ASN issues a call for candidates for its new Advisory Committee for Radiation Protection

When preparing its most important resolutions, ASN requests opinions and recommendations from its eight Advisory Committees of Experts (GPE)^[1]. With the mandates of the two Advisory Committees for Radiation Protection coming to an end, ASN is setting up a single radiation protection group with cross-cutting expertise. It is therefore issuing a call for applications from candidates.

Radiation protection expertise brought together in a single group

The third mandate of the Advisory Committees for Radiation Protection (GPRADE and GPMED) comes to an end on 31 December 2021.

In order to achieve an integrated vision of radiation protection, ASN is setting up a single Advisory Committee for Radiation Protection in 2022, called the GPRP, with cross-cutting expertise. The role of this group will be to provide ASN with insight regarding issues relating to:

• Radiation protection of workers and the public for the medical and forensic applications of ionising radiation, industrial and research applications of ionising radiation and naturally occurring ionising radiation;
• Radiation protection of patients, for medical applications;
• The environment.

This group will be linked to a standing working group, called the GTRPP, in charge of dealing with radiation protection of patients, owing to the specific aspects involved. The Chair of the GTRPP will be a member of the GPRP.

In order to set up the future GPRP and GTRPP, whose mandate will begin on 1 January 2022 and end on 31 December 2025, ASN is issuing a public call for applications from candidates.

These two groups must be created before 31 December 2021.

Duties of the Advisory Committee for Radiation Protection (GPRP)

The GPRP will be consulted by ASN so that it can shed light on technical subjects with the most significant radiation protection implications, usually drawing on an expert analysis report from an ad hoc working group or the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), ASN’s technical support organisation.

The GPRP will provide ASN with an expert assessment and the perspective needed before reaching a decision. The members of the GPRP will need to remain abreast of progress in the field of radiation protection and contribute to work being done on changes to radiation protection doctrine and regulations. The GPRP will respond to ASN requests for opinions on particular subjects, but may also from time to time send ASN proposals for the review of specific subjects. The GPRP will assimilate the data placed at its disposal before reaching an informed and independent opinion. Its opinions will be published on www.asn.fr, generally at the same time as the corresponding ASN resolution.

The working and composition of the new Advisory Committee for Radiation Protection (GPRP)

The GPRP will meet several times a year to prepare the opinions sent to ASN. It will also be able to meet for information sessions and may be required to take part in specific field visits.

The working of the GPRP is described in the internal rules of procedure of both ASN and the GPEs (link).

The GPRP members will be appointed for their expertise in the field of radiation protection, which shall be as wide-ranging as possible, as well as for their expertise in certain specific types of installations or activities, or their specialisation in a technical field.

The GPRP may occasionally call on temporary working groups on specific subjects. These ad hoc WGs will produce a report and submit their considerations to the GPRP, which will then issue an opinion.

The standing working group for radiation protection of patients (GTRPP) will be linked to the GPRP. It will answer ASN requests for opinions on particular subjects relating to the radiation protection of patients, may be tasked by the GPRP to address a question on the radiation protection of patients or may do so at its own initiative. The GTRPP will produce reports or opinions and will meet as often as necessary. All the opinions proposed by the GTRPP will be adopted by the GPRP.

The members of the GTRPP will be appointed for their specialist expertise in a field of patient radiation protection (justification, optimisation) as well as for their expertise with regard to certain types of medical facilities or activities.

The members of the GPRP and the GTRPP come from civil society, industry, the medical sector, expert analysis organisations, university research laboratories, foreign safety regulatory authorities, etc. They are appointed as individuals and do not therefore represent the viewpoints and interests of the organisations to which they belong, but contribute to a technical consensus on the subjects submitted to them, on the basis of their knowledge and their experience. 

The members of the GPRP and the GTRPP will be appointed for four years by decision of ASN. They will not be paid for their services and their mandate may be terminated at their request or by an ASN decision which shall give the reasons.

The member selection and appointment process adopted by ASN aims to ensure not only the complementarity of their fields of expertise, but also their independence and the transparency of their decision-making process.

The prevention of conflicts of interest also requires that ASN ask those interested in sitting on the GPRP and GTRPP to produce a declaration of interests. The ethical rules applicable to external expert appraisal performed at the request of ASN are defined in Appendix 2 to the ASN internal rules of procedure “application of the health expert appraisal charter to external appraisals performed at the request of ASN”, as well as in the internal rules of procedure of the available Advisory Committees.

The members of the ad hoc WGs created by the GPRP will be subject to the same ethical obligations as the members of the GPRP.

Procedure for candidate applications for the new ASN Advisory Committee for Radiation Protection

The candidates may apply either for the “Radiation Protection” Advisory Committee (GPRP) alone, or for its standing Working Group (GTRPP) alone, or for both. The availability of the candidates shall be sufficient for active and regular participation in the work, more specifically those applying for the two groups, including travel to the Paris area (the ASN headquarters are in Montrouge).

The candidates applying for the GPRP shall have radiation protection expertise that is as wide-ranging as possible and shall have a keen interest in all the related fields to be analysed (medical, industry, research and environment).

The documents making up the candidate application file are available below:

• Application form
• Table of expertise for the GPRP
• Table of expertise for the GTRPP
• Specimen CV
• Declaration of interests.

Once completed, these documents shall be sent to asn.candidaturesGPE@asn.fr no later than 30 September 2021.

Once all the applications have been received, a committee to select experts for the two groups (GPRP and GTRPP) will submit proposals for the composition of these groups. The ASN Chairman will then appoint the members of the two groups, who will take part in the work carried out during the 2022-2025 mandate.

For all information: asn.candidaturesGPE@asn.fr.

^[1] Six GPE in the fields of nuclear safety: “nuclear reactors” (GPR), laboratories and plants (GPU), waste (GPD), transports (GPT), nuclear pressure equipment (GPESPN) and decommissioning (GPDEM) and two in the field of radiation protection: “radiation protection in the medical sector” (GPMED) and “non-medical (industry, research) and environmental radiation protection (GPRADE).

To find out more about the GPE: http://www.french-nuclear-safety.fr/ASN/Technical-support/The-Advisory-Committees