Radiation Protection Training Needs in Slovenia

There were 5951 exposed workers in year 2014 in Slovenia. 3673 of them were working in 464 organisations in medicine and veterinary medicine and were using 902 X-ray devices. 7 of these organisations were also using unsealed sources. 678 workers were working in Krsko NPP, 50 on TRIGA Mk II research reactor. 1600 workers were employed by 231 organisations that have 1329 sources of ionising radiation (922 radioactive sources and 353 X-ray devices). Since all exposed workers must be adequately trained, in relevant rules 17 different categories of training courses are defined for exposed workers, also for members of radiation protection unit staff and persons responsible for radiation protection, Comparison of numbers of exposed workers in previous years shows that the number is steadily increasing, approx. by 190 per year. To compensate for this increase and annual turnover of workforce, and to fulfil legal requirements, 27% of exposed workers should attend either initial radiation protection training or re-training before re-examination. The comparison of numbers of trained workers and exposed workers from year 2004 to 2013 confirm this estimate. Percentage of trained workers in year 2014 was lower (it was below 19%), which is probably due, but not only, to the absence of outage in NEK.