Progress of the SAGE project

16 March 2005: Fifth SAGE Coordination meeting

• The Fifth Coordination meeting took place in Paris, France. It was attended by the following SAGE partners: Anne Nisbet (NRPB), Irene Fiedler (GSF), Alexandre Sudas, Alexandre Zaitsau (BB-RIR), Vassili Nesterenko, (BELRAD Institute), Pascal Croüail and Jacques Lochard (CEPN). Stéphane BAUDÉ (MUTADIS) also participated as guest.
  This last co-ordination meeting was mainly devoted to the finalisation of the three remaining SAGE project deliverables. The participants discussed about the content of the proceedings (Deliverable no 5) of the final SAGE Workshop (Work Package 1) that was organised the two days before. They made final comments on the handbook before the issuing (Deliverable no 3) and Anne Nisbet presented the synthesis report on stakeholders panels running and feedback (Deliverable no 4).

14 & 15 March 2005: SAGE Workshop

• The SAGE workshop on " Radiation monitoring and radiation protection culture for people living in long-term contaminated areas” was held in Paris on 14-15 March 2005 (download the programme).
  The workshop was kindly hosted by the Conservatoire National des Arts & Métiers. It was partly sponsored by the French Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority (DGSNR) and by the French National Institute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN). It was also supported by the French Embassy in the Belarus Republic.
  The workshop gathered a sixty of participants from about 10 European countries. Representatives of the European Commission, of IAEA and OCDE/NEA were also present. The workshop provided the opportunity for the five partners of the SAGE Project (BELRAD Institute, BB-RIR, NRPB, GSF and CEPN) to present the findings of their work to interested parties and to discuss ways for further possible developments at the European level. Moreover, invited presentations of other experiences in managing long-term contamination were given (Norway, Wales and Belarus).
  All participants appreciated the originality of the participative approach developed in the project. However this exercise emphasises the lack of a common language between experts and the population as well as a lack of tools and structures for informing dialogues and debates. Nevertheless, during the final round table, everybody agrees to go further and to try to apply (or customize) the handbook in more specific contexts (medical advice for pregnant women, schools) and in different territories (local level, urban area).
  Proceedings of the workshop will be soon available.
  
  Download the Programme (480 Kb)
  
  links of articles about the SAGE Workshop:
  
  - http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3244,36-401816,0.html
  - http://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/20050315.FIG0328.html
  - http://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/20050317.FIG0054.html
  - http://www.liberation.fr/imprimer.php?Article=282481

1 December 2004: Fifth meeting of the French Stakeholder Panel

• The French Stakeholder Panel met for the fifth time in Paris at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. The first part of the meeting was devoted to comments on the last version of the practical handbook on radiation monitoring and protection. The stakeholders particularly identified the limits of the documents and asked that an introduction explains clearly the objective of their work and their contribution. During the second part of the meeting, the group worked on a proposal of flyer that would give recommendations to the affected population in case of long-term contamination. The programme of the final workshop was presented and the participation of the French stakeholder panel was studied. Finally, each stakeholder was asked to give its point of view on the achieved work and on possible followings to the SAGE project.

19 October 2004: Third meeting of the German Stakeholder Panel

• The members of the panel were informed about the last SAGE coordination meeting in Minsk this summer. The preliminary programme of the work shop that will finalize the SAGE project on March next year in Paris was presented. The stakeholders were asked to take part in the work shop and to contribute presentations. But a main problem will be the costs of their participation.
  
  The stakeholders discussed a questionnaire about “Elements for developing a Handbook on radiation monitoring and protection in case of contamination of the environment” that was created by the partners of NRPB. One remark in this context was that the proposed system of “radiation monitoring and protection” does not fit at the present time in Germany since the number of experts in this area will be more and more reduced in the future.
  
  The actual version 5 of the handbook was discussed. The stakeholder panel proposed to add a glossary with all abbreviations and to use only abbreviated units in tables. All members were asked to review the handbook once more thoroughly and to give their final comments.
  
  The next meeting is planned in spring 2005.

6 October 2004: Third meeting of the UK Stakeholder Panel

• The core group of the UK stakeholder panel met in London for a third time on 6 October 2004. The main aim of this meeting was to discuss feedback from the satellite groups on the SAGE Handbook and how such an initiative might be taken forward in the UK. The satellite groups comprised health professionals from various regions of the UK, a number of experts in risk communication from five UK Universities as well as several interested members of the public. An additional consultation is planned with a headmaster shortly.

Feedback from stakeholders was recorded in a standardised format, under the following broad topic areas:

• General applicability of the handbook to the UK
• Practicability and appropriateness of information/guidance provided
• Adapting the handbook for use in the UK
• Format of the handbook

Overall, it was felt that the system proposed is not currently practicable in the UK but with 'political will' and funding it would be valuable, complimenting the existing UK public health system. There are several areas in which the handbook could be further improved, namely in the translation of the document from French to English and in the type of language used - in some places it is too simplistic in others too technical. If the Handbook is to be developed further, consideration should also be given to having separate handbooks and/or leaflets for each type of audience.

The UK panel is now keen to take forward the concepts presented in the SAGE handbook. There are two target audiences: members of the public and health professionals. Consideration is being given to pre-preparing leaflets for members of the public. A set of recommendations may also be produced that outline the mechanisms that would need to be put in place to train health professionals, provide monitoring equipment etc in the case of long-term contamination. The 'trainers' could be trained in advance and a draft handbook for health professionals could be pre-prepared. It is likely that there will also be a generic top-level handbook for health professionals covering radiological and chemical contaminants.

10 July 2004: Second Belarusian stakeholders meeting

• The Belarus stakeholder panel met for the second time on 10 July 2004. During the meeting the Belarus participants gave advices on the format, structure and contents of the draft version of the handbook which was translated into Russian by CEPN.
  

The participants welcomed the work done so far, particularly as far as the style was concerned. They proposed to include complementary material available in Belarus on how to behave in recreational areas and on recipes to reduce the contamination of foodstuff during cooking. They expressed the wish to see in the future a Belarusian version of the handbook taking into account more specifically the specificity of the Belarus situation. It was decided to finalise first the European version and then to look for opportunities after the Paris workshop for possible supports to develop a Belarusian version.

7-9 July 2004: Fourth SAGE Coordination meeting

• The Fourth Coordination meeting took place in Minsk, Belarus at the BELRAD Institute. It was attended by the following SAGE partners: Anne Nisbet (NRPB), Irene Fiedler (GSF), Alexandre Sudas, Alexandre Zaitsau (BB-RIR), Vassili Nesterenko, Alexandre Devoyno, Vladimir Babenko (BELRAD Institute), Pascal Crouail and Jacques Lochard (CEPN). Jean-Claude Autret, Mireille Josset (ACRO) and Gabi Voigt (IAEA) also participated as guests. The first half day of the meeting was mainly devoted to the state of advancement of Work Packages 2 and 5. During the second day, SAGE partners mainly discussed the content and the format of the handbook (Work Package 4). The third day (morning only) was devoted to the preparation of the programme of the final SAGE Workshop (Work Package 1) that will be organised in Paris on 14 and 15 March 2005. Following the coordination meeting, the Belarus Stakeholder panel (See Stakeholder Panels section) met in Stolyn on the 10th July to discuss on the handbook.

11 May 2004: Second meeting of the UK Stakeholder Panel

• The core group of the UK stakeholder panel met in London for a second time on 11 May 2004. The main focus for discussion was the advanced draft of the handbook providing guidance for those living in the contaminated territories. The stakeholders provided their initial feedback on its structure and content as well as its general applicability to the UK. Several members of the panel agreed to convene satellite stakeholder groups (comprising members of the public, public health professionals etc.) in different areas of England and Wales to further extend the consultation process. A questionnaire designed by NRPB will be used to record feedback on specific aspects of the handbook in a standardised format, i.e.
  • General applicability of the handbook to the UK
  • Practicability and appropriateness of information/guidance provided
  • Adapting the handbook for use in the UK
  • Format of the handbook

A third meeting of the core group will take place on 6 October 2004 to consolidate feedback and to draw up recommendations. Overall, the UK stakeholder panel supports the aims and objectives of the handbook and would like to subsequently adapt it for use in the UK. Consideration is being given to broadening the scope of the handbook to include chemical contaminants.

3 May 2004: Fourth meeting of the French Stakeholder Panel

• The French Stakeholder Panel met for the fourth time in Paris at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. The meeting was particularly focussed on a detailed review of the handbook (hard copy + html version) and the related computer tool for helping the health and measurement professionals in analysing the results from body and foodstuffs measurements. Part of the meeting was also devoted to the final Stakeholder workshop, and particularly the participation of the French stakeholder panel was studied. Regarding to the proposal of CLCV in making a strip cartoon dealing with radioactivity and related problems tackled within SAGE, it was decided that a preliminary project would be prepared and presented during the final workshop in view of being sponsored further. The participants decided to organise an additional meeting on the 1st of December 2004.

2 March 2004: Second meeting of the German Stakeholder Panel

• The second meeting of the German stakeholder Group was on 2nd of March in Neuherberg. A short summary about the third SAGE coordination meeting in Paris was given to inform the panel about the progress of the different work packages of the project. The second draft version of the handbook on a radiation monitoring and protection in case of contamination of the environment was discussed in detail. One main objection was the role of the doctor. Even after a training and education in radiation protection the normal family doctor in Germany will not be able to solve the problems in case of a long term contamination, because the German public health system differs from the health care in France. Another concern was the measurement of ambient dose rates done by the “families” themselves, because the anxieties and problems of the concerned population can be increased by unsteady measurements with insufficient devices. This was an experience made after the Chernobyl accident, when many people tried to do their own measurements. A further general problem may arise because of “data security”, if measurement results of persons and households are published. Moreover, some proposals were made for the handbook: the involvement of psychologists to support concerned population groups, dissemination of actual information by internet, preparation of interactive CDs for schools and kindergartens and of a glossary in the national language for the most important terms in radiation protection. The next meeting is planned for the discussion of the next version of the handbook.

6 January 2004: Third meeting of the French Stakeholder Panel

• The French Stakeholder Panel met for the third time in Paris at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. The first part of the meeting was devoted to a practical case study for the interpretation of whole body measurements and their analysis with data on foodstuffs contamination. The case study was based on measurements related to French embassy’s employees in Minsk (for both body and foodstuffs measurements). The analysis was conducted using the different interpretation tools developed in the handbook. On the second part of the meeting, the French regulation (general principles, organisation, major regulatory texts) was presented to the participants by the representative from the French authority (DGSNR). On the third part of the meeting, the French participating non-govermental organisation CLCV presented its project of making a strip cartoon dealing with radioactivity and related problems tackled within SAGE, easier to be read by the general population and particularly young people. The last part of the meeting (in sub-groups) was devoted to comments on the second version of the practical handbook on radiation monitoring and protection.

27-28 November 2003: Third SAGE Coordination meeting (Paris)

• The Third SAGE Coordination meeting took place in Paris at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) facilities. It was attended by the all SAGE partners: Anne Nisbet and Julie Mercer (NRPB), Irene Fiedler (GSF), Alexandre Sudas and Alexandre Zatsau (BB-RIR), Alexei and Vassili Nesterenko (BELRAD Institute), Jacques Lochard, Pascal Crouail and Samuel Lepicard (CEPN). Catherine Luccioni (IRSN) and Astrid Liland (NRPA: Norwegian Radiological Protection Authority) also participated as guest.

The first day of the meeting was devoted to the state of advancement of Work Packages 2, 3 and 5. Then, Mrs Astrid Liland gave a presentation of the post-Chernobyl actions which are still undertaken in Norway to mitigate the consequences of the accident fallouts. It was an interesting example of the action of national/regional authorities in a rehabilitation context and of the public involvement (eg. farmers and reindeers breeders) in a long-term post-accidental situation.

During the second day, SAGE partners mainly discussed the content and the format of the handbook (Work Package 4). They also prepared the format of the dissemination Workshop which will take place in February 2005.

10 November 2003: First meeting of the German Stakeholder Panel

• The German Stakeholder Panel met for the first time in Neuherberg at GSF-Research Centre for Environment and Health. The SAGE-project was presented (work packages, participating countries and stakeholder panels from Belarus, France and UK). After a short overview of the Ethos project the video “The Rehabilitation of living Conditions in Contaminated Territories: The Ethos project in Belarus” was shown. The Video and the journal about Ethos were distributed among the participants. 3 Presentations were given by the members about “legal framework and measuring systems”, “level and degradation of radioactive contamination in food” and “measures against long term effects by ingested radioactivity”. Another video was presented about measurements undertaken in Russia. The next meeting will be in February to discuss about the draft version of the handbook.

20 October 2003: Second meeting of the French Stakeholder Panel

• The French Stakeholder Panel met for the second time in Paris at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. The morning was devoted to a practical session on radiation monitoring. The group could get familiar with major equipments for ambient dose rate, foodstuffs and whole body measurements (WBMs). An equipped van provided by IRSN allowed to make some WBMs as well as measurements of fresh mushrooms (from France, Poland and Belarus) brought by the participants. In the afternoon, the group commented on the preliminary contents of the practical handbook on radiation monitoring and protection. Concrete proposals were formulated by the participants. They will be integrated in the next version of the handbook, to be discussed during the next meeting of the French stakeholder panel planned on the 26th January 2004.

1 July 2003: First meeting of the UK Stakeholder Panel

• A ‘core group’ of senior health professionals had their first meeting at the Health Protection Agency HQ in London. The members of the group had backgrounds in public health and communicable disease control. After the round table introductions, presentations were made on the SAGE and ETHOS projects. Members were then reminded of the existing UK infrastructure for the long-term management of radioactive contamination. Initiatives involving stakeholder panels in the food and agriculture sector were described and progress on the development of a recovery handbook for dealing with radiation incidents was given. A case study in Wales involving rehabilitation following chemical contamination of land close to a Phurnacite factory was presented and parallels drawn with rehabilitation experiences in Belarus.
  
  The group agreed to take on responsibility for the setting up several satellite stakeholder panels to evaluate the applicability to the UK of the radiological protection culture adopted so successfully in Belarus more than ten years after the Chernobyl accident. The composition of the panels has yet to be finalised although, they are likely to include doctors, nurses, health visitors and environmental health officers. The next meeting will be convened once the prototype handbook containing strategies and guidance for establishing a practical radiation protection culture in Europe has been produced.

26-27 June 2003: Second SAGE Coordination meeting

• The Second Coordination meeting took place in Pinsk, Belarus at the Brest-Branch of the Research Institute of Radiology (BB-RIR). It was attended by the following SAGE partners: Anne Nisbet (NRPB), Irene Fiedler (GSF), Catherine Luccioni (IRSN), Alexandre Sudas and Ludmilla Zhukovskaya (BB-RIR), Alexei and Vassili Nesterenko (BELRAD Institute), Pascal Crouail and Jacques Lochard (CEPN). The first day of the meeting was devoted to the state of advancement of Work Packages 2 and 3. The discussions allowed to finalise the table of contents of the various reports under preparation for these two packages. A visit of the various laboratories of the Pinsk Institute was organised by Alexandre Sudas and Alik Rusetski his deputy director. During the second day the Belarus Stakeholder panel (See Stakeholder Panels section) joined the meeting and took part to the discussions related to the state of development of Work Packages 4 and 5.

19 June 2003: First meeting of the French Stakeholder Panel

• The French Stakeholder Panel met for the first time in Paris at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. The meeting started with a presentation of each participant and her/his motivations to co-operate in the development of the European Handbook. This was followed by a short overview of the SAGE project and a presentation of the movie « The Rehabilitation of Living Conditions in Contaminated Territories: the Ethos Project in Belarus ». The rest of the day was devoted to a first discussion about the objectives, format, and content of the handbook. The participants finally discussed in details the operating rules of the Panel and decided about the next steps of its work.

14-15 November 2002: First SAGE coordination meeting

• At the occasion of the first coordination meeting, held in Paris - Fontenay aux Roses, France (WP1), the partners have launched the first phase of the programme of work which is focussed on the reviewing and assessing of the current infrastructures for the management of post-accident situations in France, Germany and United-Kingdom and the drawing of the lessons from the feedback experience of the day-to-day management of the radiological situation by professionals and local populations living in the contaminated territories during the last fifteen years in Belarus. Parallel to this work, the process of establishing "Stakeholder panels" in the four concerned countries is on the way.

1st October 2002: Official Launching of the SAGE Project

• The European Atomic Energy Community represented by the Commission of the European Communities, itself represented for the signature of the contract by Mr Achilleas Mitsos, Director General for Research DG of the one part, and CEPN (Centre d'Étude sur l'Évaluation de la Protection dans le domaine Nucléaire) represented by its director Jacques Lochard, GSF (Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit GmbH) represented by Dr Juergen Kinder Head of the Scientific & Technical Dpt, NRPB (National Radiological Protection Board) represented by Samantha Newell Senior contracts Officer, RIR-BB (Belarusian Research Institute of Radiology) represented by its Director Alexandr Sudas and BELRAD Institute (Belarusian Institute of Radiation Safety) represented by its Director Pr. Vassili Nesterenko, principal contractors of the other part, have agreed to a project called "Strategies and Guidance for establishing a practical radiation protection culture in Europe in case of a long term radioactive contamination after a nuclear accident (SAGE)" to be carried out in the framework of the research and training programme (Euratom) in the field of nuclear energy.