3.4 EXPOSURE OF NON-HUMAN SPECIES (ANIMAL AND PLANT SPECIES) The international radiation protection system was created to protect humans against the effects of ionising radiation. Environmental radioactivity is thus assessed with respect to its impact on human beings and, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it is today considered that the current standards guarantee the protection of other species. Protection of the environment against the radiological risk and more specifically the protection of nonhuman species, must however be guaranteed independently of the effects on humans. Pointing out that this objective is already incorporated in French legislation, ASN ensures that the impact of ionising radiation on non-human species is effectively taken into account in the impact assessments of nuclear facilities and activities. On the basis of the IRSN expert assessment report, the Advisory Committee of Experts for Radiation Protection of Worker and the Public (GPRP, formerly GPRADE) issued an opinion in September 2015. Following the recommendations of this opinion, at the end of 2017 ASN set up a pluralistic and multi-disciplinary working group coordinated by the IRSN to produce a methodological guide for assessing the impact of ionising radiation on the flora and fauna, based on a graded approach. The draft of the Methodological guide for assessing the radiological risk for the wild flora and fauna – Concepts, fundamentals and implementation within the impact study was submitted to ASN at the end of 2020 and presented to the GPRADE in June 2021. The final version of the guide was published in January 2022 on the ASN website taking into account the recommendations of the GPRADE’s opinion on the operational nature of the methodology. TABLE Number of procedures and associated collective effective dose for each imaging method (rounded values) in France in 2017 IMAGING METHOD PROCEDURES TOTAL COLLECTIVE EFFECTIVE DOSE: 102,198 Sv Number % % Conventional radiology (dentistry excluded) 46,681,000 55.1 11.8 Dental radiology 25,023,000 29.6 0.3 Computed tomography 10,866,000 12.8 74.2 Diagnostic interventional radiology 435,000 0.5 2.4 Nuclear medicine 1,662,000 2 11.3 Total 84,667,000 100.0 100.0 Source: IRSN 2020. 5 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2023 115 • 01 • Nuclear activities: ionising radiation and health and environmental risks 01 05 15 08 11 04 14 06 07 13 AP 03 10 02 09 12
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