About Us
IRPCG provide a forum for the United Kingdom's Nuclear Industry to consider significant occupational radiological protection issues at a strategic level and provide a coherent approach as the industry develops.
We support:
- Achievement of consensus on good practice for relevant issues either remitted to the group by the SDF, or identified by member organisations. This should lead to improved efficiency in procedures and confidence that good practices are "peer reviewed" and more likely to meet regulatory expectations.
- Greater consistency (Operator Alignment).
- Increased ability for learning from each other, leading to increased licensee and regulator confidence.
- Facilitation of early awareness amongst member organisations of developing international/national legislation/guidance/major issues. This allows an early assessment of likely impact and opportunity to co-ordinate input and responses during developmental work. This should, in turn, lead to a combination of:
- Improved legislation and reduced costs.
- Benefits from "economy in scale" when working together on common goals.
- Sharing of information on current issues of interest to ONR, and outcomes from inspections, audits, etc.
- The ability for members to understand why particular approaches to radiological protection issues are taken by other members, which in turn can assist in responding to requests from external stakeholders.
- Staff development benefiting from exchange of relevant safety information.
- The production of intra-industry 'standards' (Nuclear Industry Code of Practice (NICoP) or Good Practice Guides (GPG)) which have/aim for regulatory consensus has generated significant benefits in ensuring common practices or improved wider operator understanding.
The current key strategic radiological protection issues facing the industry are:
- Development of radiation protection professionals up to Health Physicist and RPA2000 through national training programmes and formal qualifications. The IRPCG are engaged with the Nuclear Sector Skills Team to develop a national cohort training programme for Health Physicists. The IRPCG are also engaged with various education providers to assist in development of RP qualifications, in particular a Level 4/5 course to support development of Health Physics Monitors and Health Physics Managers.
- The proposed changes to ICRP Recommendations based on ICRU 95, which will change operational quantities for external radiation exposure. ICRU 95 recommends that instrument manufacturers and developers will need to develop revised dosimeters and instruments. The IRPCG are preparing a response on behalf of the UK Nuclear Industry to challenge these changes, in part due to the high forecasted costs required to practically implement the changes.
Programme of Work
Future Programme
In addition to the work streams arising from the issues identified above, IRPCG has used a structured process to identify other areas where collaborative work on further Nuclear Industry Codes of Practice (NICoPs) or Good Practice Guides (GPG) would be beneficial. The following Topics have been considered:
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1.
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An Air Sampling Good Practice Guide (ASGPG) is still on hold as AWE has conducted work in this area which has been made visible to the IRPCG. Additional work is being conducted at Sellafield and it has been agreed that this work should be completed before moving forward with the (ASGPG).
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A Good Practice Guide on the Assessment of Public Exposure Associated with Direct Shine Radiation is under development and expected to be published in 2025.
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A Good Practice Guide is being scoped to include Sustainability into the existing ALARP GPG.
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IRPCG believe that two is the ideal number of NICoPs and GPGs that can be worked on coincidentally, possibly three under certain circumstances. With this in mind IRPCG propose the following NICoPs and GPGs to be worked on when the work programme allows:
· Practical temporary containment for radioactive contamination.
· Air sampling locations.
· Co-operation between employers.
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HSE/ONR has remained interested in all of the topics above, and participate in their development subject to availability.
More Information
Group Documents
Useful Documents
Contact Us
For more information regarding this group please contact the chair: