164 L. P. Lestaevel et al.: Radioprotection 2026, 61( 2), 156 – 165
– In terms of threats, as a centralized digital database containing sensitive health data, SISERI is a potential target for cyberattacks. Evolving European directives or national policies may require substantial adjustments or overhauls of the system.
The analysis of nine years of occupational exposure in France shows that the total number of monitored workers increased or decreased in function of the year but remains generally stable over the period 2015-2023. Overall, in all activities, the average annual dose increases and then falls, but this trend is very different from one activity to another and is rather imposed by flight crew whose exposition has been reduced during the COVID-19 crisis, followed by a partial recovery. France’ s average dose is closely aligned with the overall average of European countries for the years considered. Directive 2013 / 59 / Euratom which requires the employer to define individual dose constraints for workers, taking into account foreseeable exposures in controlled areas, to optimize radiation protection and ensure occupational health and safety does not appear to have a major impact on worker exposure levels. From 2015 to 2023, a small number, between one and ten, of workers with annual doses above the annual effective dose limit is recorded. Since the Decree no. 2003-296( Légifrance, 2023), that lowered the regulatory limit of annual effective annual dose to 20 mSv in France, the number of exceeding cases is relatively stable. Very few of these number of exceeding cases are due to cumulative dose limit exceedances, which may show the value of a centralized system such as SISERI. It should be noted that these overall results are highly appreciated by all the social partners in France and are used by field of activity to highlight the results in the company during presentations in social and economic committee.
Imperfections regarding the use of the database in relationship with the establishments of the workers were solved only with a significant upgrade in 2023 of the SISERI software. So far, the new system seems satisfactory. Such a system is as good as data are transferred in due time from the establishments. This will remain a challenge although these transfers are mandatory.
Besides, an evolution of the system of radiological protection is planned by the International Committee on Radiological Protection( ICRP) in the next 5 years( Clement et al., 2021; Clement et al., 2022; Laurier et al., 2024; Laurier et al., 2025). Furthermore, the next decade will be marked by many technical challenges in terms of radioprotection for workers. In the medical field, new techniques and practices in therapy will be deployed, such as flash radiation therapy or adaptive radiation therapy. In nuclear medicine, new vectors and radionuclides are emerging for diagnostic applications such as Gallium 68, Rubidium 82, Copper 64 or Zirconium 89, and for therapeutic applications such as Lutetium 177, Radium 223, Holmium 166 or Actinium 225. In the nuclear field, due to aging facilities and the decommissioning of some of them, new groups of workers with potentially high annual effective dose may appear, not to mention the development of innovative reactors such as small modular reactor( SMR). These changes in practices with IR on the one hand and the new recommendations from ICRP will therefore require an update of SISERI in due course.
6 Conclusion
The principle of traceability in monitoring workers’ exposure to ionizing radiation was included in the French regulations since the end of 1960. Although the concept of a computerized dosimetric data base register has been developed in France since the late 1990s to replace previous paper recording and storage, a few years have been necessary to set up the dedicated SISERI software to fulfill the requirements. This was achieved in 2005 with an update in 2023. Thus, France was certainly a pioneering country in Europe in the development of a computerized data base of worker dosimetry since it was only in 2013 that the mandatory development of such a dosimetry data register was requested at the European level for Member States( Directive 2013 / 59 Euratom �Annex X). Directive 2013 / 59 / Euratom requires each Member State to maintain a national dose register and ensure that data are available, including in cases of worker mobility between countries. However, there is still no single system like SISERI, but discussions are underway through groups such as HERCA( Heads of the European Radiological Protection Competent Authorities).
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the entire team of the Professional Exposure Analysis and Monitoring Office( BASEP) at ASNR, responsible for managing the SISERI system. We would like to thank all the people who helped us in any way during this article.
Funding
This work was supported by the Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare they have no conflict of interest. Data availability statement
The data associated with this article are included within the database SISERI or ESOREX platform.
Author contribution statement
P Lestaevel: study design, writing and reviewing original draft. T Bah: data collection, writing and reviewing original draft. H Roy: writing and reviewing original draft. F Rousseau: data collection, writing and reviewing original draft. D Lin: writing and reviewing original draft. M Pultier: reviewing original draft. E Bauduin: reviewing original draft. Y Billarand: reviewing original draft.
Ethics approval
Ethical approval was not required. Informed consent
This article contains no experimental studies involving human subjects.