Fundamental ICRP recommendations at the start of the 21st century: Status of the revision of ICRP Publication 60

Abstract

Abstract The basic recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, ICRP, are either re-stated or revised at intervals of about 15 years, most recently in ICRP Publication 60, adopted in 1990. ICRP plans to issue its next recommendations around 2005. Through extensive consultation, the active participation of the radiological protection community was recruited already at the conceptual stage. Based on the vast input received, ICRP is currently preparing draft recommendations. These are likely to emphasise egalitarian values more than utilitarian ones, to be holistic rather than anthropocentric, and to be formatted as a relatively concise set of actual recommendations underpinned by separate publications with more detail. The draft will again be circulated world-wide and comments will be discussed in 2004 with a view to approval of the recommendations in 2005 and publication in 2005 or 2006. Thus, integration into legislation would be possible sometime between 2006 and 2010, say.