35th meeting of HERCA Board members on 26 and 27 May 2025 in Helsinki

HERCA brings together the heads of the European radiation protection control authorities, and its latest meeting was held on the premises of the Finnish safety authority (STUK) on 26 and 27 May. The meeting was chaired by Jean-Luc Lachaume, President of HERCA since May 2023, accompanied by his two vice-presidents: Pilar Lucio, commissioner at the Consejo de seguridad nuclear (CSN), the Spanish safety authority, and Sébastien Baechler, head of the radiation protection division of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).

The ASNR provides the association's technical secretariat and manages HERCA's budget and website.

During the meeting, in addition to the usual presentations by the various HERCA working groups, specific sessions were devoted to :

• Artificial intelligence and its use in radiation protection: the ICRP, the International Commission on Radiological Protection and a major player in radiation protection worldwide, and a Spanish expert on European regulations (European Regulation 2024) were invited to speak on the subject. Work is in progress within the various HERCA working groups on the subject, including the medical working group, which is preparing a position paper;
• the international workshop on the application of the new dose coefficients for the natural radioactive gas radon organised in Bonn;
• past, present and future interactions between HERCA and the ICRP. An internal HERCA working group has been set up to strengthen collaboration between the two organisations, and to offer HERCA's services to check the applicability of certain recommendations that the ICRP is preparing.

In response to recent calls into question both the international system of radiation protection based on scientific approaches and the independence of the regulatory authorities, HERCA has published a notifying party statement to reiterate their importance. 

The next meeting will take place on 27 and 28 November in The Hague and will be organised in collaboration with ANVS, the Dutch safety authority.

*HERCA was set up in 2007 on the initiative of the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN). Its activities are carried out by five working groups (Travelling workers and dosimetric passport / Non-medical practices and sources / Medical applications / Emergency management and action levels / Monitoring of collective doses received during medical exposure).