Value of a Unit of Collective Dose: $20

[JMUCKERHEIDE@delphi.com]

Dan and radsafers,

> The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recently adopted the Office of 
> Management and Budget (OMB) value of $3 million/life; and at 0.07 effect/Sv, the
> rounded value of $2000/person-rem is adopted.  This is published here:
> 
> U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).  1995.  Regulatory Analysis Guidelines
> of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NUREG/BR-0058, Revision 2; Issuance, 
> Availability.  Federal Register 60(244):65694-65695; Dec. 20.  
> 
> The value $2000/person-rem originally showed up in an NRC Press Release No.  
> 95-95, Tuesday, August 1, 1995, in a letter from the Advisory Committee on 
> Reactor Safeguards.  You can subscribe to NRC press releases on e-mail at the 
> Office of Public Affairs, opa@nrc.gov, 301/415-8200.  The press release follows.

It would be appropriate to distinguish between "regulation" and "science".
While NRC and the Fed agencies have an obvious interest in producing stringent 
regulations that can be simply and aggressively applied, these results have
nothing to do with the scientific evidence of actual effects of radiation on
human health. Eg, even BEIR says repeatedly that there are no effects below,
eg, 10s of cSv, (see, eg, leukemia and thyroid and breast cancer) but "we must 
produce a 'linear model' anyway". (They effectively produce what the EPA
contract pays them to do.) EPA even responds to its own Science Advisory
Board, in the Federal Register, rejecting SAB advice that finds conclusive
actual scientific evidence, especially from the highly exposed radium
ingestion/injection populations studies, that directly conflict with/refute
the 'linear model', that 'to accept the scientific evidence would conflict
with our policy of adopting the linear model of radiation effects'. (See, eg,
Bob Thomas and others in the June 1995 HPS Newsletter; and in the Jun 1995 ANS 
Transactions.) 

To HPS' credit, the actual scientific evidence is being reviewed with a new
regard for its implications of this misrepresentation to the horrendous public 
costs. (Estimated at > $ trillion cost for US nuclear site cleanup alone, for
'negligible' public health benefit, as stated by HPS President Goldman in the
Feb 95 HPS Newsletter, with $10s billions/year in gov't costs, and more $10s
billions/year in 'private' costs. These costs usually, of course, are passed
directly to the unsuspecting public - while destroying the applications and
human benefits of radiation, radioactivity, and nuclear science and technology 
in the process). 

> Dan Strom dj_strom@pnl.gov
> 
> ----------------------------
> 
> [Federal Register: December 20, 1995 (Volume 60, Number 244)]
> [Notices]               
> [Page 65694-65695]

Thanks.

Regards, Jim Muckerheide
jmuckerheide@delphi.com
Radiation, Science, and Health