Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 (No. 115) - Belarus (Ratification: 1968)

The Committee takes note of the Government’s last report as well as of the information communicated by the Government in response to its comments. It draws the Government’s attention to the following points.

1. Article 3, paragraph 1, and Article 6, paragraph 2, of the Convention. The Committee notes article 3 of the Law on the Radiation Safety of the Population of 5 January 1998, as amended, prescribing the principle of standard setting as a basic principle for ensuring radiation safety. According to article 8 of this Law, standard setting is to be carried out through the adoption of sanitary rules, standards, hygienic regulations, radiation safety rules, state standards, building codes and rules, labour protection regulations, administrative documents, instructions, methodological and other instruments on radiation safety. In this respect, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that the Standards of Radiological Safety of 25 January 2000 (SRS-2000) provide for irradiation dose limits for workers, which are in compliance with the 1990 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). In absence of the text of the Standards of Radiological Safety 2000 (SRS-2000), the Committee requests the Government to supply a copy for in-depth examination.

2. Article 7, paragraph 2. As concerns the permissible exposure levels to ionizing radiation for workers under the age of 18, the Government refers to paragraph 25 of SRS-2000 prescribing dose limits for students and pupils over 16 years of age who are engaged in vocational training involving their exposure to ionizing radiations. Pursuant to paragraph 25, the annual dose should not exceed one-fourth of the fixed values for persons who are engaged in work involving ionizing radiations. The Committee notes that article 8 of the Law on the Radiation Safety of the Population of 5 January 1998, as amended, establishes an annual dose limit of 20 mSv per year, averaged over five years, with the further provision that the effective dose should not exceed 50 mSv in any single year. Hence, the dose limits fixed for workers between 16 and 18 years of age comply with the dose limits recommended by the ICRP, and would thus give effect to this Article of the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to communicate a copy of it to examine the dose limits established therein.

3. Article 8. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the established dose limit for non-radiation workers is 5 mSv per year, under the condition that in the following five years the effective dose would not exceed 1 mSv. In this respect, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to paragraph 14 of its 1992 general observation under the Convention where it is explained that the ICRP considered in the past that it was permissible to use a subsidiary dose limit of 5 mSv in a year for some years, provided that the average annual dose equivalent over a lifetime did not exceed the principal limit of 1 mSv in a year. Now, the dose limit given by the ICRP is 1 mSv per year, averaged over five consecutive years. The Committee accordingly invites the Government to revise the dose limit for non-radiation workers in the light of the above recommendations of the ICRP to which the Committee refers in its 1992 general observation under the Convention.

4. Article 13 (emergency exposure). Further to its previous comments and with regard to the specific protection measures to be taken against accidents and emergencies which are raised in item 35(c) in its conclusions to the general observation under the Convention of 1992, the Committee notes article 9, paragraph 1, of the Law on the Radiation Safety of the Population of 5 January 1998, as amended, requiring prior authorization before taking up any practical activity involving ionizing radiations. Article 10, paragraph 2, of the above Law entitles the officials, who are in charge of exercising technical control over the process of ensuring radiation safety, to suspend the works involving ionizing radiation in the case of the detection of violations of legal or administrative standards on radiation protection. The Committee, referring in particular to item 35(c)(i) of its conclusions to the general observation, requests the Government to indicate the measures taken with regard to the review and possible suspension of authorizations previously granted for the use of specific practices or equipment of a kind which, following an accident, has been found unsafe in any one workplace.

5. Finally, with regard to the catastrophe at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that the matters related to irradiation of the population are regulated in the Laws of the Republic of Belarus on Social Protection of Persons affected by the Catastrophe at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the Legal Regime of the Territories Exposed to Radioactive Contamination. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply a copy of these texts and of all other texts adopted in application of the Convention for further examination.