The evolution of the system of radiological protection: the justification for new ICRP recommendations.

ICRP has been encouraging discussion during the past few years on the best way of expressing radiological protection philosophy in its next recommendations, which it plans to publish in 2005. The present recommendations were initiated by Publication 60 in 1990 and have been complemented by additional publications over the last 12 years. It is now clear that there is a need for the Commission to summarise the totality of the number of numerical values that it has recommended in some ten reports. This has been done in this paper, and from these a way forward is indicated to produce a simplified and more coherent statement of protection philosophy for the start of the 21st century. A radical revision is not envisaged, rather a coherent statement of current policy and a simplification in its application.