Re: Cost of a Person-Sievert -- LNT and all that

[rkathren@tricity.wsu.edu (Ron L. Kathren)]

Joyce and all Radsafers:

And, without implying any lack of merit on the part of this paper, or its
authors or peer revciewers, it is intereting to note that the $2000 per
person rem was put forth in 1980 in DOE's own ALARA guide, a document
conspicuously absent from discussion in the text and the reference list.
But then again, so was the sucessor document likewise excluded, as were a
lot of other cogent and relevant articles.

Ron  

   

 >In this month's HP Journal there is an article by Guenther & Thein
>"Estimated Cost of Person-Sv Exposure".  I just skimmed through it, and it
>looks to me like something that deserves deeper reading and  discussion
>by the HP community (on Radsafe and elsewhere).  Some questions:  1)
>Is it reasonable to value a life ? (a philosophical question), 2) Is this a
>proper use of BEIR/NCRP/ICRP/UNSCEAR risk coefficients? (a
>quasi-technical question ?), and 3) What do they mean by
>"conservative", and why should a conservative rather than a realistic
>estimate be used in this cost/benefit context ? (a rhetorical question).
>I'm more than a little troubled by this use of the tenuous data to produce
>"hard" numbers, but I'd like to know what other radsafers  (the pro-,
>anti-, and ??-LNTers) think.
>
>P.S. It's interesting that this DOE-funded study  "strictly coincidentally"
>came up with the same $2000/manrem as NRC is now using.
>
>Only the opinion of
>J. P. Davis
>joyced@dnfsb.gov
>
>
>