Abstract
The ethical bases of Argentina's radiation safety approach are reviewed. The applied principles are those recommended and established internationally, namely: the principle of justification of decisions that alters the radiation exposure situation; the principle of optimization of protection and safety; the principle of individual protection for restricting possible inequitable outcomes of optimized safety; and the implicit principle of intergenerational prudence for protection future generations and the habitat. The principles are comparedvis-à-visthe prevalent ethical doctrines: justificationvis-à-visteleology; optimizationvis-à-visutilitarianism; individual protectionvis-à-visdeontology; and, intergenerational prudencevis-à-visaretaicism (or virtuosity). The application of the principles and their ethics in Argentina is analysed. These principles are applied to ALL exposure to radiation harm; namely, to exposures to actual doses and to exposures to actual risk and potential doses, including those related to the safety of nuclear installations, and they are harmonized and applied in conjunction. It is concluded that building a bridge among all available ethical doctrines and applying it to radiation safety against actual doses and actual risk and potential doses is at the roots of the successful nuclear regulatory experience in Argentina.
Highlights
IntroducionThe paper is aimed at revitalizing that ethical basis vis-a-vis both the new 2007 recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection issued as ICRP Publication 103 [1] and the international Fundamental Safety Principles issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency [2]
Argentina’s radiation safety experts have been very keen in exploring and reassessing the rules and standards governing their professional conduct
After the 2007 ICRP Recommendations were issued, there were a number of ethics-related initiatives by the Nuclear Energy Agency of OECD (NEA-OECD), including in-depth discussions of how science and social values are taken into account in the formation of radiation protection policy and regulatory judgments, which took place at NEA-OECD Science and Values in Radiological Protection Workshops held in Finland in January 2008 [17] and Vaulx de Cernay, France, on November 2009 [18]
Summary
The paper is aimed at revitalizing that ethical basis vis-a-vis both the new 2007 recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection issued as ICRP Publication 103 [1] and the international Fundamental Safety Principles issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency [2]. The latter is the primary international safety standard underpinning international safety obligations that have been undertaken by Argentina. The ICRP recommendations propose a radiation protection paradigm or model for ensuring that human and their habitat are properly protected against the potential harmful effects of radiation exposure, which serves as the basis for the international safety principles and for the Argentinean radiation safety standards
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