Seen in March 14 NRC Weekly Report

[george.j.vargo@ccmail.pnl.gov (George J Vargo)]

"Health Risk from Environmental Exposure to Radionuclides

On March 10-11, 1997, representatives from the Offices of Nuclear Material 
Safety and Safeguards and Nuclear Regulatory Research attended a two-day 
working group meeting on the second revision to Federal Guidance Report (FGR) 
13, "Health Risk from Environmental Exposure to Radionuclides."  The meeting 
also included representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 
the Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  FGR 13 addresses 
health risks from exposure to radionuclides using the new International 
Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) 60-based methodology and models 
for estimating the risk of cancer from internal or external exposures to 
radionuclides, and provides tabulations of risk estimates or "risk 
coefficients" for exposure to important radionuclides in environmental media.  
These risk coefficients are expressed as a probability of radiogenic cancer 
mortality or incidence, per unit intake (e.g., per Bq) for internal exposures 
or per unit exposure (e.g., per Bq-s m-2 of contaminated ground surface) for 
external exposures.  

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff raised concerns with respect to how the 
revised FGR 13, using the new ICRP 60-based methodology (and new dose 
conversion factors) will comport with the current 10 CFR Part 20 regulatory 
framework which uses ICRP 30 as its technological base.  The EPA plans to have 
the FGR document finalized by September 1997.  The agency representatives plan 
to discuss the revised FGR and proposed implementation at their agencies 
during the next meeting of the Interagency Steering Committee on Radiation 
Standards which will be held in May 1997."