Occupational radiation exposure in Germany in 2013-2014. Report of the radiation protection register

In Germany, persons who are occupationally exposed to ionising radiation are monitored by several official dosimetry services that transmit the dose records about individual radiation monitoring to the Radiation Protection Register of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS). The purpose of the Radiation Protection Register is to supervise the keeping of the dose limits and to monitor the compliance with the radiation protection principle ''Optimisation'' by performing detailed annual statistical analyses of the monitored persons and their radiation exposure. The annual report of the Radiation Protection Register provides information about status and development of occupational radiation exposure in Germany. In 2014, about 358,000 workers were monitored with dosemeters for occupational radiation exposure. The number increased continuously by totally 5 % into the past five years. 15 % of the monitored persons received measurable personal doses. The average annual dose of these exposed workers was 0.50 mSv corresponding to less than 3 % of the annual dose limit of 20 mSv for radiation workers. In total, two persons exceeded the annual dose limit of 20 mSv, i.e. less than one case per 100,000 monitored persons. The collective dose of the monitored persons decreased to 26.0 Person-Sv, the lowest value since the last fifty years of occupational dose monitoring. 45 airlines calculated the route doses of 39,500 aircraft crew members by using certified computer pro-grammes for dose calculation and sent the accumulated monthly doses via the Federal Office for Civil Aviation (''Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, LBA'') to the BfS. The collective dose of the aircraft crew personnel is 74.8 person-Sv, and thus significantly higher than the total collective dose of the workers monitored with personal dosemeters. The annual average dose of aircraft crew personnel was 1.89 mSv in 2014. In 2014, about 58,500 outside-workers were in possession of a valid radiation passport. The average annual dose of radiation exposed outside-workers was 1.09 mSv and thus twice as high as the average dose of all radiation exposed workers (0.50 mSv). Only two from thousand owners of radiation passports were impermissibly in possession of more than one valid radiation passport, after more than one passport had been issued to the same person. Since the beginning of the monitoring of radiation passport issuing in 1993, the impermissible issuing of multiple radiation passports was reduced by approximately 90%.