Environmental radiation standards and risk limitation

Conference · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5606807

Kocher, D C

The Environmental Protection Agency and Nuclear Regulatory Commission have established environmental radiation standards for specific practices which correspond to limits on risk to the public that vary by several orders of magnitude and often are much less than radiation risks that are essentially unregulated, e.g., risks from radon in homes. This paper discusses a proposed framework for environmental radiation standards that would improve the correspondence with limitation of risk. This framework includes the use of limits on annual effective dose equivalent averaged over a lifetime, rather than limits on dose equivalent to whole body or any organ for each year of exposure, and consideration of exposures of younger age groups as well as adults; limits on annual effective dose equivalent averaged over a lifetime no lower than 0.25 mSv (25 mrem) per practice; maintenance of all exposures as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA); and establishment of a generally applicable de minimis dose for public exposures. Implications of the proposed regulatory framework for the current system of standards for limiting public exposures are discussed. 20 refs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5606807
• Report Number(s): CONF-871188-2; ON: DE88003291; TRN: 88-009071
• Resource Relation: Conference: Annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis, Houston, TX, USA, 1 Nov 1987; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
PUBLIC HEALTH
RISK ASSESSMENT
RADIATION PROTECTION LAWS
PROPOSALS
US EPA
COMPLIANCE
US NRC
ALARA
CHRONIC IRRADIATION
DOSE EQUIVALENTS
DRINKING WATER
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE
LOW DOSE IRRADIATION
MAXIMUM PERMISSIBLE DOSE
MILL TAILINGS
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADON
REGULATIONS
REVIEWS
SAFETY STANDARDS
CHRONIC EXPOSURE
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
GASES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
IRRADIATION
LAWS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NONMETALS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RARE GASES
SOLID WASTES
STANDARDS
TAILINGS
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTES
WATER
560151* - Radiation Effects on Animals- Man
320107 - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Building Systems- (1987-)