electricity from the atom these days. 

As for us Brits, give us your spent fuel for reprocessing - there's big
bucks in that. Ever heard of Sellafield?

As for the good old Irish - don't you just love 'em. Completely got the
wrong end of the stick when it comes to dose constraints. A sensible
constraint (...or so I'm told) from a source is 0.3 mSv/yr applied to a
critical group - with all realistic factors taken into consideration (as
recommended by the NRPB etc.). 

Members of the public should never realistically come anywhere near an
x-ray room. Patients - in this context are not considered members of the
public! Therefore present shielding requirements should probably suffice
(in the UK that is).

As for EU Council Euratom Directives 96/29 & 97/43, these basically
ensure that ICRP 60 recommendations are translated into law in the EU
member states. As long as good radiation protection practices are
already in place, the implications of this should not be too drastic.

However I can't answer for the Germans, Dutch, or the Italians etc. They
may think along Irish lines - it would be interesting to know. A big
problem to communication in the EU is language - make English the single
European language and we'll concede to just about everything else - even
straight bananas! (only joking!)

Bye for now

Andy Hancock
Charing Cross Hospital
London UK
a.hancock@cxwms.ac.uk