The next fundamental Recommendations of ICRP are expected to be issued in 2007. As a consequence, dose coefficients for intakes of radionuclides given in Publications 30 and 68 and data for the interpretation of bioassay measurements in Publications 54 and 78 will need to be updated.
ICRP also recognises the need to provide further guidance on the interpretation of bioassay measurements. A Supporting Guidance Document is in preparation, and will provide a significant development from the information given in previous ICRP reports on this topic. Additional information is provided here.
Later, when the draft is nearing completion, it will be subjected to formal consultation as usual. An early draft is now made available here for information, and we would encourage informal comments by e-mail to scient.secretary@icrp.org (subject line: 'Guidance doc'), preferably before 20 March 2005. Comments from those involved in occupational health physics would be particularly welcomed.

Information: http://www.icrp.org/news_guidance.asp

Kevin Nelsen, a Certified Health Physicist with the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville heads a new slate of officers as President Elect Designate for 2006-2007. He will become the President Elect at the HPS annual meeting in June and step up to President in July, 2007. More information can be found on the HPS Web Site: http://hps.org/aboutthesociety/people/2006officers.html

At meetings in Vienna last week, the IAEA Board of Governors has elected Japanese Ambassador Yukiya Amano as Chairman for the 2005-06 period. He succeeds the Governor of Canada, Ms. Ingrid Hall.

Ambassador Amano has held increasingly senior positions in the Japanese Foreign Ministry, notably as Director of the Science Division, Director of the Nuclear Energy Division and Deputy Director General for Arms Control and Scientific Affairs. He was appointed Director-General for Arms Control and Scientific Affairs in August 2002 and Director-General of the Disarmament, Non-proliferation and Science Department in August 2004. He took up his current assignment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the International Organizations in Vienna and Japan´s Governor on the IAEA´s Board of Governors in September 2005.

Additional information can be found on the IAEA Web Site: http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2004/bogchair_2005.html

The U.N. nuclear agency and its head, Mohamed ElBaradei, won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, Oct 7, for their efforts to limit the spread of atomic weapons. The Norwegian Nobel Committee picked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and ElBaradei, an Egyptian, from a record field of 199 candidates. El Baradei and the IAEA were among the favorites for this year's award, which comes 60 years after the U.S. atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

ElBaradei, a 63-year-old attorney, has been at the helm of the IAEA as it dealt with suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. ElBaradei first assumed the post in 1997 and recently was reappointed to a third term. ElBaradei received a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Cairo, and a doctorate in international law from the New York University School of Law, according to his biography on the IAEA's Web site. He also has received various honorary degrees.

The issue of nuclear power has been in the spotlight this year, both because the IAEA played key roles in negotiations with Iran and North Korea and the 60th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A dissenting note came from the environmental group Greenpeace, which said it was "shocked" at the award, arguing that the U.N. agency's promotion of atomic energy has increased the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation.

Last year, the Nobel committee awarded the prize to Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Muta Maathai, "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace."

More details on the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize can be found on the IAEA Web Site: http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2005/nobelprize2005.html.

The latest official figures released by the NEA show that, at the start of 2005, there were 352 nuclear units in operation in 17 OECD member countries, seven less than the year before. However, despite this reduction, nuclear generating capacity in the OECD increased by almost 1% and nuclear-generated electricity increased by over 4% over the previous year. In all, nuclear power plants produced 23.5% of the electricity generated in OECD member countries during 2004 and in Belgium, France, the Slovak Republic and Sweden it was over 50%. Improved performances compared to 2003 allowed nuclear power's share of electricity generation to increase in six OECD member countries (Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan and Sweden).

At the end of 2004, eight nuclear units representing a total capacity of 6.6 GWe were under construction in OECD countries, with firm commitments for 19 more representing a total capacity of 24.1 GWe. All but one of these are destined for the OECD Pacific region. However, one new reactor, an EPR (European Pressurized Water Reactor), has been firmly committed in OECD Europe in Finland, marking the first new unit in this region in many years. In France, the construction of a new EPR is under consideration, subject to the outcome of a national public debate to take place in 2005. At the same time, 11 reactors representing a total capacity of 3.1 GWe are expected to be shut down over the next five years, six of which are in the United Kingdom. Additionally, not reflected in the preceding figures, additional reactors in Germany are expected to be shut down in line with the governmental decision to phase out nuclear energy.

Countries reported 121 incidents to the IAEA in 2004 of illicit trafficking and other unauthorized activities involving nuclear and other radioactive materials, newly released statistics from the Agency's Illicit Trafficking Database (ITDB) show.

The ITDB report also shows that one incident was reported since 2003 that involved fissile material -- highly enriched uranium (HEU) or plutonium -- that is needed to make a nuclear weapon. It occurred in June 2003 when an individual was arrested in possession of 170 grams of HEU, attempting to illegally transport it across the border.

During the two-year period 2003-2004, the number of incidents reported by States substantially increased compared with previous years. "Improved reporting may in part account for it," the report said. "The majority of the incidents reported in 2003-2004 showed no evidence of criminal activity."

A detailed summary is available on the IAEA Web Site: http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2005/traffickingstats.html.

It is regretfully announced that Ms Frances Fry, formerly of NRPB, passed away at the age of 60 on 25 April after a long period of illness. Having retired in 2003 for reasons of health, she was well known for her pioneering work on the biokinetics and environmental behaviour of radionuclides. As a former member of ICRP Committee 2, Frances was well known among the internal dosimetry community. She was a key contributor to many ICRP reports and the lead author of ICRP Publication 78. She will be sorely missed by friends and colleagues around the world.

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei has accepted appointment to a third term as IAEA Director General, following his reappointment by the Agency´s Board of Governors meeting in Vienna in June. Dr. ElBaradei was appointed by acclamation to head the Agency for another four years until November 2009.
At a press briefing in Vienna in June, Dr. ElBaradei said he would continue to hold high impartiality and independence -- core principals and values of international civil service.

"In the next four years we have tremendous challenges. We have major issues facing global security; we have major issues facing development. These two issues cut across all our activities. My colleagues and I are committed to do our very best to protect ourselves against the dissemination of nuclear weapons; and against poverty. We will continue to work with the members of the international community to see a world free from nuclear weapons."

Dr. ElBaradei said he was humbled by the unanimous support and confidence he had received by all members of the Agency. The appointment will be submitted for approval at the IAEA General Conference, which opens 26 September 2005 in Vienna. Dr. ElBaradei is the IAEA´s fourth Director General since 1957. He was first appointed to the office effective December 1997, and reappointed to a second term in 2001. He follows Hans Blix, IAEA Director General from 1981 to 1997; Sigvard Eklund, IAEA Director General from 1961 to 1981; and Sterling Cole, IAEA Director General from 1957 to 1961.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's latest compilation of nuclear power plant worker doses at U.S. reactors shows the average annual collective dose per plant is 100 person-rem, the lowest ever and half of the dose recorded 10 years ago.

To determine a plant's collective dose, individual doses are added up and the result is expressed in person-rem. The average American receives a dose of about 360 millirem every year from all radioactive sources; the average nuclear plant worker in recent years received about an additional 160 millirem each year on the job. NRC regulations allow workers at nuclear power plants to safely receive a job-related dose of up to 5,000 millirem each year.

The nation's 69 pressurized-water reactors had an average annual collective dose of 71 person-rem, down 22 percent from 2003 and the lowest ever for PWRs. The 35 boiling-water reactors had an average annual collective dose of 156 person-rem, the second-lowest ever.

The study was set up in the early 1990s and was co-ordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health Organization. The study involved researchers from 15 countries - mostly in Europe, North America and Asia - who conducted studies in their own countries of cancer mortality among radiation workers employed in the nuclear industry. These workers were employed in nuclear power generation, nuclear research, waste management or the production of nuclear fuel, isotopes or weapons. The UK provided anonymised data to IARC on nuclear industry workers from the most recent analysis of the NRRW4. Some of the data from other countries, such as the USA, were also based on existing studies, whilst the setting-up of an international study provided the impetus for new research in other countries, such as France and Japan.

The study included about 400,000 workers, mostly men, who had been monitored for exposure to external radiation. Workers who had significant potential for internal radiation exposures were not included, largely because of variability in the way that these exposures had been recorded. The analyses looked to see if there was any trend in the risk of cancer death, according to the level of the recorded cumulative dose from external radiation.

For all cancers other than leukaemia taken together, the risk of death increased to a statistically significant extent with increasing radiation dose. Since data on individual smoking habits were not available, it is difficult to know how smoking might have affected these results. However, the findings for specific causes of death do indicate that smoking may explain partly, but not entirely, the increased risk seen for all cancers other than leukaemia. For leukaemia, there was also an indication of an increasing trend in risk with increasing radiation dose, but here the evidence was weaker and did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance.

Notwithstanding the size of the study, it was not possible to quantify the risks from occupational radiation exposures precisely. The findings were consistent with risks that ranged from values lower than those derived by linear extrapolation from A-bomb survivors data, up to values that exceed this extrapolation by a factor of six for cancers other than leukaemia and nearly three for leukaemia. Based on the best estimates of risk, about 1 to 2% of the cancer deaths among workers in this study may be attributable to radiation exposure. However, many of the higher exposures were received in the early years of the nuclear industry, when protection standards were less stringent than they are today.

A summary paper - Cardis, E, Vrijheid, M, Blettner, M, et al . Risk of cancer after low doses of ionising radiation: retrospective cohort study in 15 countries. - can be found on the BMJ Website, www.bmj.com. More detailed results for specific types of cancer, specific countries and other factors will be published in a longer report due to appear later this year.

The Main Commission of the ICRP met in Paris last March. Focus was given to the consultation exercise on the proposed 2005 recommendations. It resulted in nearly 200 responses and amounts to some 600 pages of written text. Many of the comments arise because the Foundation Documents have not yet been put out for consultation. The consultation on Foundation Documents will take place this summer and they should be revised, if necessary, to be approved if all goes well at the Geneva meeting of the Commission in September 2005.

The Commission has approved 5 foundation documents for web consultation with the intention that they be posted for a period starting in April until mid-July. The documents are:

• Biological and Epidemiological Information on Health Risks Attributable to Ionizing Radiation: A Summary of Judgements for the Purposes of Radiological Protection.
• The Basis for Dosimetric Quantities Used in Radiological Protection.
• Assessing Doses to the Representative Individual for the Purpose of Radiation Protection of the Individual.
• The Optimization of Protection: Broadening the Process.
• Environmental Protection: the Concept and Use of Reference Animals and Plants.

These documents are seen as essential to underpin the Commission's recommendations. In addition, two new Foundation documents are thought to be necessary as a result of the consultation exercise.

Concerns were expressed in the consultation exercise that the Commission was perceived as having abandoned a risk-based system in setting numerical values for constraints, and the use of comparisons with natural background. It is now proposed that a new addition to the Recommendations be made with an updated version of what was Annex C in Publication 60. That Annex was on the 'Bases for judging the significance of the effects of radiation' and developed the attributable lifetime probabilities of death due to exposure and compared them with various non-radiation fatality rates. The Annex demonstrated that ICRP does not have a simple risk-based system, but rather that there is a complex multi-attribute assessment of the implications of exposure and a valid comparison with the natural background radiation levels. It is proposed to update this work to use the latest risk projection models from the Biology Foundation Document.

It has also been decided that a Foundation Document on the application of protection principles for 'The Protection of the Patient in Medical Procedures' is to be prepared, since the consultation exercise revealed a need for Committee 3 to state a clear strategy that can be incorporated into the next Recommendations.

The next draft of the Recommendations would be completed after the finalization of the Foundation Documents and should be ready for Main Commission consideration in the early part of 2006. It seems inevitable that a second round of consultation on the Recommendations will be necessary, although perhaps only for a 3 month period, after which the Commission will need to complete them. The most likely consequence of this will be that the publication of the new Recommendations will be delayed until at least late 2006.

During the meeting, the Commission approved two reports for publication in the Annals of the ICRP. A document by a Task Group of Committee 2 of The International Commission on Radiological Protection will replace the gastrointestinal model previously used by the Commission and completes the work needed to specify a new reference phantom: Human Alimentary Tract Model for Radiological Protection. The Commission also decided to publish a report provided by Annie Sugier from the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire in France: Analysis of the Criteria Used by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) to Justify the Setting of Numerical Reference Values.

This report documents the many different methods by which ICRP has developed some 30 numerical restrictions on dose in its publications since the 1990 Recommendations and thereby emphasizes that there is NOT a simple risk-based system for protection.

The consultation period on the proposed Committee 1 Task Group report Low-Dose Extrapolation of Radiation-Related Cancer Risk has led to some clarifications on the text which should be approved for publication very shortly.

Information: ICRP, SE-171 16 Stockholm, Sweden. Fax.+46 8 729 729 8. Email. scient.secretary@icrp.org

The Council on Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards (CIRMS) is an independent, non-profit council that draws together experts involved in all aspects of ionizing radiation to discuss, review and assess developments and needs in this field. Drawing upon expertise from government and national laboratories, agencies and departments, from the academic community and from industry, CIRMS has issued its fourth triennial report on “Needs in Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards.” Such needs are delineated in Measurement Program Descriptions (MPDs) that indicate the objective, state background information, define needed action items and resource requirements in terms of personnel and facilities.

Each of the subcommittees of the CIRMS Science and Technology Committee prepared a series of MPDs pertinent to their area of expertise. These were arrived at through dialog at CIRMS meetings and workshops. The subcommittees are:

1. Medical Subcommittee, which deals with diagnostic and therapeutic uses of ionizing radiation. The Medical Subcommittee identified needs in the following areas:
   • Radioactivity Standards and Techniques for Nuclear Medicine
   • Dose Mapping Systems for 3D Conformal Radiation Therapy and Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy
   • Absorbed Dose Standards for Brachytherapy Sources
   • Liquid Based and Micro-Brachytherapy Sources
2. Public and Environmental Radiation Protection Subcommittee (PERP), which dealt with radioactivity found in the environment and its possible public health effects.
3. Occupational Radiation Protection Subcommittee (ORP), which dealt with worker protection in radioactive environments. The PERP and ORP were merged into a joint Radiation Protection Subcommittee (RP). The RP has defined nine Measurement Program Description areas:
   • Traceability to NIST for Reference, Monitoring and Service Laboratories
   • Sorption of Radioactive Elements in Contaminated Soils and Sediments and Urban Structural and Other Materials
   • Atom-Counting Measurement Techniques for Environmental and Radiobioassay Monitoring
   • Intercomparison Transfer Standards for Neutron Source Calibrations
   • Improvements for In-vivo and In-vitro Radiobioassay Metrology
   • Improved Radiation Measurement Infrastructure for Occupational Radiation Protection
   • Extension of Calibration Accreditation Criteria to Low Dose Radiations
   • Implementation of Support for Personnel Dosimetry Proficiency Testing per ANSI N13.11
   • Emergency Radiological Response
4. Industrial Applications and Materials Effects subcommittee (IAME) covers a diverse area generally not related directly to human radiation exposure. IAME has found need for measurement programs in five areas:
   • Radiation Hardness Testing and Mixed-Field Radiation Effects
   • Neutron Dosimetry for Reactor Pressure Vessel Surveillance
   • Medical Device Sterilization
   • Food Irradiation
   • Low-Voltage Electron Beam Dosimetry

Although the Council on Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards is a U.S. based organization, the Fourth Report on Needs in Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards enjoys international sponsorship, and its findings are relevant to the international community. The 142 page report can be found on the CIRMS Web Site: http://www.cirms.org/library/NEEDS/4th%20Dec%2004.pdf.