OSPAR's Radioactive Substances Committee

29 February 2016

OSPAR’s Radioactive Substances Committee (RSC) met in Brussels this month. Top of the agenda was the finalisation of the report on the Fourth Periodic Evaluation (4PE) of Progress Towards the Objective of the OSPAR Radioactive Substances Strategy (RSS).

The RSS states that “The OSPAR Commission’s strategic objective with regard to radioactive substances is to prevent pollution of the OSPAR 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”.

The 4PE focuses on discharges of radioactive substances from the nuclear and non-nuclear sectors and will form RSC’s contribution to OSPAR’s Intermediate Assessment 2017.

The 4PE will be available on the OSPAR website in the summer of 2016.

Image: Bjoern Schwartz