M.Tschurlovits The Optimisation of Radiological Protection The concept of optimization was created many decades ago. The development was observed by the rapporteur since, and is still considered promising. However, the progress in implementation is clearly behind the expectations. This might be because the reports remained mostly very general, and were therefore not broadly accepted. In addition, other reasons for this are • In most cases, doses are becoming lower with time, and the need for optimization was no longer obvious • Authorities responsible for licensing of radiation sources are not responsible for alternatives. They prefer therefore rather to the execution of constraints and limits than to consider alternatives • Some parallel developments (as quality control ) interfere with the concept of optimization as they lead to similar results There is however, some tendency for improvement in the present report as some issues are addressed as limiting the use of collective dose, a statement as (60) that “a single number is insufficient”, but still more questions remain open as are answered. This applies in particular for the issue exposure distributions in time and space((70) ff). For example, the use of the term “dose commitment” and its limitations is not discussed*). The concept shown in fig 3. should be demonstrated with a few impressive examples to convince potential uses on the usefulness. *) some ideas were developed in M. Tschurlovits FV-ÖVS Tagung Basel 2005, Proc. in press Coherence with other drafts Some issues addressed here are appearing in other ICRP documents in consultation as “basic quantities” , but not mentioned. e.g collective dose etc