Re: Tritium and Arizona Atomics

[bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Bob Flood)]

>I've recieved plenty of information on the 1979 Arizona Atomics tritum loss
>incident, so thanks for all the helpful responses.  You can stop sending
>them now!
>
>However, everyone seems unclear on wht the 1981 Reagan Administration action
>was that "relaxed standards with regard to releases of radioactivity".

It was probably a beloved document with the catchy name "Title 3, The
President" which was an executive order signed by Reagan directing Federal
agencies with regulatory authority to replace the ICRP2/10 approach to
radiation protection with the ICRP 26/30 methods. Some can claim that it set
**lower** occupational dose limits (5 rem/y compared to 3 rem/quarter), but
actual personnel doses were below 5 rem/y anyway. In the transition from
MPCs to DACs/ALIs, some DAC values came out higher than the preceding MPC
values and others came out lower, due to changes in modeling, assumptions,
and end-point expectations. Overall, the regulatory changes really just
modernized the bookkeeping. The result of the order was the revised 10CFR20
and DOE's 10CFR835.
Bob Flood
Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are mine alone.
(415) 926-3793
bflood@slac.stanford.edu