IAEA/RCA Technical Meeting of the RCA Regulators Forum on Regional Priority Issues and Solutions in terms of Sustainability of Regional Radiation Protection Infrastructures will be held on 5-7 August 2008 in Manila, the Philippines in cooperation with the Government of the Philippines through the Philippines Nuclear Research Institute.

Over the past two decades regional projects on radiation protection have focused on establishing and maintaining basic radiation protection infrastructures. This included the establishment of radiation protection legislation and regulation, occupational exposure control, medical (patient) exposure control, public exposure control and emergency planning and preparedness. The current and former RCA and IAEA radiation protection projects have borne fruit and radiation protection infrastructure now exists and continues to be developed in all Member States in the region in varying degrees of sophistication.

This new RCA project on Sustainability of Regional Radiation Protection Infrastructures looks ahead to the future and sustaining what has been achieved to date, through the development of action plans for sustainability, ongoing regional networking and exchange of information and continued mutual support of our regional radiation protection endeavors. The new RCA project has four components, covering regulatory infrastructure including public exposure control, occupational exposure control, medical (patient) exposure control, and radiological emergency preparedness and response.

The objectives of the regulatory infrastructure component are: (1) to develop an action plan for regional sustainability in regulatory infrastructure in participating RCA Member States, (2) to create a regional network of regulatory authorities to continue mutual interaction with minimal IAEA support beyond 2010, (3) to provide a radiation protection regulators forum for the participating RCA Member States, to maintain and sustain regulatory infrastructure in the region, to create a regional environment of self-support, mutual understanding and information sharing to maintain regulatory practices in line with the International Basic Safety Standards and the International Code of Conduct for the safety and security of radioactive sources, and (4) to pursue and develop regulatory subject matter with a common approach for example to waste management strategic and environmental discharge criteria.

For more information, please email Ms Eulinia Mendoza Valdezco at emvaldezco@pnri.dost.gov.ph.