Commissioner Dicus speaks on the public's perception about Radiat ion Protection

["Nagle, John C." <John.Nagle@PSEG.COM>]

In a recent speech*, Commissioner Dicus had this to say about Radiation

Protection and the public's perception of it:

1) Society is willing to accept familiar and freely chosen risks more

readily than those that are imposed upon them.  Public risk acceptance

usually occurs as a result of an offsetting public benefit to that risk. For

example, the public is willing to accept an average 39 millirem/year from

diagnostic x-rays because the procedure is familiar, freely chosen and

considered beneficial in terms of their health. However, 0.05-millirem/year

exposure from the nuclear fuel cycle is not readily acceptable because the

benefit is not identifiable and is a risk they feel is imposed upon them.

2) The experts should not be the sole decision makers of public policy that

impose unsolicited societal impacts. Experts tend to be quantitative in

their assessments, whereas the public tends to be more qualitative. The

decision making process succeeds when the public is engaged from the outset

and then continues to play an integral part throughout the process.

3)  As industry leaders and regulators, we need to improve our communication

with the public to avoid incoherence, hesitation and confusion. Failure to

do so results in uncertainty and skepticism by members of society.

4) The Nuclear Industry should not give up in promoting its safety record.

In fact, it is the responsibility of the industry to do so if it believes

that what it has to offer is ultimately the best for society. The time is

ripe for the industry to re-initiate an open dialogue with the public. 



* Taken from speech "Radiation Protection Standards: Past, Present and

Future" by The Honorable Greta Joy Dicus, Commissioner, USNRC, at the NRC

2001 Regulatory Information Conference, Washington DC, January 2001.





John C. Nagle, P.E.

Sr. Licensing Engineer

PSEG Nuclear

856-339-3171



 

************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.



------------------------------