OREANDA-NEWS. August 21, 2009. The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation has registered new radiological safety standards to be enacted on Sept 1 2009, reports the press service of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Field of Protection of Consumers’ Rights and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor).

The new standards comply with the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the World Health Organization and the guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency and are supposed to replace the present regulations adopted as far back as 1999.

The basic standards have not been changed as they are regulated by the federal law on radiological safety of the population. One of the key changes is the adoption of single criteria for assessing the alpha and beta activities of drinking water . The new standard says that the alpha and beta activities of fresh water should not exceed 0.2 and 1.0 Bq/kg, respectively.

The standard for the discharge of a patient having undergone radiological therapy has also been changed. The standard of 3  microsievert/hour at a distance of 1 meter from the patient has been replaced by a table of residual radiological activity in the patient’s organism and equivalent dose rate near his body. Almost 300 changes have been made in the standards 1999.