More than half a million minimum-bias events of LHC collision data were collected by the ATLAS experiment in December 2009 at centre-of-mass energies of 0.9 TeV and 2.36 TeV. This paper reports on studies of the initial performance of the ATLAS detector from these data. Comparisons between data and Monte Carlo predictions are shown for distributions of several track-and calorimeter-based quantities. The good performance of the ATLAS detector in these first data gives confidence for successful running at higher energies.

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Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an electronic personal dosimeter 'D-shuttle' for two weeks, and kept a journal of his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of estimated annual doses due to the terrestrial background radiation level of other regions/countries.

Feedback experiences from Fukushima and Chernobyl situations have clearly shown the importance of involving local stakeholders living in contaminated territories for the rehabilitation of their daily life. In this context, this paper aims to better address the role of radiological protection experts in the recovery phase of post-nuclear accident situation, in mainly relying on the analysis of local initiatives implemented in the Fukushima Prefecture following March 2011. In the first part, this paper highlights the various challenges faced by the population living in contaminated territories, i.e., rehabilitation of the living conditions, ensuring a long-term radiological monitoring, developing public health programs. In a second part, this paper discusses to which extent radiological protection experts can help local population to address these challenges, particularly through the implementation of co-expertise processes and the associated ethical issues and values they should embody. The last part of this paper particularly focuses on two current challenges at stake in the Fukushima Prefecture: the dissemination of the co-expertise process to all affected communities, as well as the sustainability of these approaches over time.