The Radioactive Substances Strategy sets the objective of preventing pollution of the maritime area from ionising radiation through progressive and substantial reductions of discharges, emissions and losses of radioactive substances, with the ultimate aim of concentrations in the environment near background values for naturally occurring radioactive substances and close to zero for artificial radioactive substances. In achieving this objective, the following issues should, inter alia, be taken into account:

1. legitimate uses of the sea;
2. technical feasibility;
3. radiological impacts on man and biota.

As its timeframe, the Radioactive Substances Strategy further declares that by the year 2020 the Commission will ensure that discharges, emissions and losses of radioactive substances are reduced to levels where the additional concentrations in the marine environment above historic levels, resulting from such discharges, emissions and losses, are close to zero.

To implement this Strategy, the OSPAR Commission has adopted:

	Decisions, recommendations and other agreements
	Implementation Reports and Implementation Reporting Formats
	Programme for the More Detailed Implementation of the Radioactive Substances Strategy
	2003 Progress Report on the Programme for the More Detailed Implementation of the Radioactive Substances Strategy
	Reports and other publications on radioactive substances
	Data reporting formats
	Radioactive Substances Committee Work Programme

Recent work by the OSPAR Commission on radioactive substances is described in this extract from the Annual Report of the OSPAR Commission 2006/2007.

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