HERCA’s new chairmanship and HERCA Board of Heads meeting in June 2023

At the occasion of the HERCA Board meeting held on 7-9 June 2023 in Stockholm, HERCA’s members elected Jean-Luc Lachaume, ASN (French Nuclear Safety Authority) Commissioner, as Chair of the association with the support of Pilar Lucio Carrasco, Commissioner of CSN (Spanish Nuclear Safety Authority) and Patrick Majerus, Head of the Radiation Protection Division at the Luxembourg Ministry of Health, as vice-chairs.

Their shared ambitions for this mandate are:

• to continue implementing the new HERCA strategy, with its main focus being reinforced cooperation between the radiation protection competent authorities and the development of cross-inspections;
• to actively involve HERCA in the project to overhaul the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), with the publication of HERCA’s “Reflections on the Revision of the System of Radiological Protection”;
• and, in response to the events in Ukraine, to mobilise as necessary, the group of experts to reinforce and prepare for transboundary cooperation in the event of an accident.

This six-monthly meeting, hosted in Stockholm by the SSM, was also an opportunity for the association to address a number of important topics including: the implementation of HERCA’s strategy and revision of its policies; progress on the work of HERCA’s six expert groups; Small Modular Reactors (SMR) and radiation protection challenges; and the situation in Ukraine.