Practical Guidance for Engagement with the Public on Radiation and Risk

IRPA is pleased to announce the launch of our new publication ‘Practical Guidance for Engagement with the Public on Radiation and Risk’, now available on the IRPA website Documents page.

Experiences from past emergencies, including the accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011 and the following post-disaster recovery, highlight public understanding as one of the most important challenges, and this challenge is common across almost all public interfaces regarding radiation and risk. IRPA therefore continued a TG activity for Public Understanding (2016-2020) based on the results in the previous TG on Public Understanding (2013-2016). A series of workshops was organized in various regions of the world from 2018 to 2019 to develop 'IRPA Guidance’. In addition, during Regional IRPA Congresses and other meetings, the initiatives of the TG and the guidance were presented by IRPA and discussed with the audience. In 2019 the IRPA draft guidance was issued for consultation of the Associate Societies and we received a lot of helpful comments and suggestions. The objective of the guidance is two-fold. Firstly, it is to enthuse all of us in our profession to become more active public advocates for radiation protection. Secondly, it is to provide information, experiences and techniques to help us to become more effective and comfortable in this challenging task. In launching this important guidance, we invite all RP societies to actively promote an enhanced public engagement programme.

IRPA would like to express our gratitude to all those who contributed to the drafting of the guidance, including those on the IRPA Task Group on Public Understanding and many other experts in this field.