Differences between IAEA and EU Basic Safety Standards

In 2013 the European Union (EU) published the new basic safety standards "for protection against the dangerous arising from exposure to ionising radiation" as given in the text of the Council Directive 2013/ 59/Euratom. This directive was published after more than 15 years of thorough analyses of radiation protection issues and shall be transposed in all 28 EU Member States. The Directive is based on experiences with implementation of five Euratom Directives already transposed, on ICRP 103 publication published in 2007 and on new scientific data. In 2014 the IAEA published International Basic Safety Standards regarding radiation protection and safety of radiation sources, i.e. IAEA SS GSR Part 3, which is also based on the publication ICRP 103 and experiences of more than 160 IAEA Member States. Despite the fact that both texts regarding basic safety standards have been drafted in the same period of time and are based on the ICRP 103, i.e. introducing three exposure situations, there are some significant differences between both documents, e.g. in managing exposure situations related to industries using natural occurring radioactive materials. The differences span from variations in basic principles of radiation protection to distinctness in technical standards, such as the standard related to the exposure due to radon in workplaces. The presented systematic analysis of differences shall facilitate communication among EU MSs and other countries. This is particularly important taking into account world market of equipment producing ionising radiation, world market of materials and control of exposure of itinerant workers in all exposure situations.