Bridging radiation policy and science

Abstract

A conference on Bridging Radiation Policy and Science took place at Warrenton, VA, USA on 1-5 December 1999. Some 70 invited delegates met in the plantation-style manorial surroundings of Airlie House to continue the discussion of how to set policy for radiation protection against a background of scientific discussion on the effects of low radiation doses. The meeting was a follow-up to the `Wingspread Conference' in Racine, Washington in 1977. The sponsors of the conference were the International Nuclear Energy Academy, International Nuclear law Association, International Nuclear Societies Council, International Radiation Protection Association and the World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology. The conference was chaired by Gail de Planque and the programme committee by Sigurdur Magnusson from Iceland. The meeting was organised by Burk & Associates on behalf of the US Health Physics Society. Although there was a strong US presence, the organisers and, in particular, the programme committee had gone to great lengths to ensure participation from the international community and a broad range of interests. The participants came from organisations as diverse in their views as (in no particular order) USNRC, USEPA, Greenpeace, ICRP, The House of Commons, JAERE, ANSTO, Friends of the Earth, BNFL, IAEA, IPSN, The French Academy of Sciences and the World Council of Nuclear Workers.