Substantive provisions of the IAEA guidelines for criteria for protecting the public and workers in radiation emergency

The IAEA regularly assists the member states in response to radiation emergencies. The accumulated experience has allowed the IAEA to create overall system of criteria for protecting the public and emergency workers in radiation emergency. Now the IAEA finalizes a preparation of the new guidelines for emergency preparedness and response. These guidelines are the part of hierarchical system of the documents directed on supporting protection of the public from risks of development of severe radiation effects. As a basic element, the System includes: 1) Quantitative evaluation of risk of developing severe radiation effects; 2) The strategy of protection of the public in radiation emergency; 3) Decision making criteria for radiation and medical protection of emergency workers and members of the public. Original risk models of developing the radiation effects in exposed humans lay in a base of criteria. The system of dosimetric quantities for expressing the criteria is also an important part of the System; 4) Criteria of ranking a potential danger of radionuclide sources for decision making on preventing their leave from the regulating control; 5) Practical guidelines for evaluating a radiation emergency, and for decision making to protect emergency workers and the public in different stages of its development. The system of requirements and criteria will be included into the new International Basic Safety Standards, which preparation the IAEA plans to complete in two years. The purpose of the present report is to inform the national experts with substantive provisions of the new IAEA guidelines for protecting the public and emergency workers in radiation emergency. The review is devoted to models of radiogenic risks and criteria, which the IAEA developed to support radiation protection of the public from risks of the deterministic and stochastic effects due to emergency exposure.