Review · Proceedings · Proceedings: 23 more papers · Pictures

Report

We held our sixth international symposium on radiation protection from 14 - 18 June 1999 in Southport, which was attended by over 300 delegates and partners from some 24 countries. A truly international event.

The symposium was organised by the Society for Radiological Protection (SRP) and co-sponsored by the Dutch (NVS), French (SFRP) and German-Swiss (FS) Societies for Radiological Protection. Our commercial sponsors were BNFL, British Energy, DERA, NNC, and Nuclear Technology Publishing.

Frances Fry, SRP President, opened the symposium. Klaus Duftschmid, IRPA President, then spoke. Roger Clarke, ICRP chairman, gave the opening keynote address.

The themes of the symposium were: Regulations & Standards, Education & Training, Natural Radiation, Medical Exposures of Patients, Non-Ionising Radiations, Operational Control of Radiation Exposure, Edidemiology and Radiobiology, Radiological Impacts of Radionuclides in the Environment and Solid Waste Disposal, Radiation Dosimetry, and Emergency Preparedness. There were keynote addresses, oral papers, discussions of the poster presentations and technical visits. Programme

The Proceedings of the symposium have been published by the Society for Radiological Protection in a definitive paper version (Editor M C Thorne ISBN 0-7058-1784-9). You can view a CD version of the Proceedings issued to delegates containing the majority of the papers. Proceedings: 23 more papers

The social programme was well received and enjoyed. We had excellent support from Sefton Council through Maxine McCarthy at Tourism and Leisure, who you see enjoying the Civic Reception with Tessa Berry. The Civic Reception itself was successful both for being informal and held in the Arts Centre, which gave people additional pleasure, and visual and mental stimulation. His Worship the Mayor and the Lady Mayoress contributed by being so friendly and welcoming and we were delighted that they joined us at our Banquet the next evening. The Banquet held in St George's Hall Liverpool was particularly special with the wonderful surroundings and the organ recital, the excellent meal and service. The tour of the Lake District was very much appreciated and the Lancastrian evening proved a great hit as well.

Southport turned out to be an ideal place to hold the symposium, both in terms of the symposium venue itself and also the resort. The weather was kind too - it really was Sunny Southport! The Traumatizer (roller coaster) proved an irresistible distraction for some brave souls who risked loosing CPD points for the thrills of the ride. Some other thrill seekers took to midnight bathing in Marine Lake. We know who you are!

All in all it was a very enjoyable week.

The President's Closing Speech - Frances Fry It just falls to me to make a few closing remarks. It's been a very busy week, so I don't intend to detain you for more than a few minutes. At the beginning of the week I told you it would be a full week, both scientifically and socially. What I didn't tell you was that rides on the roller coaster were to be taken in your own time, and at your own risk. Those of you who missed scientific sessions to go for rides will have your CPD points docked accordingly!! It was a very interesting meeting. We had some very stimulating invited papers and some excellent proffered papers and posters. Everyone I have spoken to this week said how very much they enjoyed it, how stimulating they have found it, and how they have particularly appreciated, opportunities for networking. Delegates took full advantage of the poster sessions the coffee breaks and the lunch times to talk to each other and really that is one of the greatest benefits of a scientific meeting like this. I think I'd just like to bring our session to a close with a few thanks, to a number of people on behalf of you, the delegates. First of all I'd like to thank the management and the staff of the Floral Hall and the theatre. The venue has been superb. We've had plenty of space, had a comfortable lecture theatre with good visual displays, we've had plenty of room for the exhibition and for our poster sessions. We really couldn't have had anywhere better I feel. The staff have looked after us very well, as regards shepherding us in and out and looking after our safety, and providing us with lunch and coffees, and we very much appreciate that and I hope you will convey that message to all you colleagues. Thank you. I'd like of course to thank once again all the sponsors, and the exhibitors. The exhibition is probably one of the biggest we've had. It was very good, well laid out; I think it was a very enjoyable opportunity to go around and meet people and talk to manufacturers and commercial companies. That was very, very good. I'd also like to thank everyone who presented papers and posters, and engaged in the discussion. It's that sort of thing that makes a conference well worth coming to, the interaction between people. This has been an excellent week and it doesn't come easily. It's the culmination of a lot of hard work by a number of people. I'd like to thank particularly the programme committee, chaired by Mike Thorne. Actually the programme committee probably was Mike Thorne. The rest of us didn't actually have to do very much at all. Mike did it all. He has produced the proceedings, and the CD, and as you have seen this week, he's been our IT specialist and really facilitated everything this week. Thank you very much Mike. And of course the organising committee, who started work on this I'll guess three years ago? Its been three years of a lot of thought, planning and hard work culminating again I know in a lot of hard work this week end before the conference started. They've all been very heavily involved, its invidious to single out any one, or two but I shall do so, The Organising committee was chaired by Wendy, and I know its due to her enthusiasm and hard work that this week has gone so well. Thank you Wendy. And we can't let this go without mentioning Tessa, because without the administrative support that Tessa gives us, none of this could have gone as smoothly as it has done. So once again, thanks to Tessa. I think that really that leaves me to say, thank you for coming, thank you for participating, I wish you a safe journey home, and I hope that you will meet again in Hiroshima at IRPA 2000. Thank you.

Origins of the Town of Southport

So why is it called Southport? Many people asked the question during the week and there were rather a lot of answers put forward. The short and easy answer is that it was a Port some time ago for small vessels and it is South of the main port of Preston, hence Southport. The long and complicated explanation relates back to when sea bathing became popular roughly 200 years ago and the clean water sand dunes close to the parish of North Meols were discovered. There was also a place called South Hawes and an inland lake connected to the sea, nearby. Each end of the lake had a small harbour, the North Port and the South Port. A hotel was built in the sand dunes and development began. North Port dwindled and South Port thrived until it became SOUTHPORT. So now you know! Or do you? Any other explanations please forward to the Chairman of the Organising Committee.