National Atomic Energy Agency

The performance of tasks in the workstations situated at nuclear facilities, radioactive waste management facilities or relating to other activities involving the use of ionizing radiation sources is a cause of radiation exposure of workers called occupational exposure.

Provisions which are applicable in Poland, concerning the control of occupational exposure, are the result of the implementation of the Council Directive 96/29/EURATOM of 13 May 1996 laying down basic safety standards for the protection of the health of workers and the general public against the dangers resulting from ionizing radiation. This Directive is in accordance with recommendations of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published in 1996 in the document entitled Basic Safety Standards for Protection Against Ionising Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources (Safety Series No 115, IAEA, 1996).

Principles concerning workers’ exposure control transposed from the Directive to the laws of Poland) are contained in Chapter 3 of the Atomic Law Act, dedicated to nuclear safety, radiological protection and protection of workers’ health. Under these provisions the responsibility for the compliance with requirements in this area rests first of all with the head of organizational entity who is responsible for the control of doses received by workers.

Head of organizational entity is also responsible for the assessment of doses received by his/her workers which under Article 21 of the Atomic Law Act in case of workers classified in category A must be performed on the basis of measurements carried out by specialized authorized radiometric laboratories.

Provisions of Atomic Law Act of 29 November 2000 amended in 2004 introduced the obligation to cover by individual control only those workers who are classified in ionizing radiation exposure category A that is workers who, according to the opinion of the head of organizational entity, may be under normal occupational conditions exposed to an effective dose exceeding 6 mSv per annum or to an equivalent dose exceeding in the period of 12 months the amount of 0.3 of suitable dose limits for skin, limbs and eyes’ lenses. The assessment of doses of category B workers, who are exposed to doses from 1 to 6 mSv, is performed on the basis of measurements carried out in work environment. If the head of organizational entity considers it necessary, workers of this category may, but do not have to, be included in the exposure control by means of personal dosimeters.

Till 2002 annual reports containing data on individual exposure according to professional groups, industries and types of facilities were based on data provided directly from authorized radiometric laboratories and were with regard to workers under exposure control regardless of A or B category.

Now, data collected in the register of workers concerns only workers classified by their heads to the category A and is provided directly by organizational entities whose heads transmit to the central register of doses, maintained by the President of National Atomic Energy Agency, identification cards for workers of category A, including the assessment of their effective and equivalent doses for a given year as performed by authorized radiometric laboratories.