Re: Collective dose and its monetary valuation

[rkathren@tricity.wsu.edu (ron kathren)]

The idea of $1000 per person-rem was put forth many years ago (about 25 if
memory serves) in Appendix I to 10 CFR 50.  There is a good review of the
monitizatation of ALARA in several places, but a good starting place is ICRP
28 and the original DOE ALARA Guide which was published in 1980.

Ron Kathren

 >
>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
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>
>