HERCA 26 Board Meeting – remote
The HERCA Board of Heads (BoH) meeting in Autumn 2020 was the first HERCA meeting organized in virtual mode. It was kindly hosted by the ASN (France) and chaired by Mrs. Karla Petrovà (SUJB, Czech Republic).
General outcomes:
- The BoH welcomed in the beginning of this unusual meeting new HERCA Board members and approved agenda.
- The chair of HERCA and secretariat informed BoH about activities done during the past months on behalf of HERCA and presented also a current status of HERCA budget.
- The conclusions of the TF HERCA Policies meeting have been presented. The TF will be renamed to “Task Force Strategy” with extension of its mandate. The year 2021 will provide HERCA the opportunity to have a brand new website and a new strategy for the years to come.
The BoH also approved important documents and decisions related to the activities of HERCA working groups / task forces / networks which were able to continue their works through 2020.
Namely:
- The BoH approved a document prepared by a HERCA eTF focused on specifications of topics relevant from regulatory point of view for a planned discussion with ICRP on further development of ICRP general recommendations. The document will be send to ICRP and – when possible – the communication will be started.
- A survey questionnaire on the experiences and challenges with regards to Assessment of Occupational Exposure and National Dose Registries will be distributed within HERCA members.
- In the field of emergency preparedness and response, complementary documents on the HERCA-WENRA Approach will be published on the HERCA website soon.
- HERCA aims to be able to provide a full picture of the implementation of RPE/RPO through Europe and – if possible – to organize a workshop in 2021 on this subject.
- The 2nd HERCA Workshop on National Radon Action Plans has been postponed to September 2021. The Board approved the prolongation of the WGNAT mandate for a period of three years in order to:
- (a) finalize on-going activities related to radon, NORM and BM (e.g., workshop RNAP, WGNAT guidance on NORM exemption and clearance, follow-up workshop Mining and metal processing), and
- (b) continue with valuable discussions and exchanges on topic of relevance.
- The achievement of the standardisation of DAP-units is seen as a great success in the field of medical applications. The publication of the HERCA position paper on clinical audit has been approved by the Board, as well as the survey results on European practices in therapeutic nuclear medicine.
- In the field of veterinary applications, the Board approved the publication of the joint statement with FEEVA.
- In the field of industrial and research sources and practices, the survey approved at WGRISP level is now proposed for Board approval to be published as information paper on the website.
The BoH noted the information from the chair of HERCA and both vice-chairs to step down at the end of next year. The names of the new chair and vice-chairs will be agreed in next HERCA meeting.