Summaries of topical
sessions
Friday 18 June
Thank you for active participation !
 850 participants and 50 accompanying persons
 44 countries
 550 participants in refresher couses
Satellite events
 Technical visit to Olkiluoto: 67
 NOTE workshop: 130
 Radon excursion: 39
 Specialist workshop 1 (medical): 90
 Specialist workshop 2 (nuclear industry): 109
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
Summaries of topical sessions
157 oral contributions and 351 posters
Chairs and co-chairs of each 19 sessions provided 1-2 slides on
current issues and key conclusions
 Health-related issues - Sisko Salomaa
 Environmental issues and protection of public - Mikhail Balonov
 Analytics and dosimetry - Sigurdur Emil Palsson
 Radiation practises and regulation - Tua Rahola
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
Summary of health related sessions
Sisko Salomaa
Patrick Smeesters
Stelios Christofides
Mika Kortesniemi
Andrey Busmanov
Wendla Paile
Yuri Franken
Kari Jokela
S01: Biological and health effects of ionising radiation
 Radiation-induced cardiovascular disease:
 Cohort of Mayak PA nuclear workers (about 12000 W.):
 Ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases:
↑ incidence with cumulative dose (ext + liver Pu dose)
 Plausible mechanism at low or fractionated dose: linearly
dose-related monocyte death resulting in increase of MCP1 (chemo-attractant); to be tested
 Review of epidemiological evidence at low and moderate
doses: ↑ ERR but large variability
 Radiation-induced cataracts:
 further evidence at low doses (lenticular opacities in
radiologists:STUK) and ongoing epidemiological research
(int. cardiol.)
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S01: Biological and health effects of ionising radiation
 New evidence on old issues reinforces the need of
ALARA approach:
 Genetic risk:
 new data on RI trangenerational instability
 CNS of fœtus:
 low doses impair neurite outgrowth
 RI thyroid cancer in adults:
 ↑ Risk of thyroid cancer among Chernobyl liquidators
(mean age: 37 y)
 A lot of research, particularly in molecular biology,
are in progress and try to complete the puzzle
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S02: Medical use of Radiation
 Special attention is given to patient dose optimisation
from high dose modalities and procedures (MSCT, PET,
PET/CT, SPECT/CT, etc), Interventional Radiology and
Cardiology, with emphasis on paediatric and recurrent
examinations.
 Also dose optimisation tools have been improved, and
focus has expanded increasingly on the minimisation of
radiation dose.
 There is a trend in estimating the Life Attributable Risk
(LAR) for cancer induction from the high dose
procedures, especially for paediatrics.
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Tekijä
13.4.2015
S02: Medical use of Radiaiton
 Miss-justification is becoming a major concern. There is
a need for enhanced education and training for the
Healthcare Professionals to facilitate evidence based
decisions for examination practices.
 The setting up of National Derived Reference levels
(DRLs) especially for high dose modalities,
interventional procedures and for peadiatrics is
considered as a tool for optimisation.
 In Radiotherapy the estimation of the out-of-target
dose in estimating the risk of induction of secondary
cancers is becoming important for high dose rate
procedures (gamma-knife, IMRT, IGRT).
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Tekijä
13.4.2015
S13: Medical response in radiation accidents
 General trend of session – modern treatment of
radiation victims.
 Russian and French scientists and medical doctors
reported about new therapeutic approach for the
treatment of radiation burns combining surgery and
mesenchymal stem cell treatment. They showed
new clinical cases of local radiation injuries treated
by the new method.
 French scientists demonstrated the result of
experiments with new medicine Calixarene
nanoemulsion in successful treatment for uranium
contaminated skin.
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S13: Medical response in radiation accidents
 Biodosimetric area. The study confirmed that the
PCC ring assay is suitable for use as a good
biodosimeter following whole-body exposure to
high (above 8 Gy) doses of radiation.
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S14: Non-ionising radiation protection
 INTERPHONE meta-analysis on brain cancers and mobile
telephone use: Overall no increase of meningioma and glioma.
Indication of small increase of tumors in the highest exposure
group. Biases and other error sources prevent detecting of
small risk. More epidemiologic studies is needed for effects of
heavy use of mobile phones more than 10 years (Cardis).
 Gliomas are not located in those parts of brain with the
highest exposure to the RF-field of a mobile phone
(Larjavaara et al.)
 Hyperthermia-induced proliferation of cancer cells in vitro
is depressed by 2.2 GHz pulsed EMF (Trillo et al.).
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S14: Non-ionising radiation protection
 Scattering and diverging of a laser beam by
microlens formation is a novel idea for laser eye
protectors (Branca and Dejan).
 The UV-A induced melanoma metastasis may be
due to UV-A induced immunosuppression and to a
lesser extent due to alteration of the adhesive
properties of melanoma cells (Pastila et al.)
 The use of sunbeds by young people in Iceland: 20
% of 12-15 and 52 % of 16-19 years old use sunbeds
(Sigurdsson et al.)
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
Summary of environmental sessions
and exposure of public
Mikhail Balonov
Seppo Klemola
James McLaughlin
Hannu Arvela
Augustin Janssens
Mika Markkanen
Mark Dowdall
Tarja K. Ikäheimonen
Franz Josef Maringer
Päivi Kurttio
Ted Lazo
Iisa Outola
Radiation protection of the public
Sessions 03, 06, 15, 16 and 17
 Public exposure: Exposure incurred by members of
the public from radiation sources, excluding any
occupational or medical exposure and the normal
local natural background radiation.
 ICRP-103: The component of public exposure due
to natural sources is by far the largest, but this
provides no justification for reducing the attention
paid to smaller, but more readily controllable,
exposures to man-made sources.
 Public exposure situations: planned, existing (and
emergency)
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
Radiation protection of the public (continued)
Planned Exposure Situations – radiation and
radioactive discharges from operating facilities
(industry, medicine, etc):
 Nuclear industry:
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Discharges of tritium and other r/nuclides – monitoring, modeling
New regulation for clearance materials
Physical shielding of major medical facilities
Air-borne releases
Environmental monitoring for radiation protection purposes and for
model improvement
 Waste management
 Emerging issue of biota protection
 Less need for regulation, well developed area
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
Radiation protection of the public (continued)
 NORM industries:
 Awareness of NORM is increasing:
 More surveys and site specific assessments are being done
 New types of industries and situations involving NORM are
being identified (Gas and oil mining, fertiliser production,
construction industry, geothermal industry, etc)
 Regulatory requirements and controls are under development
 To which extent the requirements for planned exposure
situations should be applied?
 Application of a graded approach to regulation
 Operators lack expertise and experience in NORM management
 Need for specific education and training
 Need for further guidelines on NORM management
 Determination and quantification of NORM
 methods suitable for monitoring large volumes with varying
concentrations should be developed
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
Radiation protection of the public (continued)
Existing Exposure Situations - elevated radiation levels in the human or
natural environments, including nuclear legacy (PUNE sites, etc):
 Dwellings and public buildings
 Rn in air
 Continued interest in risk assessment based on new data
 Trends to reduce reference levels in many countries
 National and regional monitoring programs (geochemical and indoor)
 Remediation programs in some countries
 Radiation from building materials – regulation, monitoring and control,
mostly at construction stage
 Environments with elevated radiation levels – monitoring and
remediation (if justified)
 Former uranium mining and milling sites (Central Asia etc)
 Areas of past nuclear practices or accidents
 External radiation – monitoring, modeling and control
 Radionuclides in foods - inspection of some kinds
 Radionuclides in drinking water - monitoring and mitigation of wells (if
justified)
 International guidance on regulation still needed
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S09: Radiation protection of the biota
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Can NTE biology change the general approach?
International activities are going on (ICRP, IAEA, etc.)
More effects detected in areas with elevated radiation levels
Dose assessments are topical
What is the significance of NORM in the protection of the
environment?
 Lack of transfer coefficients and concentration factors
 Radiation and biological monitoring in progress:
 Finnish Lakes (S09-03)
 Chernobyl-affected zones, Radioactive waste storage areas,
Nuclear weapons test sites (S09-04)
 NPP Ecological Risk Assessment studies (P09-05)
Development of internationally recognized system of biota
protection and its harmonization with human protection is
crucial
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
Summary of sessions related to analytics
and dosimetry
Sigurdur Emil Palsson
Hannele Aaltonen
Herwig Paretzke
Hannu Järvinen
Harri Toivonen
Inger Margarethe Eikelman
Irena Malatova
Roy Pöllänen
S04: Dosimetry 1/2
Innovations and trends in internal dosimetry
 Use of new ICRU/ICRP reference phantoms
 Biokinetic models are being improved by human data
 ”Look-up” tables (TMT handbook) are useful but users should be
aware of their limitations
 A detailed exposure assessments for miners illustrated the need
for taking the main relevant factors into conideration.
 Early life: Techa river: improved assessment of in utero and
postnatal doses were developed to evaluate risks from chronic
exposures
 Internal dosimetry for 241Am has been improved by MC
simulations
 A clear trend can be recognized that uncertainty asssesments are
gaining high importance now (GUM recommendations)
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S04 Dosimetry 2/2
Innovations and trends in external dosimetry
 Refurbishing of graphite calorimeter standards developed for
60Co gamma beams.
 Novel materials are being used for active and passive
radiation detectors
 Recombination chambers providing information on radiation
quality besides the ambient dose rate
 Guidelines are available for optimum use of active personal
dosemeters (APDs) – problems at high dose rates
 LiF fading and the difference between low temperature peaks
in personal dosimetry can be used to develope a powerful tool
to estimate exposure conditions
Innovations and trends in radioecology and other applications
 Location-specific parameter changes in European level
should be considered for the ECOSYS model to improve the
basis of the ARGOS and RODOS decision support systems in
preparedness against nuclear accidents
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S10: Nuclear and Radiological Emergencies
and Incidents
Observation:
No major nuclear or radiological emergency reported
Challenge:
Maintaining and developing this high standard of safety
culture, e.g. by increased international co-operation and
cross disiplinary work.
1. Sharing experience
 reports on lessons learned during abnormal events
 networking and cooperation between relevant
organisations in different countries
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S10 (continued)
2. Sharing knowledge
 monitoring techniques
 results of development of modelling tools for
prediction exposure or transportation of radioactive
substances in air and in aquatic environment
3. Sharing information
 results of assessments
 new guidance and documentation
 information on national arrangements and data
handling
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S11: Nuclear Security and Malevolent Use of Radiation (1/2)
 Nuclear Security was addressed for the first time in IRPA
meetings
 Malevolent use of radiation is a serious threat to the society
 Safety and security are the two sides of the same coin
 Security measures have to be adopted by the radiation protection
community
 Novel in-field detection techniques
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Modelling, dispersion calculus, consequence management
Portal monitoring - resolving alarms and response
Measurement and analysis methods for alpha radiation
Novel algorithms for new type of data
Experiences at Major Public Events (Copenhagen, Vancouver)
Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S11: Nuclear Security and Malevolent Use of Radiation (2/2)
 A scientific breakthrough was presented: Optical remote
detection of alpha radiation, Tampere Technical University,
Finland
 Safety, Security and Safeguards have similarities from
technological point of view, and they benefit from the science
in the different disciplines.
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S12: Radiation Detection Technologies and
Radionuclide Analytics
Use of new detection methods such as
- OSL (optical stimulated luminiscence) in NaCl for retrospective
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dosimetry,
Remote detection of alpha particles through UV radiation
LaBr3 scintillation detectors in monitoring network
Tissue equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) for precise
measurement of neutrons and photons in unknown mixed radiation
areas
Determination of alpha particles emitting radionuclides in the
environment, in radioactive waste, for nuclear safeguards, for
forensic and security purposes
- AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) for sensitive actinides isotopic
ratio measurement
- Sophisticated software enabling spectrometry without
radiochemical separation
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S12: Radiation Detection Technologies and
Radionuclide Analytics
New applications/areas – current trends
• Enhancement of nuclear/radiation security &
forensic analyses
• Development of coincidence methods
• application of Monte Carlo methods in different
fields
• use of instrumentation from hospitals (clinical
gamma camera) for emergency preparedness
• minimizing activity and dose with enhanced image
quality in medical exposure
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
Summary of sessions related to radiation
practises and regulation
Tua Rahola
Jack Valentin
Eduardo Gallego
Ritva Havukainen
Pedro Carboneras Martinez
Risto Paltemaa
Klaus Henrichs
Veli Riihiluoma
 S05 Waste & decommissioning:
 Final HLW disposal now close to licensing in some countries
 Waste from decomm. of nuclear installations now a reality
 S07 Education & training:
 Roles of different experts to be specified
 Emerging tools, platforms, and networks promise future
improvements
 S08 Protection of workers:
 Challenges: difficult radiation environments, imprecise dose
models, training needs
 Prospects: ALARA programmes, peer comparisons (also
between sectors), ORAMED – ISOE - ISEMIR
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S18 Recommendations, standards, regulations
 Platforms: ICRP P103, risk comparisons, QMS
 Challenges: Differing perceptions between countries, medical
radiological protection, TENORM
Observations and conclusions:
 ICRP P103 broadly accepted as basis for new standards (but some
’practice/intervention’ problems still unsolved)
 Can satisfactory conditions at a site be specified objectively?
 Risk remains a useful yardstick to set regulatory levels
 (Quality) Management systems are worth the effort
 Justification of diagnostic examinations should be improved
using, e.g., stakeholder involvement
 Multimodal medical imaging requires special consideration
 TENORM discharges need attention
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland
S19 Radiation and society
 Resources and associations presented, case studies of
stakeholder involvement described
 Practical experience of stakeholder involvement now
available, can be used in new situations
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Third European IRPA Congress 2010, Helsinki, Finland