Communication of radiation protection issues

The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has embarked on a review and revision of the system of radiological protection (RP System) that will lead to new General Recommendations refining and superseding ICRP Publication 103. The first major milestone in ICRP's work was the publication of the paper titled ‘keeping the ICRP Recommendations Fit for Purpose’, in 2021, aimed at encouraging discussions within the RP community. On this matter, the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) has contributed to preparing the Heads of the European Radiological Protection Competent Authorities (HERCA) document titled ‘Reflections on the Revision of the System of Radiological Protection’ that were presented during the ICRP symposium named ‘6th International Symposium on the System of Radiological Protection’. In the latter, HERCA emphasised the need for simplification and clarification of the RP System, as well as other topics for future work: (i) to improve the fundamental principles of justification and optimisation; (ii) to broaden the guidance on radiation protection against radon exposure in workplaces; and (iii) to improve communication of RP. CSN is supportive of the HERCA reflections, and wants to elaborate more on Communication, an issue that is intimately related to the simplification and clarification of the RP System. In this paper, we propose that the revision and review of the RP System be conceived, since its very inception, on the grounds of communicability. We recognise that it is a huge challenge because the scientific robustness of the RP System is unnegotiable. The involvement of communication professionals in the process of the RP System revision may help clarify matters such as the reason why dose limits are established on one hand but reference levels are proposed, on the other, as well as why different dose limits are applicable depending on the exposure situations. The RP System is based on robust scientific foundations but there is a tendency to focus on ‘uncertainties’ rather than the many ‘certainties’ that are already well known. Undoubtedly, there will always be ‘uncertainties’, but it is the purpose of research and development (R&D) efforts and scientific discussions to turn them into certainties, which can be incorporated into regulations. However, the regulator’s actions shall be based on certainties and presented whenever the public claims for information before incidents and accidents, admitting that uncertainties exist, when it may be needed.