CEPN is a non-profit organisation created in 1976 to establish a research and development centre in the fields of optimisation of radiological protection and comparison of health and environmental risks associated with energy systems.

The studies are undertaken by a group of a dozen of engineers and economists. The research programme is evaluated by a Scientific Council.

The association currently has three members: the French public electricity generating utility (EDF), the Institute of Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) and the French Alternatives Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).

CEPN is a a non-profit organisation created in 1976 to establish a research and development centre in the fields of optimisation of radiological protection and comparison of health and environmental risks associated with energy systems.

Recent publications

Dose Concepts and the Achievability of Protection for the Disposal of Long-Lived Solid Waste According ICRP.

Details
Category: Articles
Published: Wednesday, 20 January 2010 11:34

SUGIER A., SCHNEIDER T.

Workshop Proceedings, Tokyo, Japan, 20-22 January 2009, OECD/NEA, 2010, pp. 101-110.

Summary

The main strength of ICRP is its set up of a unified protection system applicable to all types of exposure situations. However, in the case of radioactive waste disposai, the long timescale to deal with has led ICRP to publish dedicated recommendations (ICRP 81, published in 1999) in order to take such a challenge into account while still using the classical tools of ICRP system of radiologieal protection.

Since then, ICRP has issued new general recommendations, in 2007 (Publication 103), which formally replaced the previous recommendations of 1991 (publication 60) on which ICRP 81 was based.

One of the major features of the new recommendations is the evolution "from the previous process-based protection approach using practices and interventions by moving to a situation-based approach applying the fundamental principles ... of protection to ail controllable exposure situations" in a similar way. The new recommendations also introduce a framework for the selection of source-related protection criteria to be applied according to the different exposure situations.

The present paper deals with the following issues raised by the radioactive waste management community, on the basis of ICRP 81 and of the new orientations provided by ICRP 103:

  • Which are the units and the dosimetric concepts to be used in the specific case of waste disposal and notably the health detriment?
  • How should the "basic principle, that the individuals and populations in the future should be afforded at least the same level of protection from actions taken today as in current generation" be understood? (ICRP 81 § 40)
  • Does the meaning of the word protection change between the active and the passive phases of the management of the waste?
  • What are the relevant documents to be considered as references of ICRP position in the area of radioactive waste?

1003 A1078

Exhibitions / Projects

Vous avez dit Radioprotection ?

Vous avez dit Radioprotection ?

“Did you Say Radiation Protection? Stories of X-Rays, Radioactivity, etc …” is a traveling exhibition devoted to radiation protection, that is to say all the means to protect workers, the public and the environment from potentially harmful effects of X-rays and of radioactivity.

La robe et le nuage

Robe et Nuage

La robe et le nuage propose au lecteur une plongée dans le monde de la radioactivité qui n'a rien d'un pensum pour physiciens avertis. Bien au contraire, l'ouvrage, destiné au grand public, s'attache à retracer l'histoire des rayons X et de la radioactivité, ainsi que celle de son nécessaire pendant : la radioprotection. Rédigé par un spécialiste français du sujet et une journaliste scientifique, il aide à mieux comprendre la radioactivité, de La robe de Marie Curie au nuage de Tchernobyl.

ETHOS in Belarus

ETHOS en Biélorussie

Le projet européen ETHOS avait pour but d’améliorer durablement les conditions de vie des habitants des villages dont la vie quotidienne a été fortement affectée par la présence à long terme de contamination radioactive à la suite de l’accident de Tchernobyl. Il s’agissait d’une nouvelle démarche pluridisciplinaire basée sur une implication forte de la population dans l’évaluation et la gestion du risque radiologique en concertation avec les autorités locales, régionales et nationales et des experts biélorusses.