Radiation Protection Of Outside Workers: Implementation Of The EC Council Directive 90/641/EURATOM

In the beginning of the 1980's, the problem of radiological protection of workers belonging to contracted companies (undertakings) within nuclear facilities was raised. In most of the nuclear facilities, the so-called outside workers received 80% (and even more) of the collective dose, and quite often higher individual doses than workers permanently employed by the nuclear operators. Since the outside workers radiation protection issue was not explicitly taken into account by the 1980 European Basic Safety Standards Directive, there was a need for an additional piece of European radiation protection legislation. In this context, the European Union adopted in 1990 the Council Directive 90/641/EURATOM on the radiological protection of outside workers. This Directive shall ensure at European Union level that the radiological protection situation for the outside workers is equivalent to that offered to those workers permanently employed by the operators of nuclear facilities. Since the adoption of the Directive in 1990 the geographical situation of the European Union has changed significantly. At the same time, an evolution took place in the industrial structures of the nuclear industry followed by changes of employment conditions. Furthermore, new European radiation protection requirements were issued considering scientific and technical developments in the radiological protection field and laid down in the new radiation Protection Basic Safety Standards Directive 96/29/EURATOM. Taking into account these aspects the Radiation Protection Unit of the European Commission Directorate General for Energy and Transport decided to investigate the current situation and the future status of the Outside Workers Directive 90/641/EURATOM. The European Commission Radiation Protection Unit thus awarded the CEPN with a contract in order to evaluate through a survey the level of regulatory, administrative and operational implementation of Directive 90/641/EURATOM into Member States national regulations. In addition, a Seminar was held in Luxembourg on 29 and 30 November 2005, gathering representatives from EC departments, national regulatory bodies, operators, outside undertakings and from trade unions. The participants discussed measures aimed at coping with these above-mentioned challenges for the radiological protection of outside workers. The paper will provide information on the results of the survey and will present the summaries and conclusions of the discussions of the Luxembourg workshop. (authors)