The NEA Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) held a bureau meeting on 14 October 2020 to discuss its main priorities, activities and programme of work for 2021-2022, as approved during the annual CRPPH meeting in September 2020. This was the first bureau meeting with the new CRPPH Chair, Mr Thierry Schneider of the Nuclear Protection Evaluation Centre (CEPN). Mr Schneider will succeed Mr Mike Boyd, who served as Chair for five years.
During the meeting, the bureau started reflecting on the preparations for the third NEA Workshop on Stakeholder Involvement, which will focus on optimisation, i.e. the search for the "best" protection for a given circumstance.
Many experts in the radiological protection community have noted that protection choices are often made considering mostly radiological aspects rather than the broader environmental, social, economic and cultural issues that may be affected by the situation and the choice of protection measures. In practice, optimisation should take into account the desired outcomes of the stakeholders and implemented with their involvement, which is at the cornerstone of the decision making process.
The first NEA Workshop on Stakeholder Involvement was held in January 2017 with a focus on nuclear energy decision making, while the second workshop in September 2019 focused on risk communication. The third workshop will be organised in 2021 or 2022.