Collective dose and its monetary valuation

["PAUL E RUHTER" <RUH@inel.gov>]

Supervisor, Radiation Dosimetry & Records
User ID-RUH; Mail Stop-4147;  Ext. 6-1973
Sone of the earlier notes have covered the generic considerations,
indicating that there is not a concensus value. The NRC published a
value many(!) years ago for the specific application of evaluating
cleanup systems for reducing I-131 exposures to the public of
$1,000/man-rem. Inflation and other factors would indicate a higher
value to be more appropriate today. Applications to radiological work,
however, lend themselves to case specific evaluations. For example, if a
particular worker group (pipefitters being a classic example) were being
maxed out on exposure, with additional workers needed if doses were not
reduced, a $$$ value could be obtained by dividing the cost of hiring
additional workers by the exposure which they would make available.
Values of $20,000-$30,000/man-rem are expected in such a case. At the
other extreme, if the worker group had large amounts of available
exposure, a very low value would result. (This is somewhat the case in
the nuclear power industry discussed by Sandy Pearle in his note,
although they are definitely driven by the cost of downtime, as he
indicated!) Recent discussions about the appropriateness (or
inappropriateness, as the case might be) of the linear-nonthreshold
basis for radiation exposure guidelines suggest that traditional values
should be a bit higher.

We use collective dose as a performance indicator for the ALARA program
effectiveness. However, we have found at our site, which has relatively
low exposures, that the collective dose tends to reflect the amount of
radiological work being done rather than the impact of specific ALARA
efforts. This, of course, could also suggest that we have optimized our
ALARA program and should declare a victory!!!!!

I hope these comments are helpful.

Paul E. Ruhter ruh@inel.gov

*** Reply to note of 03/13/96 03:17
To: RADSAFE --INELMAIL RADSAFE

Subject: Collective dose and its monetary valuation
Hi there,

Radsafers,

I am  searching for different monetary values of collective dose as used in
optimization of radioprotection in different countries, for different
classes of people and different levels of exposure.
I would also be interested in potential uses of collective dose other than
in the field of optimization as for example in performance assessment.

Thanks for any references or contacts,
                                Jean-Michel MURE
Email : Jean-Michel.Mure@andra.fr

ANDRA
DESS/SBSE
Parc de la Croix Blanche
1-7, rue Jean Monnet
92298 CHATENAY MALABRY Cedex
FRANCE

Tel : (1) 46 11 83 74
Fax : (1) 46 11 80 13