One of the main functions of the RPC, the regulatory authority in radiation protection, is to maintain the State Register of Sources of Ionizing Radiation and Occupational Exposure (hereinafter – Register). The aim of the Register is to collect, compile, systematize, store and provide the data on sources of ionizing radiation and doses of workers according to the order established by legal acts.

 

The order for account and control of sources and doses of workers is determined by the Order No 335 of the Minister of Health on 20 July 1999 On the Order of Presentation of Information about Sources of Ionizing Radiation and Data about Radiation Workers to the State Register of Sources of Ionizing Radiation and Exposure of Workers. The owner of the source, having acquired, sold, installed, decommissioned or disposed it, shall fill in the appropriate form of report and present it to the RPC within 10 working days. The different forms are for the following items:

 

 

The order for control of export and import of sources is determined by the Order No 302 of the Minister of Health on 23 June 1999 On the Order of Presentation of Information about Nuclear, Radioactive Substances and other Sources of Ionizing Radiation, which are Transported through the Border of Lithuanian Republic.

 

The register consists of two parts.
In the part of sources the data is collected on enterprises, institutions and organizations of Lithuania, that import, export, store, use sealed and unsealed sources, X-ray generators (X-ray tubes), accelerators and radioactive waste, transferred for interim storage (disposal), also written-off X-ray equipment, accelerators and decommissioned X-ray generators. The above mentioned data allows to track the movement of all sources in the country from “cradle-to-grave”, also the possibility is provided to conduct supervision and control of the safety and security.

 

Other part of data accumulated in Register is doses of occupational exposure. Data on occupational exposure is accumulated since 1992, data on occupational exposure at Ignalina NPP (hereinafter-INPP) – since 1983.

 

State Register of Sources of Ionizing Radiation and Occupational Exposure and Information System of Radiation Protection

The workers of Radiation protection centre (RSC) use E-government solutions in their everyday proceeding, i.e. reach and hold two-way on-line connection with subjects which are using sources of ionizing radiation (hereinafter – sources). This connection allows for subjects to submit the data and to receive information on-line. This became possible after the investment project “Creation and establishment of the State Register of Sources of Ionizing Radiation and Occupational Exposure in the Radiation Protection Centre“ was implemented. Due to this project, considering the general legal requirements established for registers, the State Register of Sources of Ionizing Radiation and Occupational Exposure (hereinafter – Register) was developed and the Information System of Radiation Protection (hereinafter – ISRP) was created and installed in the RSC.

The purpose of the Register – registration of sources and workers, who are performing activity with sources (hereinafter – workers), and to collect, compile, systematize, store and provide the data of sources and doses of workers to natural and legal persons, also execution of other actions on administering of data of the Register.

The data of sealed and unsealed sources, X-ray generators, accelerators which were imported, exported, in storage or in use, the data of radioactive waste which was placed in long term storage facility (or disposed), also the data of written-off X-ray generators, accelerators, depressurized X-ray tubes etc are collected and kept in the Register.

The other part of the Register – the workers and their annual doses. Additionally, the information about subjects, who are working with sources (the actual place of residence, contact information, the data about the licenses and temporary permits issued and also other information related to subject) are collected and kept in the Register.

ISRP is the internet browser based software system of data processing (management, calculation, communication in a distance etc) which offers variety of work tools to cover the needs of RPC for all main radiation protection supervision and control activities, assigned to RSC by legal acts. ISRP also enables to manage the data received from other information systems. ISRP is closely connected with Register, as ISRP uses the data, collected and stored in the Register.

In ISRP the data about the inspection acts, non-compliances, measures of enforcement, the data about the applications and permits issued for import, export and transit of radioactive material and transportation of radioactive waste and also the data about the radiological accidents, accounting of the dosimeters and results of measured individual doses and their analysis are collected and stored.
The data of both systems (Register and ISRP) are used for analysis of the movement of sources in the country, for evaluation of doses of occupational exposure, in preparing statistical reports, in making prognoses etc, for the purposes to guarantee comprehensive radiation protection for residents of Lithuania and environment.

In all modern information systems the data are stored in data bases and the various software are used for management the data. The specific software tool (user interface) was created and is used in RSC for the management the data of Register and ISRP. This software tool is internet browser based so it is possible using this tool to quickly access and manage the data and information stored in the Register and ISRP. The user interface of the Register and ISRP (Fig. 1) is created keeping the base principles of internet sites, so it enables to work with it intuitionally.

All the data in the Register and ISRP, which were put on directly or supplied from other registers and informational systems, are grouped to data groups (Fig. 2). For the convenience of the users the search filter and the mechanism for data enter were created for each group of data. It is possible, by using search filter, to find quickly the information needed using the keywords, the part of keyword or the groups of keywords. Furthermore, the action of filtering enables to ascertain, that the data, which the user intends to enter, not exist in the data base and by this way to escape the data duplication. The results of the filtering are offered as the list and by pushing one button can be exported in Microsoft Excel tables or printed.

Very important aspect which enables to escape duplication is assignment of unique attributes. For example, the code of person. All the data stored in the Register and ISRP have their unique attributes.

The data entry fields indicate for user how much and which information should be entered for the purpose of the properly description of data entered. The part of the fields (required fields) must be fulfilled fully, the other ones can be fulfilled only if needed. In the Register and ISRP there are a lot of classificators, which are entered at the moment of data entry. Classificators enable to sort the date in different cuts, to supply a lot of different reports. Furthermore, additionally the special report making tool is available, which enables to perform a data management and assessment in very broad range.

Similar principles are used in the work of external portal of the Register. Using this tool all licensees have possibility to review their own information stored in the Register: licenses, their annexes, possessed sources, workers, annual doses of workers, inspection results, non-compliances which were set during inspections, the terms of implementation. In external portal also the filtering and search mechanism and the tools for verification of data correctness are used. The users of external portal can use the same classificators as are used in internal portal. If needed, the users of external portal can add new values to classificators.

The exception is that external portal users have no rights directly perform any changes on the Register data. By this way the data are protected from distortion or removal incidentally or meaningly. But external portal enables the user to inform RSC about mismatches of the data and provide new information. Information required by RSC can be provided or updated through special e-forms, in which the fields can be fulfilled fully or partly automatically or a part of the fields can be reserved empty for further updating.

Except of direct work with data, the special mechanism user notification tool is installed in the software tool. Information is provided in a text form for internal users and as well for external users. Information provided for inside users can be complemented with reference to particular record.

Besides software, a great attention is paid also to technical equipment, because a good work of all system depends on a fluent work of technical equipment. The Register and ISRP works as a high availability system. The systems of this type warrants the fluent work of the information systems even in the case of failure, i.e. if the technical failure occurs in one of the components of the system, the function of this components is intercepted by another component. By this way the system works fluently and the maintenance of the part of the system doesn’t influence a normal work of all the system.

The information systems of Register and ISRP became concurrent part of work in RSC and enable to perform the work more quickly, fluently and effectively.

 

Last update 19 December 2011