Radiation Safety Standards and Basic Health Rules for Radiation Safety: Proposal on the Development of New Versions

The purpose of this work is to improve the Russian Radiation Safety Standards (NRB) in terms of the interpretation of the meaning of “the main limit of the annual effective dose” and the use of the concept of “emergency”.

In [1], proposals were submitted to discuss the changing in new versions of NRB and the Main Health Rules for Radiation Safety (OSPORB) in terms of the interpretation of the concept of “the limit of the annual effective dose of man-caused occupational exposure” and health physics regulation of radionuclide contents in solid materials for free or limited use of these materials.

The current NRB-99/2009 uses the term “radiation accident” and establishes the main limits of effective dose (Table 3.1.) for personnel and the public:

‒ for the personnel A group, the annual dose limit is 50 mSv under the mandatory condition of not exceeding the average annual value of 20 mSv for any consecutive 5 years;

‒ for the public, the annual dose limit is 5 mSv under the mandatory condition of not exceeding the average annual value of 1 mSv for any consecutive 5 years.

However, in design documentation for the construction and reconstruction of nuclear facilities, in draft regulatory and methodological documents, there are periodically misinterpretations of the main dose limits for personnel and the public and an incorrect interpretation of the term “radiation accident”. In many cases, a dose of 20 mSv is called the annual dose limit for personnel, and a dose of 50 mSv/year is either not mentioned at all, or is considered only as permissible in a radiation accident. The term “radiation accident” is often treated as a synonym for “emergency”.

The paper justifies the expediency of introducing relevant changes to the text of new NRB.