Safety as an unceasing process: The role of the health physics & safety department in a nuclear research centre

Abstract

The nuclear research centres present a lot of characteristics which require from the people in charge of the Health Physics and Safety Department an appropriate approach. After the description of these characteristics and based on fifteen years of practice, using some real events leading to incident or quasi-accident, our contribution will indicate the approach which has been implemented, the main results gained and the trends for the next years. Although mainly focused on radiological risks, discussion will also be provided concerning the need for a global management of risks on the workplace, this topic being more and more considered as a fundamental for insuring the safety of the workers. © 2006 Springer.