EURATOM
With the publication of the new basic safety standards Directive1, the European Community modernises and consolidates the European radiation protection legislation based on Articles 2 and 30 of the Euratom Treaty. The new Directive offers in a single coherent document basics
safety standards for the protection against the dangers arising from ionising radiation which take account of the status-quo of science and technology, cover all relevant radiation sources, including natural radiation sources, integrate protection of workers, members of the public,
patients and the environment, cover all exposure situations, planned, existing, emergency, and harmonise numerical values with international standards.

Following the newly introduced ICRP philosophy, the new BSS Directive applies to any planned, existing or emergency exposure situation which involves a risk from exposure to ionising radiation which cannot be disregarded from a radiation protection point of view. With this, the
BSS applies to all relevant radiation sources, including radon, cosmic rays and naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), with no distinction made between artificial "manmade"radiation and natural radiation. The major challenge in this new approach is the
coherent application of the BSS to natural radiation sources, in particular to radon in buildings and in workplaces and to industrial sectors involving naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM).

The Directive introduces a graded approach to regulatory control of practices by way of notification, authorisation and appropriate inspections commensurate with the magnitude and likelihood of exposures resulting from the practice, and commensurate with the impact that
regulatory control may have in reducing such exposures or improving radiological safety.

Justified practices, if not exempted, need to be notified prior to the practice commencing and, if so decided, authorised. Following the above mentioned philosophy, this system of regulatory control now equally applies to activities involving NORM. In a first step, the Member State shall
identify, based on an indicative list given in the Directive, industrial sectors involving NORM which may lead to exposure of workers or members of the public which cannot be disregarded from a radiation protection point of view. For identified sectors, a graded approach applies
introducing exemption levels and decision criteria such as doses to workers and effluent
releases to the environment.

Another novelty with regard to natural radiation exposure is the introduction of a reference level for indoor external exposure to gamma radiation emitted from building materials of 1 mSv per year. 

In a first step, building materials of concern need to be identified taking account of the indicative list of building materials provided by the BSS Directive. Before placing on the market of any identified building material, the activity concentrations of Ra-226, Th-232, and K-40 need to be determined. The competent authority must be informed on the results of the measurements. If a type of building material is liable to exceed the reference level, the MS decide on appropriate measures.

The transposition and implementation of this comprehensive piece of legislation will constitute a major challenge for national legislators and regulators in the coming years (the transposition deadline being 6 February 2018). The Commission is pursuing a strategy to monitor the
transposition of the Directive into Member States' national legislation and to support its implementation. This shall allow, already in an early phase, the detection of issues, an exchange of first experiences, and the identification of good practices. Later in the process,
when Member States have already drafted legislation, another evaluation should take place to analyse national legislation of Member States with a view to assess compliance with the BSS Directive.

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